History Commons^™

Under The Sun: Songs From Ecclesiastes, Emma Kay Smith

Honors Theses

Historically, artists in all spaces have gleaned inspiration from the text of the Bible in order to communicate meaningful stories. The book of Ecclesiastes is particularly rich in its images and themes, and it warrants profound creative contemplation. This project documents the process of crafting 1960s-style folk songs based on this often confounding and ever-beautiful text. This process included close, meditative listening to the works of great songwriters from the 1960s folk era such as Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen and culminated in the live recording of four folk songs, compiled in the demo-EP Under the Sun: Songs from Ecclesiastes. …

Simmons, Mary Jean (Fa 1412), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Folklife Archives Project 1412. “Shaker Music as a Genre of Folk Music,” a paper written by Jean Simmons for a WKU folk studies class.

An Examination Of The Visual And Textual Influences On The Anthology Of American Folk Music, Ben Collier

History Theses

The Anthology of American Folk Music is a collection of eight-four selections of southern vernacular recordings made for commercial record labels in the 1920s and 1930s and assembled into a unified collage by Harry Smith. Smith was an experimental filmmaker, painter, and self-taught anthropologist with a deep interest in renaissance hermeticism and mysticism who worked with Moe Asch in 1952 to release the six-record set and accompanying handbook on Folkways Records. The release was heralded by musicians and critics as an essential piece of influence on the folk music revival. Despite this, the Anthology sold poorly and quickly faced legal …

"Eden Is On Puget Sound": Folk Music Stories In The Northwest, Rosie Lockie Everson

WWU Graduate School Collection

During the folk music revival period, roughly the early 1940s to the late 1960s, folk musicians, music collectors, and folk music insiders forged a connection between American folk music, the past, and ideas of cultural authenticity. In this national context of renewed interest in folk music traditions, folk music communities across the United States cropped up. This thesis analyzes the ideologies and activities of Pacific Northwest folk music communities in the 20th century, with a particular focus during and after the revival period. Typical narratives of the American folk music revival terminate at the end of the 1960s; however, in …

Bob Dylan And American Folk Music: The Pigeonhole Effect, Thomas J. Murray

Of Life and History

This article tracks Bob Dylan's early musical career and his relation to the American Folk music movement of the late 1950s into the early 1960s. The author grapples with the question of why Bob Dylan went electric and explores some of the stories around the seminal event in American Folk Music history. The author mainly uses Bob Dylan's personal interviews and songs to draw conclusions.

Mf167.1 Edward D. “Sandy” Ives Collection: Research, Special Collections, Raymond H. Fogler Library, University Of Maine

Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History Finding Aids

This collection consists of interviews conducted by Sandy Ives on Prince Edward Island between 1969 and 1970, as part of his work to document the folk songs of Prince Edward Island, specifically the songs “made by” Joe Scott, Larry Doyle, and Larry Gorman. Material included in this collection served as source material for Ives’ later publications, Lawrence Doyle: The Farmer-Poet of Prince Edward Island (1971); Larry Gorman: The Man Who Made the Songs (1977); Joe Scott: The Woodman Songmaker (1978); and Drive Dull Care Away: Folksongs from Prince Edward Island (1999). This collection includes recordings of interviews conducted as well …

Photograph Of Disassembled Mountain Dulcimer

Images

Black and white photograph of the pieces of a disassembled mountain dulcimer lain out on backdrop with the book, "Four & Twenty: Songs for the Mountain Dulcimer" propped in the background.

Photograph Of Dulcimer

Images

This is a black and white photograph of a dulcimer belonging to Lynn McSpadden.

Williams, Michael Ann (Fa 459), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid and interview transcriptions for Folklife Archives Project 459. Interviews related to Sarah Gertrude Knott and the National Folk Festival conducted by Michael Ann Williams and Hillary Glatt as part of a joint project for the Kentucky Oral History Commission and Western Kentucky University. The audio interviews did not come with this collection. Interview transcriptions may be accessed by clicking on the "Download" button to the right and then clicking on the hyperlinks in the finding aid.

Williams, Michael Ann - Collector (Mss 691), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 691. Research material, including news clippings, promotional material, interviews, reports and miscellaneous printed items related to John Lair and the operations and performers at Renfro Valley, Kentucky. Collected by Michael Ann Williams for a book she wrote about Lair and Sarah Gertrude Knott.

