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Posted by: Stephen Winick
Every day this week at noon Eastern time, you can listen to, and sing along with, a respected musician performing a song from the American Folklife Center archive at the Library of Congress. That’s because this week, the American Folklife Center is working with the Daily Antidote of Song, a daily online concert and singalong …
Posted in: Archive Challenge
Posted by: Stephen Winick
In the Homegrown Plus series, we present Homegrown concerts that also had accompanying oral history interviews, placing both together in an easy-to-find blog post. (Find the whole series here!) I’m very happy to continue the series with The Murphy Beds, which is the duo of Eamon O’Leary and Jefferson Hamer. The Murphy Beds present traditional and original folk songs with close …
Posted in: Celtic Music, Homegrown Concert Series, Homegrown Plus, Irish American History, Irish Americans
Posted by: Nicole Saylor
This is a guest post by archivist Maya Lerman, who completed processing on the John Cohen collection. Maya has written for the blog about her work on this collection previously, and another of our staff, Todd Harvey, offered a recollection of Cohen’s rich body of documentation upon his passing last year. Musician, visual artist, writer, …
Posted in: Archival Practice, Bluegrass, Folk Music, John Cohen, Old Time Music
Posted by: Nicole Saylor
This is a guest post by archivist Maya Lerman. We’re pleased to announce that the finding aid for the National Council for the Traditional Arts (NCTA) collection is now online. The collection includes broad documentation from the National Folk Festival, the Lowell Folk Festival, and other major cultural events. Its acquisition marks a significant expansion …
Posted in: Archival Practice, Folk Music
Posted by: Michelle Stefano
On January 29th, the AFC launched the Live! In the Archive concert series, where artists are invited to perform selections from the Center’s collections live in its reading room. The first artists featured in this new concert series were Lone Piñon. The video of their Live! In the Archive concert is embedded in this blog post, which also contains an interview with Jordan Wax and Tanya Nuñez of Lone Piñon.
Posted in: AFC Events, Archive Challenge, Concerts with Archive Challenge Content, Hispanic American History, Homegrown Concert Series, Homegrown Plus, Live in the Archive, Old Time Music
Posted by: Stephen Winick
This guest post by AFC archivist Maya Lerman is part of a series of posts called Staff Finds During Difficult Times, in which staff members discuss collections and items that have been inspiring them while they are working at home during the covid-19 pandemic or in other difficult circumstances. Maya discusses her work on the John Cohen collection and the Blue Ridge Parkway Folklife Project Collection. The blog includes embedded old-time music and interviews with John Cohen and Tommy Jarrell.
Posted in: Folk Music, John Cohen, Old Time Music, Staff Finds During Difficult Times
Posted by: Stephen Winick
This guest post by Jennifer Cutting is part of a series of blog posts highlighting performances by contemporary artists at special “Archive Challenge” showcase stages, both at the Folk Alliance International conference, and at the Library of Congress as part of the Homegrown concert series. (Find all entries in the series here!) In both of …
Posted in: Archive Challenge, Bluegrass
Posted by: Stephen Winick
Episode 16 of the Folklife Today Podcast (or Season 2, Episode 4) is ready for listening! Find it at this page on the Library’s website, or on itunes, or with your usual podcatcher. Get Your Podcast Here! We’re also happy to announce that we’re now available on Stitcher as well–use this link here! In the episode, …