NCDOT Provides Money For Music Trail In Eastern NC

    RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - The state Transportation Department is providing more than $250,000 for a project that will tell the story of black musicians in eastern North Carolina.
    The African-American Music Trails will go through Edgecombe, Greene, Jones, Lenoir, Nash, Pitt, Wayne and Wilson counties. The trail is expected to be completed in 2011.
    The DOT money will pay for the development of interactive kiosks, maps and a travel guidebook.
    Noted musicians from the area include Kinston natives and brothers Melvin Parker, a drummer for James Brown and Maceo Parker, a saxophonist who played with James Brown, Ray Charles and James Taylor.
    The African-American Music Trails project started in 2006 as a part of an N.C. Arts Council’s initiative to support sustainable growth in eastern North Carolina during a period when manufacturing and farming jobs were disappearing.