Berea Sound Archives: Browse Research Guides

Browse all the research guides developed by the Archives staff and the Berea Sound Archives Fellows.

• A Perfect Wild Flower and the Straightjacket of Lines and Spaces

  Essay by Harry Rice, Sound Archivist, Special Collections & Archives, Hutchins Library

• African American Fiddlers Profiles

  Profiles and featured recordings of African American fiddlers from the Berea College Celebration of Traditional Music identified by 2006 Sound Archives Fellow Ajay Kalra.

• Alan Jabbour's Kentucky Fiddle Tune Transcriptions

  Alan Jabbour, Sound Archive Fellow in 2007-2008, transcriptions of selected fiddle tune with original source recordings

• Appalachian Ballads Research (McMillion)

  Bobby McMillion used Berea folklore and music collections to search out the Kentucky connections to ballads and stories he has collected in North Carolina from persons who had family members living in eastern Kentucky.

• Appalachian Folklore in the Music Classroom

  Susan Mills, Berea Sound Archives Fellow, focused on the development of Appalachian music teaching resources for elementary and middle school music classes that meet state and national music education standards.

• Banjo Music by Kentucky County

  A useful perspective from which to explore a large portion of the Berea Sound Archives banjo music recordings.

• Berea's Rhythm and Roots

  An online companion to the "Berea's Rhythm & Roots" exhibit in Hutchins Library.

• Bill Williams: A Kentucky Songster

  A profile and archival audio of Bill Williams of Greenup, Kentucky. Bill was a retired railroad worker who performed for all walks of the local society for nearly 50 years. by John H. Bondurant

• Children in Appalachia

  Mary Ruth Isaacs, Berea Sound Fellow, was specifically interested in folktales and ballads that pertained to children and families in Appalachia.

• Ernie Carpenter and Melvin Wine, West Virginia Fiddling Traditions

  Eric Strother, 2008 Berea Sound Archives Fellow, provides analysis and transcriptions of fiddle tunes by West Virginia fiddlers Ernie Carpenter and Melvin Wine.

• Erynn Marshall Fiddle Tune Transcriptions

  Selected fiddle tune transcriptions with original source recordings.

• Fiddle Tunes by Kentucky County

  A useful perspective from which to explore a large portion of Berea Sound Archive fiddle recordings, are the three broad regional traditions identified by Jeff Titon in Old-Time Kentucky Fiddle Tunes .

• Folk and Music Festivals

  The Berea Sound Archives collections document audio recordings of folk and music festivals directed at celebrating and preserving traditional vernacular American culture. They also promote newer tradition-based forms, such as Bluegrass, newgrass, and cont

• Jim Smoak: A "Hidden Figure" of American Banjo Music

  A collection and oral history of 3-finger style bluegrass banjo player Jim Smoak by 2013 Appalachian Sound Archive Fellow Joe O'Connell.

• John "Uncle Homer" Walker

  Profiles and recordings of the African American banjo player by 2006 Sound Archives Fellow Ajay Kalra.

• John Harrod Oral History Interview (Audio Links Under Repair)

  Interviews conducted and transcribed by Scott Prouty, 2012 Berea Appalachian Sound Archives Fellow.

• Kentucky Banjo Traditions: Neal "Pop" Collins

  Northeastern Kentucky banjo player, Ruben Cornelius Collins 1891-1980 is one of the many older generation Appalachian musicians documented in Hutchins Library's sound recordings collections. They are included in the collection that documents his son, Ruey

• Kentucky Folktales - Revealing Stories, Truths, and Outright Lies

  Berea Sound Fellow, Mary Hamilton's book of Kentucky folktales retold.

• Kentucky Old-Time Fiddler: Hiram Stamper

  Hiram Stamper (1893-1992) is one of the many older generation Kentucky fiddlers documented in Hutchins Library's sound recordings collections.

• Monday Night At Renfro Valley

Monday Night at Renfro Valley is the least well known of John Lair’s Kentucky based radio programs, probably because it was on the air only from August 1940 through April 1941.

• North Carolina Banjo Traditions: J. Roy Stalcup

  Western North Carolina banjo player, J. Roy Stalcup (1903-1990) is one of the many older generation Appalachian musicians documented in Hutchins Library's sound recordings collections. Text edited by Harry Rice from Lee Knight’s articles.

• On the Beauty of Collections

  Brian Harnetty (Appalachian Sound Archives Fellow 2006) focused on identifying and analyzing traditional music for incorporation in a large-scale multiple media work entitled 'american winter.'

• Radio and 1940's Recording Ban

  Marina Peterson, an anthropologist and Assistant Professor of Performance Studies in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts at Ohio University, focused her Berea Sound Fellowship research on the 1940s musician's union recording bans.

• Square Dancing in the Kentucky Foothills

• The Berea Tune Lists: an archival resource for the study of social music in Eastern Kentucky and East Tennessee in 1915

  Former Appalachian Center archivist Steve Green's article on the lists of fiddle tunes and banjo music collected from Berea College students by English Professor John F. Smith in 1915.

• The Spirit of Man Goeth Upward: A 2012 Sound Archives Fellowship Project

  Research by Laura S. McKee, Berea Sound Archives Fellow, regrading how WW-II era radio and personal histories have shaped the development of "From the Diary of Eve", a narrative series of poems set in Southern Appalachia.

• Tradition, Race, and Gender in the Celebration of Traditional Music

  Appalachian Sound Archives Fellow Deborah Thompson focused on the ways race and gender are represented in Appalachian music, particularly in the context of such events as Berea's Celebration of Traditional Music.

• Using Folktales As A Teaching Resource

  The primary focus of Cassie Patterson's Berea Sound Fellow work was the audio recordings in Berea‟s Leonard Roberts Collection that documented his use of folktales as a teaching resource.