Category: Uncategorized

Southern Folklife Collection Banjo Symposium Coming Up August 25


Everything is falling into place for the inaugural event in the Southern Folklife Collection Instrument Series, The Banjo: Southern Roots American Branches. Tickets are still available for the free concert, Saturday August 25 in Memorial Hall on UNC’s campus, featuring master pickers Tony Trischka, Dom Flemons of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, and Riley Baugus with Kirk Sutphin. This is a free but ticketed event. Contact the Memorial Hall Box Office, 919.843.3333 for information.

The Banjo: Southern Roots, American Branches

BILL BIRCHFIELD OF THE ROAN MOUNTAIN HILLTOPPERS, PHOTO BY ALICE GERRARD.

The Southern Folklife Collection is pleased to announce The Banjo: Southern Roots, American Branches, Saturday, August 25, 2012. This exhibit, symposium and concert is the first of the three-part Southern Folklife Collection Instrument Series. Panels, exhibits, and concerts in 2013 will feature the pedal steel guitar and the fiddle. The series seeks to provide an opportunity for music lovers to learn from leading musicians and scholars about the music, history, and culture of the American South.
Please join us first for the banjo symposium Saturday, August 25 from 10am to 4pm in the Pleasants Family Assembly Room, Wilson Special Collections Library, UNC-CH, followed by a free concert in UNC’s Memorial Hall including master pickers Tony Trischka, Dom Flemons of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, and Riley Baugus with Kirk Sutphin. This is a free but ticketed event. Tickets are now available at the Memorial Hall Box Office, 919.843.3333.
The symposium features lectures and panel discussions on the history of the banjo with:

  • Robert Cantwell, UNC Professor of American Studies; Author of Bluegrass Breakdown
  • Bob Carlin, Musician and Author of The Birth of the Banjo
  • Cecelia Conway, Appalachian State University Professor of English; Author of African Banjo Echoes in Appalachia
  • Laurent Dubois, Duke Professor of Romance Studies and History
  • Dom Flemons, musician (Carolina Chocolate Drops)
  • Phillip Gura, UNC Professor of American Studies; Author of America’s Instrument: The Banjo in the 19th Century
  • Jim Mills, musician (Ricky Scaggs, Vince Gill) Six time winner of IBMA Banjo Player of the Year Award.
  • Stephen Wade, Musician and Author of The Beautiful Music All Around Us: Field Recordings and the American Experience

Don’t miss the accompanying exhibit tracing the history and development of the banjo, featuring instruments, photographs, recordings and ephemera from the Southern Folklife Collection.The exhibit opens August 25th and runs through Dec 31, 2012. on the 4th Floor, Wilson Library. Follow the Southern Folklife Collection on facebook or come back to Field Trip South for updates.
And now a couple more photos from the same roll as the one featured above from the Alice Gerrard Collection (#20006). These photos feature Joe and Bill Birchfield of the great family stringband from Carter, Tennessee, The Roan Mountain Hilltoppers. Bill is demonstrating his unique banjo style, playing backwards, upside-down, and left-handed.

SFC Spotlight: Kitty Wells

It is no surprise that the “Queen of Country Music,” Ms. Kitty Wells, is well represented at the Southern Folklife Collection. Hundreds recordings, photographs, publications, and memorabilia chronicle her remarkable life and career. While we want to start giving peeks via Field Trip South into our plans for the upcoming symposium, exhibit and concert The Banjo: Southern Roots, American Branches, the passing of Kitty Wells deserves some attention here as well.
To start, we found a fascinating newsletter, the Macon News, announcing Kitty Wells signing with then independent record label Capricorn Records after her release from a lifetime contract she originally signed with Decca records in 1952 (click photo to enlarge)

The newsletter also features Miss Wells in the Capricorn Sound Studios in Macon, GA recording a cover of Dylan’s “Forever Young.” The photo of drummer Bill Stewart, producer Johnny Sandlin, and organist Paul Hornsby in the control room is a classic.
The 1973 newsletter also reminds listeners of one of the year’s best country crossover hits, “Behind Closed Doors,” performed by Charlie Rich, but composed by Capricorn artist Kenny O’Dell. Tomorrow, more information about the banjo symposium and concert, PLUS the Kitty Wells Cookbook.  

