Category: John Edwards Memorial Foundation Collection

SFC Presents: Author Talk with Deke Dickerson – “Sixteen Tons: The Merle Travis Story”

Promotional graphic for book talk with picture of author Deke Dickerson above a picture of performer Merle Travis

The Southern Folklife Collection and UNC University Libraries are thrilled to bring you this Author Talk featuring Deke Dickerson, this coming Wednesday, February 15, from 12-1 PM EST.  This virtual presentation and discussion is free to attend, and you can register in advance at go.unc.edu/Dickerson.  Dickerson will be presenting on his book Sixteen Tons: The Merle Travis Story.

The Library recently shared some fantastic photos of Merle Travis from the Russell D. Barnard Country Music Magazine Photograph Collection (#20484).  There are a few more from this collection on the Library’s Facebook page.

Here are a even more from the Barnard Collection:

a young Merle Travis with guitar. Russell D. Barnard Country Music Photograph Collection, #20484
Merle Travis (second from right) with Clayton McMichen and his Georgia Wildcats. Russell D. Barnard Country Music Photograph Collection, #20484
Merle Travis (far right) with the Drifting Pioneers. Russell D. Barnard Country Music Photograph Collection, #20484
Three men standing in costume
Merle Travis (left), with Hank Penny (center, in Grandpa Jones’ stage outfit) and Joe Maphis (right). Russell D. Barnard Country Music Photograph Collection, #20484

In addition to the Barnard Collection, the Ed Kahn Collection (#20360) holds a number of Travis related images and correspondence.

Inscribed and autographed photo of Merle Travis to Ed Kahn. “To Ed — Our friendship is even older than this picture — and that dates way back — Your Buddy…” Ed Kahn Collection, 1930-1999 (#20360)
Merle Travis with guitar. Ed Kahn Collection, 1930-1999 (#20360)

Kahn himself shows up around Travis in the Archie Green Collection (#20002), mentioned in this interview transcript.  There is a trove of Merle Travis related items in Green’s papers for the research of his book Only A Miner.

(click to enlarge) Merle Travis interview transcript with Archie Green and Ed Kahn. Archie Green Collection (#20002)

There are also some holdings in Green’s archive around the release of Travis’ Folk Songs album, the first record released on the new Capitol Americana label.

Green had many pieces on Travis’ signature song, and the source for the title of Dickerson’s book, “Sixteen Tons.”

Here is a piece Travis wrote for the United Mine Workers Journal about his composing of the song, reprinted in the Sing Out! journal.

(click to enlarge)

The cover of the issue of United Mine Workers Journal where the article first appeared:

We look forward to having you join us Wednesday the 15th for this event with Deke Dickerson to learn more about the Merle Travis’ life and career, and hope you are inspired to explore our collections for even more Travis treasures.  Registration at go.unc.edu/Dickerson.

Merle Travis, right, with other musicians. Russell D. Barnard Country Music Magazine Photograph Collection (#20484)

Loretta Lynn, RIP

We at the SFC were very sad to hear the news of Loretta Lynn’s death on October 4th.

To celebrate and remember the Queen of Country we wanted to highlight some items throughout the Southern Folklife Collection.

Loretta Lynn on the cover of the (Louisville) Courier-Journal & Times Magazine issue, June 1973. Southern Folklife Collection Artist Name Files Collection, #30005.

You can revisit Aaron Smithers’ post from 2013, featuring excerpts from an interview Lynn gave to Jack Bernhardt in 2001, which is part of the Jack Bernhardt Papers Collection (#20061).

SFC Spotlight: Jack Bernhardt Papers

The SFC holds a number of items related to Loretta Lynn so, in memory, here is a sampling of some of the photographs throughout our collection.

From the John Edwards Memorial Foundation Collection:

Loretta Lynn and Ernest Tubb: Portrait, circa 1965. John Edwards Memorial Foundation Collection, #20001.

