Events – Page 3 – Field Trip South

A Tribute Concert to Rev. Gary Davis: November 17, 2011

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Jorma Kaukonen will headline a Nov. 17 tribute concert and symposium in honor of blues legend Reverend Gary Davis. Schedule and information follows at the end of this post.
The Southern Folklife Collection and the Friends of the Library will sponsor the evening devoted to the master of finger-style guitar who influenced musicians such as Blind Boy Fuller, Taj Mahal, and Bob Dylan.
The 7:30pm concert will feature musicians who studied with Davis or were directly inspired by him, including Hot Tuna and former Jefferson Airplane member Jorma Kaukonen, Stefan Grossman, and Ernie Hawkins. Tickets to the concert can be purchased from the Carolina Union Box Office.
Prior to the concert, a free public symposium will take place in Wilson Library. At 5:30 p.m., blues scholar Elijah Wald will give a keynote lecture on Davis’s life and music. A panel discussion at 6:30 will include Kaukonen, Grossman, and Hawkins.
Wald, a musician and writer, has written for The Boston Globe and the Los Angeles Times, and his books include How the Beatles Destroyed Rock ‘n’ Roll: An Alternative History of American Popular Music (Oxford University Press, 2009), The Blues: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2010), and Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues (Amistad, 2004). In 2001, he won a Grammy award for his liner notes for The Arhoolie Records 40th Anniversary Collection: The Journey of Chris Strachwitz 1960-2000.
The concert is the second event in the Southern Folklife Collection’s Blues Legacy Series. A third event is planned for Feb. 2012 for Eddie James “Son” House.
Davis was born in 1896 in Laurens, S.C., and lost his vision before adulthood. He moved to Durham, N.C., in the 1920s, and worked with a number of musicians in the Piedmont blues scene. In 1933, he became an ordained minister of the Washington, N.C., Free Baptist Connection Church. His best-known songs include “Baby, Can I follow You Down,” “Candy Man,” and “Samson and Delilah.”
The Southern Folklife Collection is fortunate to hold a variety of recordings and materials related to Rev. Gary Davis, including FT-4600 from the Bob Carlin Collection (#20050). This open reel audio tape features a young Carlin interviewing one mentor (and former camp counselor) Roy Book Binder, a friend, student, and chauffeur of Gary Davis. The interview includes live concert recordings of Davis and Book Binder offering contextual information and sharing his personal experiences with Davis.

FT_4600 FT_4600_Roy Book Binder interviewed by Bob Carlin, WBRC New Milford, Connecticut, Summer 1969

Symposium, Wilson Special Collections Library, (Free and open to the public)
5 p.m. Reception
5:30 p.m. Keynote with Elijah Wald
6:30 p.m. Panel Discussion with Jorma Kaukonen, Stefan Grossman, and Ernie HawkinsConcert, Student Union, Great Hall, with Jorma Kaukonen, Stefan Grossman, and Ernie Hawkins
7:30 p.m.
Purchase concert tickets from Carolina Union Box Office, ($5 for students; $12.50 for others)Information: Liza Terll, Friends of the Library, (919) 548-1203
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Tommy Edwards Performing Tuesday, Oct. 5

Please join us on Tuesday, Oct 5, from Noon to 1:00 PM in the Wilson Library’s Pleasants Family Assembly Room for free, live bluegrass music with Tommy Edwards and Friends.
This event is co-sponsored by UNC’s Departments of History and American Studies,Folklore, and Music, the Southern Folklife Collection, the Institute for the Arts and Humanities, the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History, and Center for the Study of the American South.

Wade Mainer Event On Tuesday

Please join us on Tuesday, September 21, for Banjo On The Mountain: A Tribute To Wade Mainer. The event, to be held in the Pleasants Family Assembly Room in UNC’s Wilson Library, will begin with a catered reception at 5:00 PM. At 5:45, writer Dick Spottswood will be reading from his book Banjo on the Mountain: Wade Mainer’s First Hundred Years.
At 6:30 the tribute concert kicks off, featuring performances by Joe Newberry, The Happy Valley Pals (Gail Gillespie, Margaret Martin, Dwight Rogers and Wayne Martin), Andy Cahan, Joseph DeCosimo, and other area musicians. As always, the event is free and open to the public.
This event is sponsored by the Old-Time Herald, the North Carolina Folklife Institute, Pinecone, and the Southern Folklife Collection.

"Carolina Soul" Lecture September 10

On Friday, September 10, the Southern Folklife Collection will be hosting a lecture by DJ and collector Jason Perlmutter, founder of the website CarolinaSoul.org.
A UNC-Chapel Hill graduate (and former WXYC station manager) Perlmutter has been collecting soul recordings from the Carolinas since 2002, and compiled the 2008 Jazzman Records/Now-Again release Carolina Funk: First in Funk, 1968-1977.
Please join us in the Wilson Library Pleasants Family Assembly room (directions here) on September 10 for a reception at 5:00, to be followed by the lecture at 5:45. The event is free and open to the public (click to enlarge the flyer above for more details).

