V is the Valley: A Concert-Conversation featuring traditional New England folk songs from the Helen Hartness Flanders Ballad Collection.

Helen Hartness Flanders (1890-1972) was a "song-catcher" who devoted her life to collecting and preserving New England folk music culture. From 1930 to the late 1950s, she collected over four thousand field recordings of folk songs, fiddle tunes and stories from the musicians she interviewed. Her collection, currently housed at Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont, is a treasure trove of living history.

Singer-storyteller Jack DesBois breathes new life into the old folk songs of the Flanders Collection. In this program, he shares the songs in all their delight, horror, humor and gravity, inviting audiences into a conversation about the enduring role of folk music in our world today.