From the Russell D. Barnard Country Music Magazine Photograph Collection:

Loretta Lynn and Ray Charles. Russell D. Barnard Country Music Magazine Photograph Collection, #20484.
Loretta Lynn in cockpit on flight back to Nashville. Russell D. Barnard Country Music Magazine Photograph Collection, #20484.
Loretta Lynn, 1960s. Russell D. Barnard Country Music Magazine Photograph Collection, #20484.
Loretta Lynn and band. Russell D. Barnard Country Music Magazine Photograph Collection, #20484.
Loretta Lynn and band, Austin City Limits taping, 1983. Russell D. Barnard Country Music Magazine Photograph Collection, #20484.

From the Southern Folklife Collection Artist Name Files Collection:

Postcard sent to Loretta Lynn Fan Club members, 1983. Southern Folklife Collection Artist Name File Collection, #30005.
Postcard sent to Loretta Lynn Fan Club members, 1983. Southern Folklife Collection Artist Name File Collection, #30005.

Also recommended is the Loretta Lynn episode of Tyler Mahan Coe’s Cocaine & Rhinestones podcast, focusing on “The Pill.”

And for something a little different, who could forget her visit to Sesame Street for this moving duet with Count.

Rest in peace to the Coal Miner’s Daughter.

Happy Birthday to Archie Green

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Archie Green, Dorsey Dixon, and an unidentified MulE, East Rockingham, North Carolina, 1962, John Edwards Memorial Foundation Records (20001)

It’s Archie Green‘s birthday today, he would have been 100 years old. The photo above was taken while Green was recording Dixon’s Babies in the Mill (Testament, 1963) album.

Archie played many roles throughout his career–folklorist, archivist, field worker, professor, and public sector advocate. His constant drive to document, archive, and curate is illustrated by his remarkable collection of work, the Archie Green Papers (20002), now housed at the Southern Folklife Collection. Archie was instrumental in the creation of the SFC as well as his advocacy and vision helped orchestrate the transfer of the John Edwards Memorial Foundation collections from UCLA to UNC Chapel Hill in 1983.

Green mentored and inspired countless ethnographers and activists. Archie was constantly engaged with the field, often interviewing fellow folklorists about their work. One interview that feels especially relevant today is one with eminent folklorist Dr. Roger D. Abrahams, who just recently passed away on June 21, 2017, SFC Audio Cassette FS-20002/11163. The interview, conducted in Austin, Texas sometime in the 1970s, while Abrahams is chair of the department and Archie is a professor, includes lots of interesting content about the Austin Cosmic Cowboy scene as well as African American folklore studied. You can hear the entire interview streaming in the SFC’s digital collections

SFC Audio Cassette FS-20002/11163

(digitized)

Tape 8: Archie Green and Roger Abrahams, Austin, Tex. (part 1

Audiocassette

Archie (Aaron) Green grew up in southern California, began college at UCLA, and then transferred to the University of California at Berkeley from which he was graduated in 1939. After working in the shipyards in San Francisco, serving in the Navy in World War II, and becoming active in several labor organizations, Green returned to academia. He received his M.L.S. from the University of Illinois and his Ph.D. in folklore from the University of Pennsylvania.

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Archie Green and Dock Walsh

John Edwards Memorial Foundation Records (20001)

Green joined the Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1960 and served there as librarian and later jointly as an instructor in the English Department until 1972. In 1973, Green took on a creative role at the Labor Studies Center in Washington, D.C., in part assisting with the Smithsonian Institution’s Festival of American Folklife and labor participation in the Bicentennial celebrations. At the same time, he was producing albums, conducting fieldwork, teaching, lecturing, and writing articles. He was active in the John Edwards Memorial Foundation (now Forum) from its inception and lobbied Congress to pass the American Folklife Foundation Act, which it did in 1976, establishing the Center for American Folklife.

Green retired as professor emeritus from the University of Texas at Austin in the early 1980s to his home in San Francisco, Calif., where he continued to work collaboratively on research and other projects with many individuals and institutions dedicated to the study of folklore and the preservation of folklife. He received an honorary degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1991. Archie Green died in March 2009.

Happy Birthday, Archie.

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Archie Green and Eugene Earle

John Edwards Memorial Foundation Records (20001)