2009 Fellowship Announcement 2009 Awards 2008 Awards 2007 Awards 2006 Awards Contact Us Berea’s Sound Archives Other Berea Archival Resources

Overview

The Berea College Appalachian Music Fellowship Program has been made possible by a grant from the Anne Ray Charitable Trust established by the late Margaret Anne Cargill of La Jolla, California.

The purpose of the fellowship program is to encourage the use of Berea’s non-commercial traditional music collections by graduate students, faculty, public school teachers, performers, and other scholars. Awards are made for a period of one to three months in support of research projects that will contribute to the preservation or promotion of these musical resources.

The fellowships must be taken up between October 2008 and August 2009. Fellows are expected to be in residence during the term of the fellowship and are encouraged to participate in campus and community activities. Stipend: $3000/month.

Deadline for proposals: September 1, 2008 for October through December 2008. December 1 for January through August 2009.

Proposal Guidelines 2009

There is no application form. Applicants are asked to submit a proposal that addresses:

1. Their background and interest in Appalachian music.
2. A description of the project specifying which Berea collections will be made use of.
3. Anticipated research outcomes (e.g., print publications, audio / video documentaries, tune transcriptions, lesson plans, public performances, web- based resources).
4. The length of time needed for the project (one month minimum, three months maximum), and preferred dates of residence.
5. Three letters of recommendation from colleagues familiar with the applicant’s work. For graduate degree candidates, the recommendations must include those of the professor directing the applicant’s research and the department chair. Applicants are responsible for contacting all persons providing recommendations.
   

Contact Us

Inquiries should be sent to:

Harry Rice
Special Collections & Archives
Berea College
Berea, KY 40404
harry_rice@berea.edu

Other Berea Archival Resources

Nora Carpenter Traditional Music Collection, SAA 108
Song lyrics, poems, and sound recordings authored or collected by Nora E. Carpenter of Magoffin County, Kentucky, mostly during the period 1920 - 1960. Also included are numerous clippings of published song lyrics, poetry, and community history, along with a few song books published by regional country music radio performers during the 1940s and 1950s. Seven self recorded reel-to-reel audio tapes document Nora Carpenter’s singing, banjo and harmonica playing during the 1960s-1970s. The recordings have been digitized for preservation and CD copies are available for listening. Tune titles, performer names, and locations are searchable via the Sound Archives page, an in-house database or printed index. 3 ms boxes

Cash Gospel Quartet, SAA 109
Radio program sound recordings, program play lists, published song books, photographs, and personal appearance programs documenting the radio performing career of the Cash Quartet from Rockcastle County, Kentucky. Members included Walter Cash and his wife Reba; a sister, Joanne; and R.H. Hamm. They did not make commercial recordings. However, during the late 1950s and much of the 1960s they had their own weekly program on Renfro Valley radio station WRVK and occasionally appeared on John Lair’s Renfro Valley Gatherin’ heard over Louisville’s WHAS and other stations. Their non-radio work included frequent local and regional monthly sings and singing conventions, especially those in Kentucky’s Pulaski and Laurel Counties. The recordings have been digitized for preservation and CD copies are available for listening. Tune titles, performer names, and locations are searchable via the Sound Archives page, an in-house database or printed index. Several can be heard online. 2 ms boxes

Josiah Combs Collection, 1910-1960, SAA 71
Typescript of writings and collected folklore by Knott County, Kentucky, native and noted folklore scholar, Josiah Combs. Topics include ballads and songs, Appalachian linguistics, and scatology. 3 ms boxes

Buell Kazee Collection, 1946-1979, SAA 54
Correspondence, articles, photographs, and sound recordings documenting the career, repertoire, and musical talent of Buell Kazee, Kentucky folk singer, banjo player, and Baptist minister. Performance and interview recordings are particularly notable for their extensive documentation of Kazee’s distinctive banjo fingering techniques and tunings. Tune titles, performer names, and locations are searchable via the Sound Archives page, an in-house database or printed index. 3 ms boxes

Bradley Kincaid Papers, 1923-1988, SAA 13
Correspondence, photographs, interview transcripts, clippings, songbooks, sheet music, and other printed material documenting the career of Kentucky country music radio pioneer, Bradley Kincaid. Tune titles, performer names, and locations are searchable via the Sound Archives page, an in-house database or printed index. 14 ms boxes

