Dewey Shepherd Collection

Dewey Shepherd (b. 1905) was a singer and fiddler from Floyd County, Kentucky where he lived for many years in the David community. The recordings in this collection include self-made ones by Mr. Shepherd and those made by Steve Green, including interviews of Shepherd, in 1990. His music combines elements drawn from eastern Kentucky religious music, blues, traditional ballad singing, and instrumental folk music. His repertoire includes old fiddle and banjo songs like "Rocky Island" and "Hook and Line” and old sacred and secular songs. He claimed to have composed some of the songs he sang such as "Jack Monroe" and "Daniel in the Lion's Den.” Dewey Shepherd attended the Newport (Rhode Island) Folk Festival in the 1960s as part of a contingent of musicians from Kentucky.  Two photographs picturing Mr. Shepherd were published in The Face of Folk Music by David Gahr in 1968. He was also a participant in the Smithsonian Institution's Festival of American Folklife held in Washington, D.C. in the 1970s. There are recordings of his gourd fiddle playing made in 1964 among Kentucky recordings in the Library of Congress. In later years he played at regional events including Berea College’s 1993 Celebration of Traditional Music.