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Archive: January 2023 (5 Posts)

Woman playing a banjo onstage

Caught My Ear: The Pineconers Live at Albert Hall, 1983!

Posted by: John Fenn

Every so often I dive into our online collections in search of interesting fieldwork materials to share, especially anything from the large-scale field surveys that the Center facilitated from the late 1970s on through the mid- 1990s (visit an interactive Story Map about these projects). Just the other day I visited the Pinelands Folklife Project collection, used the faceted search options to pull together all audio files also tagged as “songs” and started listening. One particular 32-minute field recording caught my ear, so I’ve shared it in full in this blog.

Promotional graphic for the Community Collections Grants program showing nine photos representing each of the 2023 recipients and their projects

Announcing the AFC’s 2023 Community Collections Grant Recipients

Posted by: Michelle Stefano

The American Folklife Center is excited to announce the 2023 recipient cohort of the Community Collections Grants program. Over this year, recipients will undertake cultural research and documentation projects focused on a wide range of cultural traditions and practices across the U.S. and territories. Their work will ultimately be included in the Library’s permanent collections, …

Cover of a folk festival program pictures a musician, a dancer, and a man on horseback with the words: Frontier Folklife Festival 1982, a free festival highlighting the music and crafts of the American West

Missouri Friends of Folk Arts Collection Comes to AFC

Posted by: Stephen Winick

The American Folklife Center is delighted to announce the acquisition of the Missouri Friends of the Folk Arts collection from Julia Olin and Barry Bergey. The collection includes concert recordings of iconic blues and old time musicians like Henry Townsend and Robert Jr. Lockwood; festival performances from the Frontier Folk Festival; fiddling traditions from Ozark and Midwestern regions; and traditional arts documentation from around the state of Missouri. Communities documented include the French speaking towns around Old Mines, Native American communities, and several Spanish speaking communities. Bergey and Olin wrote this blog post to introduce the collection to researchers at the American Folklife Center.

Head and shoulders view of six men, the members of Alilo

Live! At the Library: Alilo’s Vocal Harmonies from Georgia

Posted by: Stephen Winick

Way back in 2022, after the Homegrown Plus Premiere series from the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress was over, we managed to squeeze one more concert into the Homegrown 2022 season. With support from The Embassy of Georgia and The America-Georgia Business Council, we held a live a cappella holiday concert in the Coolidge Auditorium of the Library of Congress. The group was Alilo, a well known professional vocal ensemble from (you guessed it!) the country of Georgia. This blog presents the concert video, along with photos and links to more Georgian content.

A person stands outdoors in front of a stone wall, holding a fiddle.

AFC Kicks off Homegrown 2023 with Jake Blount February 23

Posted by: Stephen Winick

The American Folklife Center is kicking off the 2023 Homegrown concert series with a solo performance by banjo player, fiddler, and singer Jake Blount, an award-winning musician and scholar of African American musical traditions. Blount draws on historical sources for his music, including field recordings in the AFC archive. Blount's performance will be part of Live! at the Library and the Black History Month celebrations at the Library of Congress, and is presented in cooperation with the Folklore Society of Greater Washington. The concert is at 6:00 pm in the Members Room (LJ 162) in the historic Thomas Jefferson Building.