BROAD SUBJECT AREAS
Berea’s
Celebration of Traditional Music has
been held annually since 1974 and continues to the present.
The numerous singers and musicians heard on the recordings sampled
here, document the full range of Appalachian music’s
ethnic, vocal, and instrumental diversity. More particularly,
the formative musical influences, repertoire, and playing
styles of
African American performers at the Celebration of Traditional
Music have recently been explored by Appalachian
Music Fellowship recipient Ajay
Kalra.
Old Regular Baptist Singing and Preaching traditions
in Eastern Kentucky, Southwestern Virginia, and Western North
Carolina are the primary focus of recordings in this subject
area. Much of this material was compiled by music scholars,
Jeff Titon and William Tallmadge,
over several years time from the late1950s through the early
1990s.
Old-Time
Fiddlers and Banjo-Players
especially those from the eastern half of Kentucky, are the
focus of field recordings made by several musician-researchers
between 1970 and 1990. Consisting of more than 400 hours of
playing and interviews, these recordings offer an unprecedented
opportunity for study of the repertoire, techniques, lore,
and historical interaction of the region’s traditional
musicians. Transcriptions of some selected fiddle tunes from
these collections have recently been produced by Appalachian
Music Fellowship recipient Erynn
Marshall.
Traditional musicians from North
Carolina,
Tennessee,
Virginia,
and
West
Virginia are documented as well. See separate web page for Norh Caolina
banjoist J.
Roy Stalcup.
Eastern Kentucky folklore field recordings
by Leonard Roberts are
extremely important as social and folklore documents. Dating
from 1946 through much of the 1950s, the recordings are particularly
strong in documenting magic tales and other stories. Sound
recordings of the region’s folklore from this time, well
before the “folk revival” of the 1960s, are otherwise
quite rare.
Appalachian writing and scholarship is
represented in interviews and lectures by such figures as Wendell
Berry, Harry Caudill, Muriel Dressler, Wilma Dykeman, Helen
Lewis, Jim Wayne Miller, Artus Moser, Gurney Norman, Leonard
Roberts, Henry Scalf, James Still, Jesse Stuart, Don West,
Cratis Williams, and Jess Wilson.
Berea College history and
campus life are documented in extensive oral history interviews,
convocation performances, and addresses by scholars, theologians,
activists, and others of note dating from the 1950s to the
present.
Commercial country music recordings
of the 1920s, 30s and 40s. Tape copies of 78 rpm
discs include virtually every artist and string band of
stature from these years. Many of these recordings have
never been re-issued. Interviews include such early Kentucky
artists as Blind Dick Burnett, John V. Walker, and Ernest
Martin.
Commercialization of traditional
music is documented in early radio programs, later
festival perfomances, and recorded interviews relating
to such performers as Doc Roberts, Bradley Kincaid, Lily
May Ledford, Bascom Lamar Lunsford, John Lair, and the
McLain Family Band. Additionally, for Bradley
Kincaid, John Lair, Bascom
Lamar Lunsford, Doc
Roberts, and the McLain
Family Band, there are extensive archival collections
that include letters, photographs, radio scripts, and print
advertising materials.
Historic Kentucky radio
broadcasts from Louisville’s WHAS and the
CBS network, 1936 to the mid 1950s, document a wide range
of state, national, and world political figures and news
events. Entertainment programs include soap operas, musical
variety shows, and country music. Sporting events include
the Kentucky Derby and University of Kentucky football.
Going beyond the limitations of words on paper, these rare
recordings make possible hearing in the present the same
accents, emotions, and issues that entertained and informed
a past generation.
Storytelling and humor is
represented by such able practitioners as Richard Chase, Loyal
Jones, Ray Hicks, Maude Long, Patrick Napier, Leonard Roberts,
Beverly Sexton, Jackie Torrence, and Marshall Long. Also included
are recordings of the Appalachian Humor Festival held at Berea
in 1983, 1987, and 1990.
Traditional crafts and occupations are documented in
more than a hundred recordings that include work-related environmental
sounds as well as interviews of crafts people about the art
and science of their work. Subjects include chair making, musical
instrument building, quilting, weaving, vegetable dying, blacksmithing,
pottery making, coal mining, farming, and logging.
ACCESS TO THE ARCHIVE
The Archive is located in the
Department of Special Collections and Archives of Berea
College’s
Hutchins Library. Hours are 9:00-12:00 and 1:00-5:00 Monday
through Friday. Calling or writing in advance to arrange
for use
of Archive material will allow staff to give
optimum attention to each research request.
Written inquiries may be addressed
to Harry S. Rice, Sound Archivist, Hutchins Library, Department
of Special Collections and Archives, Berea
College, Berea, KY 40404. Phone: 859-985-3249. E-mail:
.
|