Jimmie Rodgers Exhibit Opening April 13

Please join us Tuesday evening, April 13th, for the opening of the new Southern Folklife Collection exhibit Jimmie Rodgers: The Father Of Country Music, celebrating the music and legacy of Jimmie Rodgers, one of the most popular and influential musicians of the 20th century.
The event starts with a reception at 5:00 PM, followed by a 5:45 talk by Jocelyn R. Neal, author of The Songs of Jimmie Rodgers: A Legacy In Country Music. Dr. Neal will be delivering a talk based on her research, “The Secrets of the Songs: Jimmie Rodgers and His Legacy.”
Following the talk, old-time musician Matt Kinman will be performing songs originally popularized by Rodgers and his contemporaries.
The opening event will be held on the 4th floor of Wilson Library on the campus of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and is free and open to the public. Hope to see you there!

Dr. Demento On The Old-time Record Review

On Friday, February 26th, the Southern Folklife Collection will be hosting legendary broadcaster Barry Hansen, aka “Dr. Demento”, longtime host of the nationally syndicated Dr. Demento Show. He will be presenting a lecture and spinning records on the subject of “Humor in the 20th Century: Country and Blues”. The program begins at 5:45 in Wilson Library’s Pleasants Family Assembly Room, to be preceded by a reception at 5:00, and is free and open to the public.
Mr. Hansen should have much to say on the subject of humor in country and blues music, as before he adopted his Dr. Demento persona to become radio’s greatest spinner of humorous songs he was a young musicology student at UCLA, the original home of the John Edwards Memorial Foundation. In the mid-sixties he began his radio career as the host of the “Old-time Record Review”, a scholarly program devoted to the folk, blues, and country music collected by the JEMF. When the JEMF Collection moved to UNC to become the basis of the Southern Folklife Collection , so too did open-reel tapes of 39 episodes of “Old-time Record Review”.
Listen below to a clip of novice DJ Barry Hansen introducing Hank Williams’ “Mind Your Own Business”, from a 1965 episode of “Old-time Record Review” (SFC# FT-1616):
Hansen

The Taylor Family in Chapel Hill

The Southern Historical Collection and Southern Folklife Collection will be hosting singer-songwriter Kate Taylor and her daughter Liz Witham on Tuesday, February 9th, for an event titled “The Taylor Family in Chapel Hill”, featuring a screening of Witham’s documentary film Kate Taylor: Tunes from the Tipi and Other Songs From Home, a Q&A with the filmmakers, and a musical performance by Kate Taylor. The event is free and open to the public.

February 9th – “The Taylor Family in Chapel Hill”
Frank Porter Graham Student Union Auditorium
Reception begins at 5:00 pm.
Event begins at 5:45 pm.
For more information, contact Liza Terll at Friends of the Library: liza_terll@unc.edu or (919) 962-4207

Archie Green Memorial Symposium This Saturday, Nov. 21

This Saturday Wilson Library will be remembering folklorist and union activist Archie Green with a day-long symposium and concert event. “Work’s Many Voices: A Memorial Symposium in Honor of Archie Green” will pay tribute to Green’s interest in the life, culture, and art of workers in the United States.
Symposium, 8:30 AM- 5:00 PM
Featuring Julie Ardery, Robert Cantwell, Brendan Greaves, Janet Hoshour, John Hubble, Pat Huber, Adam Machado, Daniel Patterson, Tim Prizer, Patricia Sawin, Chris Strachwitz, Kieran Taylor, David Whisnant, and Jack Wright.
Norm Cohen, author of All This for a Song and Long Steel Rail: The Railroad in American Folksong, will deliver the keynote address at 11:00 AM.
Reception at 5:00 PM
Concert at 6:30 PM
Performances by traditional ballad singer Elizabeth LaPrelle, old-time musicians Stephen Wade and Mike Craver, and the New North Carolina Ramblers.

The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. To sign up, email Liza Terll at the Friends of the UNC Library, liza_terll@unc.edu.
Sponsored by the Southern Folklife Collection, the University Library, and the UNC Folklore Program.

"Seeing Sound" Exhibit, Oct. 12, 2009 – Jan. 4, 2010

Before the widespread availability of recordings and record players, music publishers relied on visual representations to inform and entice consumers to buy sheet music of popular songs. The illustrator had to convey both the subject matter and the mood of a song, essentially capturing the sound of music in a single painting or drawing.

From October 12 to January 4, the Southern Folklife Collection will be hosting the exhibit Seeing Sound: Sheet Music Illustration From 1890 To 1940, featuring sheet music illustrations from the Eugene Earle Collection. The exhibit will be held on the 4th floor of the Wilson Library and is free and open to the public (9:00 AM – 5:00 PM Mon.-Fri., 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM on Sat.).

Jewish-Irish Collaborations in Tin Pan Alley: A Program with Mick Moloney

The SFC will welcome folklorist and musician Mick Moloney this Thursday, October 8, in Wilson Library’s Pleasants Family Assembly Room, for a multimedia musical presentation on the connections between Jewish and Irish musicians and lyricists in Tin Pan Alley.
Mick Moloney has recorded and produced over forty albums of traditional music, and is the author of Far From the Shamrock Shore: The Story of Irish American Immigration Through Song. He currently teaches in the Irish Studies Program at New York University.
His most recent album, If It Wasn’t for the Irish and the Jews, was released September 15 on Compass Records.
The event is free and open to the public. Please join us!
Thursday, October 8, 2009

Reception at 5:00 pm, program at 6:00 pm
Pleasants Family Assembly Room (2nd Floor, Wilson Library, UNC Chapel Hill)
We are co-sponsoring this event with UNC-Chapel Hill’s Center for the Study of the American South, American Studies Dept., Carolina Center for Jewish Studies, and the Friends of the Library.