Country music -- History.

Abstract Ed Ward was a private record and tape collector, poet, prose writer, and community historian who lived at Bledsoe in Harlan County, Kentucky. The digitized material in this collection includes recordings of interviews with Ed Ward, his reading from his writings such as Tall Tales of the Hills, musician interviews he recorded, and selected tape copies from Ward’s record collection of commercial recordings of Kentucky old time and early country music...

Scope and Contents Fourth Annual Renfro Valley Old Time Fiddlers Convention July 5, 6, 7, 1974 Contestans: Tilly Adkins, Willie Adkins, Alfred Bailey, Bill Sparks, Ed Blake, Bobbie Blays, Howard Blays, Bluegrass Rejects, Bluegrass Travelers, Franklin Bowles, Arthur Breeze, Opal Breeze, Terry Bronck, Richard Campbell Barbara Coons, Coleman Cornelison, Tex Corpy, David Edmundson, Suzanne Edmundson, Howdy Forrester, Frank Gardner, Get Togethers, Kelly...

Abstract

This collection contains correspondence, business records, photographs, news clippings, songbooks, and sheet music from radio ballad singer Bradley Kincaid. Collection sound recordings include interviews of Kincaid and his associates, a 1974 Kincaid performance at the Renfro Valley Traditional Music Festival, a 1974 recording of the song "Who Is Bradley Kincaid" composed and performed by Vince Matthews and Glen Sherley and copies of Kincaid's commercial 78 rpm discs (1928-1947).

Scope and Contents This collection consists of audio recorded interviews with fifteen performers and others who were associated with the Renfro Valley Barn Dance and other radio programs and stage shows produced by John Lair in Renfro Valley, Kentucky, mainly during the period 1940 - 1970. The interviews were conducted during the period 1985-1986 by Country Music Foundation Historian, John Rumble under the auspices of the Kentucky Oral History Commission. Persons interviewed are: Bob Baker, Al...

Abstract The collecting activity reflected in this collection began in the early 1950s and continued well into the 1970s. After Rueben Powell’s 1968 retirement from work as chief utility engineer at Wright Patterson Airforce Base in Ohio, Powell and his wife Retha started the Renfro Valley Tape Club as a means of sharing the fruits of his collecting with other country music fans. Its appeal was particularly substantial among Powell's contemporaries who were disenchanted with the then newer country...

Abstract Born in Berea in 1921, Thomas J. Wood, Jr. was a Navy veteran of World War II and a graduate of Harvard University and the Harvard Business School.  Wood had a lifelong career in advertising. Acting as an agent for John Lair,  Wood would sell a package of three network Renfro Valley radio programs—the Saturday night Barn Dance, Sunday Morning Gathering, and Country Store—to General Foods in New...