William Sears Home and Field Recordings Collection

Collection — Multiple Containers

Identifier: BCA 0130 SAA 130

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of (1) video and audio home recordings, (2) radio programs 1950s - 1970s, and (3) video field recordings, 2008, documenting a wide range of singers and instrumentalist from Whitley, Knox, and McCreary counties, Kentucky and just over the border in Tennessee. Especially notable are performances by fiddlers Claude Harmon and Marion Pridemore, and numerous other local musicians on the Country Music Express radio programs.

Listen To Sears Collection Audio Recordings

The 2008 video recordings document two finger banjoist Junior McKeehan, fiddlers Claude Harmon, J.L. Burke, and Ulysses Grant "Dick" Taylor, and singers Margarette Bowlin and Jessie Martin.

View Sears Collection Video Recordings

Also included in the collection are a small number of print materials, photographs, and written accounts that help document Gospel Quartet activity and local musicians heard on WCTT and other community stations.

Access Sears Collection Library Guide

Dates

created: 1950-2008

Creator

Sears, William. (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Follow links in the recordings list to hear performances and interviews and read play lists and transcripts. The collection can be accessed directly through the Reading Room, Berea College Special Collections and Archives, Hutchins Library, Berea College.

Conditions Governing Use

There are no restrictions on use of this material other than federal copyright regulations.

Extent

7.00 boxes_(general)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Arrangement Note

The collection has been arranged into the following six series:

Series 1: Marion Pridemore Home Recordings

Series 2: Whitley County, Kentucky Musicians / Singers Performance and Interview Recordings

Series 3: Country Music Express Radio Program Recordings

Series 4: John V. Walker / Roy and Raymond Perry Home Recordings

Series 5: Darlene Carr Home Recordings, Documents and Photographs

Series 6: Original DV Cassette Recordings

Other Descriptive Information

Collection Number: BCA 0130 SAA 130

Processing Information

The collection was processed by Harry Rice, Sound Archivist. The finding aid was created by Harry Rice and Lori Myers-Steele, Collections Archivist, in July 2015.