Web Links and Selected Readings
RELATED TO ALAN LOMAXAssociation for Cultural Equity-- New York City's Hunter College. An organization chartered in 1983 "to preserve, study, and disseminate folk performance traditions from around the world, and to oversee Alan Lomax’s collected works and recordings. ACE serves audiences through a virtual archive of media holdings on the internet; a large catalog of publications; and through assistance to researchers, media projects, and members of the public." "The Association for Cultural Equity was founded by Alan Lomax as a repository of the world’s expressive traditions. In line with the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, [its] work is based on the premise that primary cultural documents sustain societal morale and serve as key resources for all kinds of communities dealing with change and globalization." The ACE website introduces Alan Lomax's life and accomplishments with photographs, essays by and about Lomax, bibliographies, discographies, and other information.
"An Appeal for Cultural Equity" -- A seminal statement by Alan Lomax (From the Program of the Festival of American Folklife, edited by Thomas Vennum, Jr., Smithsonian Institution, 1985. First published in World of Music, XIV [2] 1972).
The Alan Lomax Collection--Link to the complete Alan Lomax Collection housed at the American Folklife Center in the Library of Congress. The collection includes more than 5,000 hours of sound recordings, 400,000 feet of motion picture film, 2,450 videotapes, 2,000 scholarly books and journals, hundreds of photographic prints and negatives, several databases concerning portions of the archive, and over 120 linear feet of manuscript such as correspondence, fieldnotes, research files, program scripts, indexes, and book and article manuscripts.
"Toward an Ethnographic Film Archive" --Writings from Lomax's choreometric studies (1971).
Rounder Records —The Alan Lomax Collection—a complete assemblage of Lomax’s international field recordings from 1930s-1960s—is available for purchase on Rounder Records.
RELATED TO THEMES IN APPALACHIAN JOURNEY
MUSIC
Bascom, Louise Rand. “Ballads and Songs of Western North Carolina,” Journal of American Folklore, XXII (1909).
Cecil Sharp's Collection of English Folk Songs, Oxford University Press, 1974.
English folk songs from the southern Appalachians, collected by Cecil J. Sharp; comprising two hundred and seventy-four songs and ballads with nine hundred and sixty-eight tunes, including thirty-nine tunes contributed by Olive Dame Campbell, edited by Maud Karpeles. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1932.
Conway, Cecelia. African Banjo Echoes in Appalachia: A Study of Folk Traditions.Knoxville: U. Tennessee Press:1995.
Johnson, Guy B. John Henry, Tracking Down a Negro Legend. Chapel Hill: UNC Press: 1929.
Lawless, Ray M. Folksingers and Folksongs in America. New York: 1960.
Lomax, Alan. Cantometrics: A Method of Musical Anthropology. Audio-cassettes and handbook. University of California Media Extension Center, Berkeley, 1977.
Lomax, Alan. Folk Song Style and Culture. With contributions by the Cantometrics Staff; Conrad Arensberg, Edwin E. Erickson, Victor Grauer, Norman Berkowitz, Irmgard Bartenieff, Forrestine Paulay, Joan Halifax, Barbara Ayres, Norman N. Markel, Roswell Rudd, Monika Vizedom, Fred Peng, Roger Wescott, David Brown. Colonial Press Inc, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington D.C., Publication no. 88, 1st Printing 1968, 2nd Printing 1971, Cloth, 363 pp. Transaction Books New Brunswick, NJ and London (UK), 1st Printing 1978, 2nd Printing 1994, Paperback, 363 pp.
Lomax, Alan and Sidney R. Crowell. American Folksong and Folklore: A Regional BibliographyScholarly Press, June 1942, Cloth, reprint edition. Reprint Services, January 1942, library binding, 62 pp.
Lomax, John A. and Alan Lomax. American Ballads and Folk Songs. The Macmillan Company, New York, 1st Printing 1934, Cloth, 625 pp. Limited edition of 500 numbered and signed copies 1934, 2nd Printing 1934, 9th Printing 1947, 14th Printing 1957, 16th Printing 1960, 19th Printing 1965, 20th Printing 1966, 21st Printing 1967. Reprint Services Corp, December 1952, Cloth. ISBN: 9994494341 Dover Publications, New York, 1994, Paperback, 672 pp.
Lomax, John A. and Alan Lomax. Our Singing Country: A Second Volume of American Ballads and Folk Songs. The Macmillan Company, New York, 1941, Cloth, 416 pp.
Lomax, John A. and Alan Lomax. Our Singing Country: Folk Songs and Ballads Dover Publications, February 2000, 464 pp, unabridged paperback edition.
Lomax, John A. and Alan Lomax. Folk Song: USADuell, Sloan and Pierce, New York, 1946. 2nd Edition 1947. Old Gold/Signet, New York, 1956, Paperback, 512 pp. Signet Classics/New American Library, New York, 1966, Paperback, 512 pp. Plume Books, 1975, Paperback, 528 pp. Republished as Best Loved American Folk Songs, Grossest and Dunlap, New York, 1947, Cloth, 407 pp.
“A Brief History of Blue Ridge Music” -- written by Joseph Wilson and Wayne Martin and published in The Blue Ridge Music Trails guidebook (UNC Press, 2003). Provides a nice overview of the past, present and future of Appalachian music traditions.
Madison County Project — A 2005 video and research project being carried out by folklorists Rob Roberts and Martha King. Madison County Project examines the tradition of unaccompanied ballad singing in Madison County, North Carolina and how the works of documentary filmmakers, photographers, and academics have influenced that tradition. The story unfolds through the historical works of John Cohen, Rob Amberg, and Harvey Wang as well as the voices of today’s ballad singers such as Sheila Kay Adams, Donna Ray Norton, Denise Norton O’Sullivan, and DeeDee Norton Buckner.
