Storytelling in Appalachia

I just came back from a talk on storytelling in Appalachia and I feel a little lost. The woman, Wendy Welch, said she was from the region and spoke about storytelling as [mostly] a public art form where particular people are recognized as "storytellers." She also spoke of community elders as storytellers. It was a bit strange to think of storytelling as public, and as a something that people consciously pass down to others. In my experience, and it's very possible that I just missed something, people only almost ever told stories in private or in "safe" public places, such as church. And I'm not sure that they thought of it as "storytelling," but rather telling a story about something in particular. I wonder if this is a case of the artsy Appalachia versus coal field Appalachia?