John Lair Papers, 1930-1984, SAA 66
Correspondence, photographs, radio scripts, sound recordings, interview transcripts, and other printed material documenting the life and work of Rockcastle County, Kentucky native, John Lair, founder of the Renfro Valley Barn Dance. Tune titles, performer names, and locations are searchable via the Sound Archives page, an in-house database or printed index. 79 ms boxes

Bascom Lamar Lunsford Collection, 1874-1973, SAA 29
Correspondence, photographs, diary photocopies, folk song lyrics, interviews, sound and video recordings documenting the career of NorthCarolina folk music scholar and festival organizer, Bascom Lamar Lunsford. Tune titles, performer names, and locations are searchable via the Sound Archives page, an in-house database or printed index. 10 ms boxes

Talitha Ethel Powell McClure Ballad Collection, 1915-1980, SAA 32
Handwritten lyrics to fifty-three ballads collected by Berea College student, McClure from her mother, Talitha Powell, during the 1915-16 school year. The Elder Powell later sung several of these songs for ballad scholar, Cecil Sharp on his 1917 Berea visit. 1 ms box

McLain Family Band Records, SAA 86
Correspondence, concert / bluegrass festival programs, advertising material, photographs, sound and video recordings that document the McLain Family Band’s performing activity between 1968 and 1989. 52 ms boxes

James Watt Raine Ballad Collection 1908-1949, SAA 6
Ninety ballads and songs collected by James Watt Raine during the time he taught at Berea College, from 1906 to 1939. 1 ms box

Doc Roberts Papers, 1910-1938, SAA 75
Correspondence, recording contracts, royalty statements and fan mail documenting the commercial recording and radio work of Kentucky fiddler, Doc Roberts. 3 ms boxes

Leonard Roberts Papers, 1950-1983, SAA 57
Audio recordings, and transcriptions of folklore narrative collected by noted Kentucky folklorist, Leonard Roberts. Story and tune titles, performer names, and locations are searchable via the Sound Archives page, an in-house database or printed index. 60 ms boxes and 15 card file boxes

John F. Smith Traditional Music Collection, 1915-1940, SAA 5
Several hundred ballads, songs, fiddle, and banjo tunes, some with musical notation, collected from Berea College students during the early 1900s by John F. Smith. Also included are lists of musical instruments played in the students’ home communities and descriptions of house dances and singing schools they participated in.4 ms boxes

William H. Tallmadge Baptist Hymnody Collection, 1968-1980, SAA 33
Correspondence, sound recordings, notebooks, church association minutes, and hymnbooks documenting Tallmadge’s study of Old Regular, Primitive and United Baptist singing traditions in Kentucky, Virginia, and North Carolina, during the 1960s and 1970s. Song titles, performer names and locations are searchable via an in-house database. 17 ms boxes

Jeff Titon Kentucky Traditional Music Collection, 1990-1996, SAA 93
Fifty-seven audio and ten video field recordings of interviews and performances that mainly document southeastern Kentucky Old Regular Baptist singing traditions 1990-1996. Also documented are the repertoire and playing style of southern Kentucky fiddler, Clyde Davenport 1990-1991. Included as well is an undated, published video, “A Singing Stream: A Black Family Chronicle” (Landis Family gospel singers of Granville County, North Carolina) produced by Titon associate, Tom Davenport. Tune titles, performer names, and locations are searchable via the Sound Archives page, an in-house database or printed index.

Mary Wheeler Ballad Collection, 1917-1982, SAA 76
Ballad transcriptions, correspondence, clippings and photographs documenting Mary Wheeler’s collecting efforts while teaching at Hindman Settlement School in 1926. 2 ms boxes

D. K. Wilgus Folklore Collection, 1918-1989, SAA 67
Kentucky ballads, songs, stories, sayings, legends, and local histories that Wilgus collected directly and through students while teaching at Western Kentucky University 1950-1962. Of equal importance are the sizable folksong and ballad files that Wilgus obtained from such earlier folklore scholars as Josiah Combs and E.C. Parrow whose study of Kentucky folklore date to the turn of the nineteenth century. 12 ms boxes