I was about 10 when my great aunt Atha died. A weirdness here in the hills; names that end in 'a' were pronounced like 'ie' so to say her name would have been Athie. It was at her funeral the very first time I heard old time bluegrass singers, and the sound just pinned me to the pew in that church in the hills as though someone had driven a railroad spike through my head. Being raised Catholic we didn't have what my father affectionately referred to as a 'blue grass mass'; I believe aunt Atha was Methodist or Baptist. At any rate it was my first time in an old timey church setting and I could do naught but sit in horror as the twangy sounds of those 3, 2 men and a woman, made the hill-born harmonies clash against each other as though they were shouting out their grief to the skies. I have searched for recordings that come close, and near as I can get the nasality is the Carter Family; but even they are too harmonious to the reality of that unique sound. This man here comes closer still, but without the high pitched twang of a female to give it that extra kick, it still falls way short.
Notice how he says, 'sigh' from time to time at a beginning phrase. That is an old hill-folk contraction for speaking in the first person during story telling...it means 'says I'.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cJRRc8FToQ&