Teaching The Narod To Listen: Nadezhda Briusova And Mass Music Education In Revolutionary Russia, Annika K. Krafcik

Honors Papers

Nadezhda Briusova (1881-1951) was a pianist, music theorist, teacher, government worker, conservatory administrator, and journalist, who was instrumental in shaping mass music education in Moscow before and after the October Revolution of 1917. She believed that music was made up of two fundamental elements of being – movement and feeling – and argued that because its language was so elemental to the human experience, music was for everyone. She dedicated her life to teaching her students how to listen to and talk about music.

In my thesis, I analyze how Briusova’s mass music education programs created continuity across the revolutionary …

Mf017 F.O.L.K. (Focus On Local Knowledge) Collection, Special Collections, Raymond H. Fogler Library, University Of Maine

Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History Finding Aids

Collection consists of video tapes (150 hours approx.) produced by Don DePoy, founder of F. O. L. K., Inc. (Focus On Local Knowledge) "a nonprofit Maine based corporation dedicated to the performance and preservation of traditional music." Tapes contain raw footage and edited masters for a series of TV programs titled "Mainely Bluegrass" broadcast on Maine Public Television in 1996. Footage features music groups taped at the Breakneck Mountain Bluegrass Festival in Crawford, Maine (1994) and the Blistered Fingers Bluegrass Festival in Sydney, Maine (1995).

Artists include Evergreen, the Stevens Family, Sassygrass, Bluegrass Supply Company, the Gibson Brothers, the Sandy …

Mf145 Jeffrey “Smokey” Mckeen Collection, Special Collections, Raymond H. Fogler Library, University Of Maine

Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History Finding Aids

The original donation, which focuses on country music in Maine, was added to the archive in the summer of 2006. The focus was expended to music in Maine generally as well as storytelling (especially about Herbert F. Jackson) and jokes when other interviews were added by McKeen.

Fifteen accessions comprise the collection, which include Hal Lone Pine radio shows and oral interviews. These materials were gathered and donated by Jeff “Smokey” McKeen. The interviews were conducted by McKeen with country musicians and listeners in the 1990s to the present. Several other accessions outside of this collection are related to McKeen, …

Mf039 Traditional Music Of Maine Project Collection, Special Collections, Raymond H. Fogler Library, University Of Maine

Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History Finding Aids

Field recordings made primarily by Jeffrey “Smokey” Mckeen for use in developing a series of radio programs devoted to traditional music in Maine. The collection includes 37 cassette recordings of interviews with 44 individuals in addition to performances. The programs were later packaged and released by the Maine Folklife Center as a series of four cassettes entitled “Traditional Music of Maine, Vols. 1-4.”

Traditional Music of Maine celebrates the musical legacies of a variety of Maine folk communities by exploring their cultural and historical significance through oral history interviews with musicians and other community members. The tapes introduce …

Mf180 Woods Music Collection, Special Collections, Raymond H. Fogler Library, University Of Maine

Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History Finding Aids

An assembled collection of accessions containing songs from or about the lumberwoods. Some are the written version, some are sung.

A Different Master Of War: The Influence Of The Folk Music Revival On The Antiwar Movement During The Vietnam Era, Isabelle Gillibrand

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

Although the folk revival diminished as the United States entered the height of the Vietnam War, it lived on through antiwar activists. Music historians note how folk music was one of the early sparks of antiwar sentiment during the Vietnam era. This research builds on the ideas of previous scholars by analyzing the evolution of folk music from the 1930s to 1960s, how the folk revival's young audience connected to the music, and the influence the folk revival later had during the rise of the Vietnam antiwar movement. The antiwar sentiment expressed in the folk revival carried into antiwar activism, …

Her People And Her History: How Camille Lucie Nickerson Inspired The Preservation Of Creole Folk Music And Culture, 1888-1982, Shelby N. Loyacano

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Over the twentieth century, Camille Lucie Nickerson excelled in her multi-faceted career as an educator, musician, and interpreter for the advancement of musical education for generations of black students in New Orleans and at Howard University in Washington D.C. Nickerson devoted herself to furthering her musical education through private instruction with her father, Professor William J. Nickerson. She then graduated with a diploma from Southern University and with a B.A. and M.A. in music from Oberlin College. Nickerson’s leadership in musical associations on a local and national level enhanced her ability to reach audiences of all ages through her performances. …

Enduring Music: Migrant Appalachian Communities And The Shenandoah National Park, Madeline Marsh

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This paper is an archival study of the displaced children of families formerly living in the Shenandoah National Park which spans from Strasburg to Waynesboro, Virginia. The study looks at interviews, from the JMU Special Collections archives, of these children in the 1970-80s, nearly fifty years after their forced migration from the 197,438 acres that comprised the park. Change and pressure during the 1930s-40s combined with national policy began the nostalgic preservation and veneration of the culture of these people of the Blue Ridge Mountains; through the archives, a clear and diverse picture of the perspectives and lifestyles of people …

