Fiddling around on a snow day

10th floor stacks, Southern Folklife Collection, The Wilson LibraryUNC Chapel Hill campus is closed today due to the weather, but thanks to the great work by the Audiovisual Preservation and Access Team, online access to SFC collections has never been easier. The now has well over 10,000 streaming audio files of digitized archival recordings. Recent additions have been made possible through support from a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
We’ve shared streaming recordings from the William R. Ferris Collection (20367), Goldband Recording Corporation Collection (20245) and the Mike Seeger Collection (20009), Alice Gerrard Collection (20008), Bob Carlin Collection (20050), and Tom Davenport Collection (20025)John Loy works in the studio of the Southern Folklife Collection at Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. in the past, but we have since more than doubled the amount of streaming content. We’d love to hear your favorites, but as an introduction, we pulled a few recordings from recent additions that we found particularly fascinating. Click on the link to go directly to a streaming audio file:

  • First up from the Andy Cahan Collection (20018), some fantastic tunes performed by musician and folklorist Andy Cahan and Carlie Marion recorded during a July, 1998 visit to Marion’s home in Elkin, NC. There are seven tapes total, any and all are excellent listening but tape 2, side 1 is a great place to start.

SFC Audio Open Reel 2755: Recordings of Carlie Marion and Andy Cahan performing in Marion’s home, Elkin, N.C., 9 July 1988: reel 2 of 7: Side 1ft20018_2755_scrnsht_Recordings of Carlie Marion and Andy Cahan performing in Marion's home, Elkin, N.C., 9 July 1988: reel 2 of 7 1/4" Open Reel Audio

  • From the Tom Carter and Blanton Owen Collection (20029), stories and twin fiddling by Luther Davis and Huston Caudill recorded in Dalhart, Grayson Co., VA in February 1974. [* note you can also hear a number of recordings of Davis streaming via the Alice Gerrard Collection (20008)]
ft20029_1013_scrnsht_Luther Davis and Huston Caudill, Dalhart, Grayson County, Va., 8 February 1974 1/4" Open Reel Audio

ft20026_18858_scrnshot_SFC Audio Open Reel 11858: Shaker interview, Sister R. Mildred Barker, Sabbathday Lake, Me., 18 August 1973: Side 1

If you have any questions or comments about accessing streaming media, be sure to contact the Southern Folklife Collection at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu. Stay warm and safe out there!