SFC Spotlight: Rank Strangers at Mrs. Hyatt's Oprahouse

“Opry” and “oprahouse” are regional vernacular often used to describe settings for folk jam sessions that are nestled in backyards across America. One of the most well-known oprahouses in the mountains of North Carolina is Ms. Nelia Hyatt’s, located in Asheville. Ms. Hyatt has been hosting musicians for over 50 years and gatherings still occur weekly. A jam at Ms. Hyatt’s is a colorful and familial scene of old couples dancing, tables of potluck food, musicians in folding chairs, and listeners leaning against the back wall.
Rod Murphy and Scot B. Morgan produced a documentary and a corresponding album about Ms. Hyatt’s OpraHouse, both of which are titled Rank Strangers.  The first release on Asheville’s relatively new label Harvest Recordings, an outgrowth of the truly fantastic West Asheville record store, Harvest Records, the CD highlights bluegrass favorites performed by jam-goers, family bands, and North Carolinian artists. A copy is housed in the Southern Folklife Collection, call no. CD-7421, and I strongly recommend listening if you enjoy live old time and bluegrass. Not only does Rank Strangers present a very real and authentic portrait of bluegrass dynamics, it showcases the professional talent of these “unknown” musicians. In other words, the players on Rank Strangers may be a mash up of locals, out-of-towners, and grandsons, but they sure can pick.
We have an affinity for field recordings at the SFC, and the sonic environment of the performance setting captured on this CD is remarkable; I have never heard a more live or lively collection of songs. Whether eavesdropping snippets of conversation, or listening to crickets singing in the background, the listener is transported directly into the jam session. One of the best examples of this on the album is the energetic rendition of “John Henry,” recorded live at the Oprahouse.
CD7421_Track 20_John Henry Hyatt;s Jam
Other tracks whose vivid mood and setting are particularly audible include “Home Sweet Home,” “Freeborn Man (With $50 Dollar Bill Rant),” and “How Mountain Girls Can Love”.

SFC Spotlight: Doc Watson

— Please welcome our summer student guest writer, Emma Lo. Emma will be writing about her experiences exploring the SFC this summer. Her first post remembers North Carolina’s beloved Doc Watson.  A symposium and concert celebrating Watson’s life and music will take place at the NC Museum of Art on Saturday, June 30. Details are on the NCMA website. —

Legendary guitarist Doc Watson, born in Deep Gap, North Carolina, passed away at age 89 on May 28th, 2012, in Winston-Salem, NC. Watson is often described as embodying the sound of the Blue Ridge Mountains. In addition to his champion flatpicking guitar skills, Watson mastered the banjo, mandolin, and boasted a warm, honest voice to complement his picking. Although Doc Watson acquired fame through his performances in clubs and universities in Greenwich Village, Los Angeles, and Rhode Island, North Carolina stayed at the heart of his music. He began his musical career as a regular performer on a radio show in Lenoir, NC, playing traditional music of Appalachia, and after the loss of his son Merle in 1985, he cofounded the successful traditional arts festival, Merlefest, in Wilkesboro.
Watson’s most notable contribution to the folk guitar style was his adaptation of fiddle solos for flatpicking guitar. He was known for being a humble, introverted man who requested that the phrase “Doc Watson: Just One of the People,” be engraved beneath his likeness in sculpture in downtown Boone, N.C. Nevertheless, he brought the guitar to center stage by utilizing the guitar as a melody instrument. Watson played a unique fusion of musical styles that included a broad spectrum of Appalachian folk, old-time, bluegrass, and blues. On Merlefest’s website Watson titles this mixture “traditional plus.” According to Watson, “When Merle and I started out we called our music `traditional plus,’ meaning the traditional music of the Appalachian region plus whatever other styles we were in the mood to play.”
For his first public performance, in 1941, 18-year-old Doc Watson played the song “Precious Jewel” at the Boone Fiddler’s Convention. Appalachian State’s Digital Collections contains a field recording of this performance (Watson’s bit begins at 1:36).
After a stint playing in various country bands for square dances, Watson joined a folk band headlined by Clarence “Tom” Ashley, Clint Howard, and Fred Price.

Along with the band, Watson was discovered by musician and folk music promoter Ralph Rinzler and record collector Eugene Earle.  Earle and Rinzler made the initial recordings that officially introduced Watson into the folk music industry in 1961 with the recording, Old-Time Music at Clarence Ashley’s, one of many live recordings in Watson’s wonderful catalog. Another live recording from 1963 documents Watson’s first true solo concert at Gerde’s Folk City in Greenwich Village and was later released as an album titled Doc Watson at Gerde’s Folk City Live.  This CD, call no. CD-1604, is available at the Southern Folklife Collection. Listen here for a clip that captures the intimacy Doc shares with his audience as he plays “The House Carpenter,” a song he learned from his father.
The House Carpenter
Many more recordings and photographs of Watson are housed at UNC’s Southern Folklife Collection and can be located using the UNC Library online catalog.

Photo of the Week: Cedric Chatterley's Portraits

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to view a remarkable exhibit of photographs made by Cedric Chatterley and the images have not left my mind.  A few of the photographs came from the Barbara Lau and Cedric Chatterley Collection (#20025), a phenomenal collection of interviews, photographs, and manuscript materials documenting the lives and culture of South East Asian immigrants to North Carolina. Lau and Chatterley’s collaborative ethnographic work with their consultants from the Cambodian communities in North Carolina resulted in an incredibly rich and informative body of materials and we are honored to be the repository.  Details on the exhibit, on view until June 29 at the Durham Public Library follow below.   Have a great weekend.


