The current, and 47th, season of the hit PBS program, This Old House, has come to western North Carolina to be part of the restoration of the region following the flooding from Hurricane Helene. This long-running show, which has made home improvement stars out of successive hosts, is also featuring some of the bluegrass and Americana music that Asheville is known for as a soundtrack.
This Old House is calling this series of shows, which follows five different flooded out families on their repair or replacement journey, Carolina Comeback. And the inclusion of bluegrass music by local contractor Jamie Dose was a matter of pure happenstance.
The lifelong musician is the owner of Old North State Building Company in Black Mountain, NC. As an area contractor, he had seen plenty of homes and properties coming back from the devastation of September 2024. Him seeing a press release from the program started a chain reaction that ended up with his music, reimagined as bluegrass, finding its way onto television.
“I saw a post from This Old House looking for flood stories. I had just visited a riverfront neighborhood that once had 23 homes. Now it has two. Cars in trees. Pieces of homes on top of other homes. Empty foundations. Everywhere you looked—family pictures, teddy bears, people’s lives scattered.”
So he reached out, and heard right back from Producer Chris Emerides, asking if any of the work Jamie was currently doing might be a good fit for the show. With the homeowners’ approval and cooperation, the show arrived on scene as major repairs were being made. The property needed downed trees cleared, the roof patched, and the removal of six feet of silt from the first floor, as they sought to stabilize a home that had been submerged nearly to its second story. No small job, that.
While filming was ongoing, the crew learned that Dose was also a musical artist and songwriter. Once they heard some of his songs, discussions began about having them as an audio bed for these episodes. During this time, Jamie had reconnected with Ty Gilpin, who plays mandolin with Unspoken Tradition, and also works as a free-lance producer and music marketer in Asheville. Together they reworked these blues and rock pieces into bluegrass music arrangements, which Jamie had never considered before.
“Ty was interested in doing my material in a bluegrass format. As someone who’s been around bluegrass a long time, I was excited. I had no idea it would end up on a TV show.”
Two songs are set to be included, Jamie’s Mercenary Wind…
…and his Cavalry.
Musicians playing on the tracks include Dose on guitar and vocals, and Gilpin on mandolin, along with Audie McGinnis, Sav Sankaran, Jason Flournoy, Abby Bryant, Tommy Maher, Don Lewis, Griff Martin, Brian Swank, Joey Recchio, and John Ray.
Season 47 of This Old House began at the end of September, with multiple episodes remaining where these songs will be featured. It is available via local broadcast on PBS affiliate stations, on nearly all cable and satellite systems, and on a number of streaming services. Previous episodes can be viewed online.
