Danny Fulks is Appalachian alright; hails from southeastern Ohio and returned to the hills at age 30 after getting homesick for his heritage. For the past 35 years he’s lived in Huntington, West Virginia, a professor emeritus from Marshall University. And he writes of the sights, sounds and sensations of mountain life with a near-encyclopedic knowledge. Tick Ridge contains his latest stories, memoirs, fiction, and documented research pieces, amply illustrated with rare photos from Appalachia and the South. There’s a lengthy account of the Floyd Collins legend; a persuasive justification for what he calls "the perfect dread," - the melancholy ingrained in the psyche of Appalachians. And, bluegrass fans take note, a colorful account of John Douglas and the West Virginia Travelers, and his son Jerry Douglas, a renowned bluegrass musician. Fulks is the author of numerous articles, stories and books detailing the Appalachian scene. In Tick Ridge much of his material is written in a stripped-down, somewhat jerky style - long on imagery, short on literary conventions - that you might call stream-of-consciousness. Then again, you could just call it an "aw shucks" style. BMP