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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
fellowship program supports graduate students, faculty, public
school teachers,
and/or performers in one to three month residencies for the purpose
of conducting research in Berea’s collection of non-commercial
traditional music and to promote the preservation of and access
to that music. Fellowship stipends are $3000 per month.
Appalachian
Music Fellowship Recipients for 2007
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Deborah Denenfeld (Louisville,
Kentucky)
 Deborah
holds degrees in Philosophy and Hassidic Studies and
Business Administration. She has been teaching folk
dancing since her teenage years and since 1993 has worked
as a Dance Artist-in-Residence in Kentucky schools. In
her Fellowship work beginning in May, she will focus on
researching and preserving Appalachian Play-Party or Singing
Games, a popular social activity in eastern Kentucky and
the southern Appalachian region until the mid 1900s. Requiring
no musical instruments, the games were played at gatherings
of young adults as an acceptable alternative to the social
dancing that many rural communities considered morally
suspect. Deborah will divide her time between research
in Berea’s audio and manuscript collections and field
work in the form of video recorded interviews with surviving
dance callers and others who may remember the tunes, words,
and movements that constituted the games. She will add
the reconstructed games that emerge from her efforts to
her teaching repertoire for school groups and dance workshop
events such as Berea’s Christmas Country Dance School.
Wider dissemination will be achieved through a website
display and print publication. The resultant documentation
will be deposited in the Berea archives for use by future
researchers. Further
information about Deborah's fellowship research is available
on a separate webpage.
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Kevin Kehrberg (Lexington,
Kentucky)
 Kevin
is currently a doctoral candidate in musicology at the
University of Kentucky where
his Masters
thesis focused on the gospel quartet recordings of Bluegrass
music pioneer, Bill Monroe. He has written about Bluegrass
music vocal styles and presented papers at scholarly
meetings including the Society of American Music. As
a bassist he has performed on stage, television, and
recordings with such traditional musicians as Art Stamper,
Lee Sexton, Jean Ritchie, and Curley Seckler. Beginning
in June, his Fellowship work at Berea will focus on
analyzing the performing styles and repertoires of
the various gospel quartets documented in Berea’s
radio program collections especially those of John
Lair’s Renfro Valley Gatherin’ and other
programs aired in the 1940s and 1950s. His efforts
will be directed at understanding stylistic similarities
and differences within a concentrated region and developing
a more complete account of sacred music’s role
in the radio programming, gospel quartet contests,
and annual all-night gospel singing events produced
by John Lair. Further information
about Kevin's fellowship research is available on a separate
webpage.
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Susan Mills (Boone, North Carolina)
 Susan
is the Coordinator of Music Education at Appalachian
State University in Boone, North Carolina. Her traditional
music involvement started with high school folk dance
activities in Pulaski County, Kentucky and eventually
included playing bass and piano for folk dance groups
and at commercial country and bluegrass venues in Florida.
She has taught music at the elementary and middle school
level and is presently involved in training other music
educators. Beginning in June, her Fellowship work at
Berea will focus on the development of Appalachian
music teaching resources for elementary and middle
school music classes that meet state and national music
education standards. These resources will be derived
mainly from audio and manuscript materials in Berea’s
Leonard Roberts Folklore Collection and be made available
through a teaching resources website, journal publications,
classroom lecture/demonstrations, and music education
in-service workshops. Further information
about Susan's fellowship research is available on a separate
webpage.
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James
Ruchala (Pinnacle,
North Carolina)
 James is an Ethnomusicology PhD candidate at Brown University,
Providence, Rhode Island. He
has been intensely involved with Appalachian music as a
fan, musician, dancer, and
scholar since the mid 1990s. In order to better understand
the “Round Peak” banjo and fiddle styles which
he is studying in North Carolina, and to develop a working
theory of regional styles in general, much of his Fellowship
work, beginning in January, will involve making comparative
transcriptions of tunes and songs from Berea audio collections
that are found in both North Carolina and Kentucky traditions.
Additionally, he will spend much time doing documentary
fieldwork at local music events, dances, and in visits
with musicians. The results of James’ work will be
shared through campus performance, website exhibits, and
deposited in the Berea archives for use by future researchers.
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| Suzanne Savell (Whitesburg, Kentucky)
 Suzanne is a scholar, musician, and community organizer
with degrees in Appalachian Studies from North Carolina’s
Warren Wilson College and Appalachian State University
where her research focused on community building and
rural asset-based community development. Since 2003
she has worked at Appalshop, the multi-disciplinary
arts and education center, doing grassroots organizing
within the current traditional music communities of
Southeastern Kentucky and Southwest Virginia. Her efforts
have resulted in the development of after-school music
programs, a bi-annual workshop / concert series, and
production of traditional music programming on public
radio station WMMT.
Beginning in January, her three months of Fellowship
work will involve research and preproduction of a multi-part
radio series about the first twenty years of Berea’s
Celebration of Traditional Music. Building on the work
of previous Music Fellows, Ajay Kalra and Deborah Thompson,
she will delve deeply into the issues of gender, race,
and what counts as tradition in Appalachian music.
The programs will be broadcast on WMMT over the air
and through the Internet and made available to other
public radio stations. Audio clips and interpretive
notes, and photos will be posted on a website and updated
as the series is produced. Further
information about Susan's fellowship research is available
on a separate webpage.
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Contact Us
Inquiries should be sent to:
Harry Rice
Special Collections & Archives
Berea College, CPO LIB
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
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