Noted Folklorist Alan Jabbour studying traditional music collections at Berea College in Appalachian Music Fellowship Program

5/20/08

Jabbour, who lives in Washington, D.C., has been at Berea since late April on a 2008 Appalachian Music Fellowship.  The Fellowship has provided Jabbour the opportunity to delve deeply into old-time Kentucky fiddling and fiddle music of other Appalachian states.  Jabbour also has been studying field recordings of Old Regular Baptist lined-out singing in connection with a book project he has in the works on the Decoration Day cemetery tradition.

On Wednesday, May 28, Jabbour will share his findings in a 3 p.m. public presentation at the College’s Hutchins Library.

Jabbour served as director of the American Folklife Center from 1976-99.  He is a specialist in American folk music, particularly instrumental folk music of the Upland South since the 1960s.   He has published extensively on this subject and edited various documentary field recordings, including old-time fiddle music of West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina.  Additional information about Jabbour is available at www.alanjabbour.com.

In additional to Jabbour, the Fellowship Program has attracted four other scholars and musicians for study in Berea’s music collections during 2008.

Helen Gubbins of Limerick, Ireland, is an Irish traditional musician (button accordion, tin-whistle and singing) and doctoral student who will be arriving in early June for a three month stay.  In her previous visits to the U.S., Gubbins served as an artist-in-residence, teaching and performing in Columbia, Mo., and throughout the Midwest.

At Berea, Gubbins will be studying the historical relationship of radio to traditional music of the American South, exploring Berea’s extensive music related broadcast audio and manuscript material in the John Lair, Reuben Powell, Bradley Kincaid and WHAS collections.  Following her study, Gubbins has plans to share her findings in scholarly venues, a newly created website and an audio documentary to be submitted for broadcast to public radio in the U.S. and Ireland.

The other 2008 Fellows are all from Kentucky.   Instrumentalist and singer Carla Gover of Richmond, who has completed her fellowship, studied songs and music to develop teaching and performance related materials.  Hugo Freund is a folklorist and Union College sociology teacher whose research is related to a book he is writing on author Silas House.  William Sears, Williamsburg, is a fiddler and recent graduate of the University of Kentucky, where he  majored in Agriculture and Agricultural Biotechnology.  He’s studying how his community’s traditions of homemade music compare to those in nearby counties and other parts of Kentucky.

Berea’s Appalachian Music Fellowship program began in 2006, and is made possible by a grant from the Anne Ray Charitable Trust.  The Fellowship brings scholars, performers, composers and educators to Berea to study in Hutchins Library’s Special Collections and Archives’ rich collection of non-commercial sound recordings.

For more about the Fellowship program visitwww.berea.edu/hutchinslibrary/specialcollections/amfp/amfp.asp

For more about Berea’s Sound Archives and other traditional music collections, seewww.berea.edu/hutchinslibrary/specialcollections/specialsound.asp

Harry Rice, Sound Archivist,
Hutchins Library Special Collections (859) 985-3249