Introduction to Folk Music as listed on Wikipedia.
STORYTELLING (i.e., Jack Tales)
Davis, Donald. Jack Always Seeks His Fortune: Authentic Appalachian Jack Tales. Little Rock: Augusta House, 1992.
Jack in Two Worlds: Contemporary North American Tales & Their Tellers. Ed., William Bernard McCarthy, Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 1994.
Lindahl, Carl. “Jacks: The Name, The Tales, The American Traditions,” In Jack in Two Worlds: Contemporary North American Tales & Their Tellers. Ed., William Bernard McCarthy, Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 1994: xiii-xxxiv.
_____. “Jack, My Father, and Uncle Ray: Frank Proffitt, Jr.,” Jack in Two Worlds: Contemporary North American Tales & Their Tellers. Ed., William Bernard McCarthy, Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 1994: 27-55.
Sobol, Joseph Daniel. “Jack in the Raw: Ray Hicks,” Jack in Two Worlds: Contemporary North American Tales & Their Tellers. Ed., William Bernard McCarthy, Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 1994: 3-26.
“A Uniquely American Hero: Jack and His Place in the Folktale Tradition” --Several web pages by Virginia Tech student Susan Tillotson, summarizing research on the history of folktales and Jack Tales, with several original drawings by Jasper A. Harris III. Includes “Who is Jack?” and “What are Jack Tales?.”
DANCE TRADITIONS
Talking Feet Mike Seeger’s film “Talking Feet” is the first documentary to feature flatfoot, buck, hoedown, and rural tap dancing, the styles of solo Southern dancing which are a companion to traditional old-time music and on which modern clog dancing is based. Featuring 24 traditional dancers videotaped on location in West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia, and North Carolina. This film project grew into the 1992 book Talking Feet: Solo Southern Dance of the Appalachian, Piedmont and Blue Ridge Mountain Regions, by Mike Seeger with notes by Ruth Pershing.
Jamison, Phil. “Mountain Legacy: A Celebration of Southern Appalachian Dance & Music,” Old-Time Herald, vol. 6, no. 3.
Smith, Frank H., and Rolf E. Hovey. The Appalachian Square Dance. Berea, Kentucky: Berea College, 1955.
Spalding, Susan Eike, and Jane Harris Woodside. Communities in Motion: dance, community, and tradition in America's Southeast and beyond. Greenwood Press, 1995.
DIALECT
Annotated Bibliography on Appalachian English--based on James B. McMillan and Michael B. Montgomery, Annotated Bibliography of Southern American English. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1989.
GENDER
Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Gender in Appalachia
APPALACHIAN HISTORY & CULTURE
Appalachian Studies Selected Bibliography--An extensive reading list of books and articles addressing issues related to Appalachian Studies.
CHEROKEE HISTORY & HERITAGE
History of the Cherokee--Comprehensive site “designed and maintained by Ken Martin, a Cherokee of mixed-blood and a tribal member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.” The site includes history, images and maps, genealogy, books and newspapers, and related links.
History and Culture--Official site of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Includes the history of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and information on the Museum of the Cherokee Indian, the “Unto These Hills” outdoor drama, the historic Oconaluftee Village, and the Qualla Arts & Crafts Mutual.
Cherokee Heritage Trails-- This website provides a framework of the Cherokee Heritage Trails Guidebook (UNC Press, 2003), which includes descriptions of sites and events on the trails, words from Cherokee people, photographs, and maps. The website and guidebook both feature many color photographs, maps, directions, and all sorts of helpful information for the traveler or reader who wishes to learn more about Cherokee life, past and present, in the mountains of North Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia.
GENERAL APPALACHIAN FOLKLORE RESOURCES
AppLit-- a website containing Resources for Readers and Teachers of Appalachian Literature for Children and Young Adults. AppLit’s resources include bibliographies, study guides, lesson plans, author pages, texts of previously unpublished folktales, original stories and poems, articles on Appalachian literature and related topics, and links to other Internet resources, as well as regional photos; background on illustrators, dramatists, and filmmakers; and illustrations, including drawings by school children based on their experiences with Appalachian literature and drama.
The Blue Ridge Institute and Museum at Ferrum College, Ferrum, VA. Website contains online folklife exhibits and information on the BRI's farm museum, archives, October folklife festival, Music Trails, and other resources.
The North Carolina Folklore Society "Founded in 1913, the North Carolina Folklore Society promotes the appreciation and study of North Carolina's folklife. In its early years, members guided by Frank C. Brown of Duke University collected songs, stories, customs, and superstitions for The Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore, the most extensive collection of a state's folklore. In 1948 Society Secretary-Treasurer Arthur Palmer Hudson of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill began a state folklore journal now in its fifty-fourth volume."
Augusta Heritage Center--The Augusta Heritage Center of Davis & Elkins College in Elkins, West Virginia is dedicated to making traditional music, crafts, dancing and folklore available to visitors and residents alike. Since 1973, thousands of people of all ages, from all 50 states and many foreign countries have found their way to this picturesque mountain town. Here, on the campus of Davis & Elkins College, they learn, share and enjoy this interesting and valuable heritage.
Center for Appalachian Studies at East Tennessee State University. The Center for Appalachian Studies and Services at East Tennessee State University is a hub of scholarly, educational, public service, and artistic projects addressing the needs and interests of the Appalachian region.
H-Appalachia--a Appalachian History and Studies E-Mail Discussion Group. H-Appalachia is devoted to the discussion of issues relating to the life and culture, both past and present, of the Appalachian region of the United States. Through the list, subscribers and editors communicate current research and research interests; discuss new articles, books, papers, methods and tools of analysis. Discussion Threads and message logs of H-Appalachia may be accessed from this site. A Directory listing of participating members is available for consultation.