From Woody Guthrie To The Big Muddy: The Evolution Of Political Music In America From World War I To The Late 1960s, Alexander B. Kouwenhoven

Honors Theses

Throughout the course of American history, music has served as a vital cultural mode for the expression and articulation of the collective American experience. Perhaps the most iconic connection between music and politics in American history occurred during the 1960s in the era of the counterculture and the Vietnam War. During this period, rock ‘n’ roll musicians became the figureheads for the Anti-War campaign and represented the political objectives of the New Left. However, the iconic status of these political musicians did not arise in a vacuum. These musicians, and their political importance in America can trace its origins to …

Arkansas Folk Music Lesson Plan

Lesson plans

This lesson plan will introduce students to Arkansas folk music and three of its pioneers, Almeda Riddle, Jimmy Driftwood, and Patsy Montana. Through primary source analysis of recordings and sheet music students will identify characteristics of folk music, compare folk music to other styles of music, discuss the significance of the song, and consider the social and historical context of the lyrics.

This lesson plan was produced for 6^th grade, 7^th grade, 8^th grade, 9^th grade, 10^th grade, 11^th grade, and 12^th grade students, but may be altered by teachers to fit other …

Rosenbaum, Michael Owen, B. 1972 (Sc 853), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 853. Narrative essay written by Michael Owen Rosenbaum, based on his father Mark Rosenbaum’s account of attendance at the Woodstock Festival in Bethel, New York, 16 August 1969, written for a Western Kentucky University United States history class, November 1990.

Authors Correspondence (Mss 337), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid for Manuscripts Collection 337. Correspondence between authors and researchers and staff of the Kentucky Library & Museum, primarily regarding historical and genealogical resources. Correspondents also write about their work and publications.

Chamberlain, William W. (Sc 1492), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 1492. "Folk Music in the Kentucky Barrens," a thesis (268 p.) prepared by Chamberlain at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. Discusses folk music traditions and ballads common to south central Kentucky.

Mellie Dunham: A Remembrance Norway Maine Summer Festival, July 2003, David Sanderson

Maine History Documents

The story of Mellie Dunham continues to fascinate, even some seventy-five years after the events. The tale of the 72-year-old country fiddler invited to play for Henry Ford, made famous by the media, then hugely successful as a vaudeville performer, seems almost too perfect to be true. But it all happened, and it was Mellie’s own grace and lack of pretense, a genuineness that inspired the public’s affection for him, that was as much as anything else responsible for the events of 1925 and 1926.

This booklet was created to mark Mellie’s 150th birthday, July 29, 2003. We call it …

Fall/Winter 2000, Wmpg 90.9 Fm

WMPG Program Guides

WMPG program guide for Fall/Winter 2000

Includes notes from Program Director, information on shows and events, and schedule.

Spring 1998, Wmpg 90.9 Fm

WMPG Program Guides

WMPG program guide for Spring 1998

Includes notes from Program Director, information on shows and events, and schedule.

Fall 1997, Wmpg 90.9

WMPG Program Guides

WMPG program guide for Fall 1997

Includes notes from Program Director, information on shows and events, and schedule.

"How Got The Apples In?" Individual Creativity And Ballad Tradition, Edward D. Ives

Dr. Edward D. Ives Papers

Way back in the beginning of things, almost a hundred years ago, Francis Barton Gummere not only wrote as good a description of the ballad as we've got, he also asked a crucial if rather enigmatic question, and that question-probably partly because it was enigmatic to the point of being gnomic-caught my attention when I first read it almost half a century after it had been written: "How got the apples in?" It turns out he was quoting a humorous poem by John Wolcott (aka "Peter Pindar") in which King James, looking at an old woman's dumplings, wondered "How the …

Interview With Joe Hickerson Regarding Sarah Gertrude Knott (Fa 459), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Oral Histories

Transcription of an interview with Joe Hickerson at the Library of Congress regarding Sarah Gertrude Knott and the National Folk Festival. Also includes discussions about folk music, folk musicians, and the National Council for the Traditional Arts.

Interview With Don And Priscilla Urner Regarding Sarah Gertrude Knott (Fa 459), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Oral Histories

Transcription of interview with Don and Priscilla Urner conducted by Michael Ann Williams in 1995 about Sarah Gertrude Knott. Williams was a Folk Studies professor at Western Kentucky University. She used these interviews when writing her book: Staging Tradition: John Lair and Sarah Gertrude Knott (Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 2006).