Sound Comes to This Month in North Carolina

This Month in North Carolina for May, 2008, the story of Tom Dooley, is now wired for sound. This is a first for the NCC. The Southern Folklife Collection provided us with an audio file of G. B. Grayson and Henry Whittier performing a version of the Ballad of Tom Dooley from the 1920s. I like it a lot, but it is very different from the “Tom Dooley” made famous by the Kingston Trio in the 1950s. Read, listen, and enjoy!

4 thoughts on “Sound Comes to This Month in North Carolina”

  1. Wonderful, Harry! I do wish you would offer us a McKown rendition of the alternative version for comparison…

  2. Thanks so much, Harry. I have heard my great grandmother (whose father, my great great grandfather, was present at Tom’s hanging in Statesville) sing a slightly different version of this tune. This has made me think of sitting on the porch with her on a Sunday afternoon.

    Now, can you get the Ballad of Otto Wood posted here???

  3. Thank you Amanda and Kevin. Believe me the last thing anybody wants is me singing. We are on the trail of the “Ballad of Otto Wood” and will see what can be done.

  4. Rowan Public Library has the original 78 of the Ballad of Otto Wood, and I think that Doc Watson has recorded it.

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