Lee Knight Collection

Collection — Multiple Containers

Identifier: BCA 0132 SAA 132

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This collection consists mainly of interviews and performances by several traditional musicians and story tellers, their associates, and scholars. The recordings were made during the 1970s by North Carolina folksinger and storyteller, Lee Knight. The geographic area represented are portions of Kentucky, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

Listen To Recordings / Read Play Lists

A large portion of the collection focuses on banjo players and their repertoires. Included are well known banjoists such as Frank Proffitt, Jr. and Roscoe Holcomb along with several others from North and South Carolina. Notable women performers include Malvena Reynolds, Almeda Riddle, Roberta Voyles, and Lily May Ledford.

Other performance styles and instrumentation represented include lap dulcimer, African American singing from Johns Island, South Carolina, African American children's game songs, Jack tales, and unaccompanied ballad singing.

The collection also includes interviews with folk music scholars, Anne and Frank Warner, performer/activists, Guy and Candie Carawan, and country-bluegrass musicians, Bill Monroe, Kenny Baker, Ralph Stanley, and Roy Acuff.

Dates

created: 1970-1980

Creator

Knight, Lee. (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Records can be accessed 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

6.00 ms_boxes

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Lee Knight grew up in the Adirondack Mountain area of New York State. He moved to North Carolina as the result of an interest in the Anglo, European and Native American music and stories of the Southern Appalachians developed during college. In addition to the Adirondacks and Appalachians, he has collected songs and stories from other parts of the world, including England, Scotland, Central Asia, Columbia and the Amazon region of Peru.

Arrangement Note

The collection is arranged as follows:

Open reel recordings (Boxes 1-3)

Cassette tape recordings (Box 4)

CD Listening copies of select recordings (Boxes 5-6)

Other Descriptive Information

Collection Number: BCA 0132 SAA 132

Processing Information

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