Folk music -- Appalachian Region.

Abstract

This collection consists of both handwritten/typewritten and published texts and music notations dating primarily from the period 1911-1950. It includes ballads, shape-note and other hymns, rhymes, spirituals, shanties, labor, and commercial country music songs. Also included are related magazine articles, newspaper clippings, bibliographies, excerpts from music faculty annual reports, and correspondence between Berea College staff and music researchers.

Abstract Musical performances recorded on audio cassettes at the Appalachian South Folklife Festival (Pipestem, West Virginia, July 20, 1979) by Don Wade and Steve Green. Listen To Recordings Performers include George Tucker; Ebb and Zeb Collins; Edward Mashburn; Elvie Johnson; Ira Mullins; John Morris; Wilson Douglas;...

Abstract Bascom Lamar Lunsford was particularly noted for his memory collection of 300 ballads, tunes and tales and the establishment in 1927, of the Ashville, North Carolina based Mountain Dance and Folk Festival which has continued to the present time. During his long career, Lunsford practiced law, published a song collection, and made several documentary recordings, while continuing to perform (vocal, banjo, and fiddle) collect songs, and write a few of his own (including “That Good Old Mountain...

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Records documenting the Celebration of Traditional Music, an annual event striving to represent homemade music passed on from person to person in the Appalachian Region and the musicians who play it.

Abstract Gilbert R. Combs (1886-1966) compiled his collection of songs and ballads in part from those he heard growing up in Eastern Kentucky, and also from his acquaintance with gospel music and spirituals from several southern states. The collection includes some biographical notes covering Combs' early life, and his own recollections of his early childhood and description of traditional songs in mountain settings. The Rev. Gilbert Reynolds Combs, according to his own account, was born in a cabin...

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Personal papers and records of Rolf Hovey, founder and director of the Berea College Chapel Choir and longtime Chairman of the Berea College Music Department. Materials include writings, correspondence, teaching materials, student projects, and numerous subject files including information regarding Berea College organizations and groups.

Abstract Raine was born (1869) in Scotland and immigrated to the United States with his family when he was 12 years old.  The family lived in West Virginia and, later, in Arkansas. Raine was educated at Oberlin College and Union Seminary in New York.  Ordained to the ministry, he held pastorates in Ohio and New York. Married twice, first to Harriett May (who died one year after their marriage) and to Clara Martz.  Raine had six children. In 1906, Raine became an English instructor at Berea...

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Collection of manuscripts, correspondence, and related publications of Gladys Jameson.

Abstract John F. Smith taught in the Berea College Normal School.  As part of his Composition and Rhetoric course, Smith asked students to write down the names of banjo and fiddle songs and tunes known to them in their home districts of eastern Kentucky and Tennessee.   The results are a large, varied body of material that includes ballads, songs, fiddle and banjo tunes, and games.  Several students also included lists of musical instruments present in their home communities and...

Abstract Katherine Jackson French was influenced to collect mountain ballads through friends who had attended a lecture—in 1905—at which two instructors from Berea College, Kentucky, spoke about the uncollected ballads in the mountains of Kentucky.  She was writing her dissertation at Columbia University at the time and she delayed investigating the matter of collecting mountain ballads until 1909 when she returned to London, Kentucky, to attend her mother who was ill. On at least two occasions in...