North Carolina at Work: Cedric Chatterley’s Portraits and Landscapes of Traditional Labor
An exhibition organized by the North Carolina Folklife Institute:
On display April 29 —June 29, 2012
Location: Durham County Main Library (300 N Roxboro)
Free and Open to the public
Chatterley’s photographs depict North Carolinians at work and the landscapes that surround them. At-work images in their lived environment evokes a strong sense of place that many North Carolinians feel, and visitors expect to experience. This exhibition will foster conversations about the relationship between work, the environment/place, identity, and community.
Drawn from the NCFI archives, these images spring from projects undertaken by the Folklife Institute and the Folklife Program of the North Carolina Arts Council.
This exhibit is curated by Liz Lindsey, with curatorial assistance by students in the “Mount a Real Documentary Photography Exhibit” continuing studies class course at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.  Co-sponsored by Durham County Library and the Center for Documentary Studies
http://www.durhamcountylibrary.org/
http://cds.aas.duke.edu/
Supported by the North Carolina Arts Council and the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation
http://www.ncarts.org/
http://www.marydukebiddlefoundation.org/
The North Carolina Folklife Institute is also supported by the National Endowment for the Arts. Its archive projects are supported in part by a grant from the Visual Resource Association Foundation.
http://www.arts.gov/
http://www.vrafoundation.org/
“Mount a Real Documentary Photography Exhibit” continuing studies course at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, (April 7 —April 28, 2012)
Organized by the North Carolina Folklife Institute, supporting the People’s Arts since 1974 • http://www.ncfolk.org/

SFC Behind the Scenes: Tom Davenport revisits "A Singing Stream"

It has been a pleasure to have filmmaker and Folkstreams founder Tom Davenport working in the Southern Folklife Collection Ben Jones Film and Video Studio this week. Tom, along with the assistance of folklorist T. C. Owens, has been working through the original 16mm outtakes from the 1986 film, A Singing Stream. The entire documentary, which chronicles the lives of the Landis family of Granville, North Carolina, can be viewed at Folkstreams.net.
With interviews and stories, and scenes from daily life, reunions, gospel concerts, and church services, the film traces the history of the Landis family, highlighting the role of traditional acapella gospel singing in their relationships with each other and their community.  Particularly featured are performances by her sons’ gospel quartet The Golden Echoes.
Tom is looking at the original footage to see what scenes might be incorporated into a new film, tentatively titled Son of Singing Stream. Judging from his work here over the past three days, we can’t wait to see the results.
For more information about Tom Davenport’s films and A Singing Stream, see the following collections in the SFC:

SFC Photo of the Week: Mike Seeger


We wanted to share a few photos from the Mike Seeger Collection in advance of the tribute concert and lecture on Friday, March 23. The image above, featuring Seeger recording William Bragg along with a group of interested students, was captured in Widen, West Virginia by Alice Gerrard in 1967.
Gerrard will perform at the tribute concert along with Ginny Hawker and Mike Seeger’s former band mates from the New Lost City Ramblers, John Cohen and Tracy Schwarz.

Music from the True Vine: A Tribute to Mike Seeger


The life of the late musician, documentarian, and scholar Mike Seeger will be celebrated with a tribute concert and lecture at the Wilson Special Collections Libraryon March 23, 2012.
Seeger, co-founder of the folk revival group the New Lost City Ramblers, died in 2009. He was a member of the famous Seeger folk family, along with musician siblings Pete and Peggy Seeger and their musicologist parents Charles and Ruth Crawford Seeger.
The 6:30 p.m. concert will feature musicians who performed with or were influenced by Seeger: John Cohen (a co-founder of the Ramblers), Alice Gerrard, Ginny Hawker, andTracy Schwarz.
Prior to the concert, historian and author Bill C. Malone will give a 5:30 p.m. lecture on his new biography, Music from the True Vine: Mike Seeger’s Life & Musical Journey (UNC Press, 2011). At 6 p.m., Malone will moderate a panel discussion with the concert performers.
Malone, an emeritus professor of history at Tulane University, is known for his studies of Southern folk and country music. Music from the True Vine presents Seeger as a gatekeeper of American roots music and culture, showing why generations of musicians and fans of traditional music regard him as a mentor and an inspiration.
Seeger recorded almost forty albums and was nominated for six Grammy Awards, including three for solo work. He also interviewed and produced field recordings of traditional musicians. The National Endowment for the Arts honored him with a National Heritage Fellowshipin 2009.
The program is sponsored by the Southern Folklife Collection in Wilson Library, which holds the collected papers of Mike Seeger, as well as those of Gerrard and Malone. The Friends of the Library and UNC Press are program co-sponsors.
Books will be available for sale and signing, courtesy of the Bull’s Head Bookshop.
Please join us.
Friday, March 23, 2012
Wilson Special Collections Library, Pleasants Family Assembly Room
5:30 p.m. Lecture by Bill C. Malone
6 p.m. Panel discussion with Bill C. Malone, John Cohen, Alice Gerrard, Ginny Hawker, and Tracy Schwarz
6:30 p.m. Concert featuring John Cohen, Alice Gerrard, Ginny Hawker, and Tracy Schwarz
Free and open to the public
Information: Liza Terll, Friends of the Library, (919) 548-1203