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Posted by: John Fenn
This guest post is by Melanie Zeck, one of our Reference Specialists at the American Folklife Center. As the stage door opened, blindingly bright lights struck my eyes. I strode over to the piano, sensing that the audience was following my every move. At that moment, I realized that no one—not even the orchestra members …
Posted in: Folk Music
Posted by: Nicole Saylor
In this post, Nicole Saylor, Director of the American Folklife Center (AFC) at the Library of Congress, reviews the AFC's 2023 accomplishments.
Posted in: AFC Events, AFC History
Posted by: Stephen Winick
Filed away in the archives of the American Folklife Center is a little piece of radio history in the form of an oral history interview and eleven black and white photographs. The subject of the interview is Burgess Hall, who began playing music with his siblings around the age of eight. In the 1930s, Burgess and several of his friends began performing music at shows in West Virginia and Kentucky. During their three-year stint as the Burgess Hall String Band, they were invited to play several shows in Wheeling, West Virginia, including radio shows "Wheeling Jamboree" and "It's Wheeling Steel." In this guest blog post, AFC folklife specialist Meg Nicholas describes the collection, shows us some of the photos, and reveals a touching connection to her own family.
Posted in: Folk Music
Posted by: Megan Harris
The following is a guest post by Bob Patrick, former director of the Veterans History Project. As the Director of the Veterans History Project, I had many, many occasions to make presentations about VHP. I spoke at national conferences, on radio and TV, community events and ceremonies, educational institutions, Veterans’ gatherings and at numerous Library …
Posted in: Millennials, Oral History, Veterans History Project
Posted by: Stephen Winick
Welcome back to Homegrown Plus! We're continuing the series with a concert and interview featuring Grammy Award winning American Roots artists Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer together with accomplished Chinese classical hammered dulcimer player Chao Tian. The trio's repertoire includes traditional Chinese and Appalachian music as well as contemporary and traditional music from around the world. They use instruments that include yangqin (Chinese hammered dulcimer), gourd banjo, five-string banjo, ukulele, guitars, dumbek, cello-banjo and mandolin, employing them in unusual combinations to create exciting new arrangements of old music. Cathy and Marcy join Chao in singing Chinese songs, and Chao easily adds her love of American Old-Time music to fiddle tunes and songs. As usual with Homegrown Plus blogs, you'll find the concert video, an interview video, and a wealth of links to related collections and concerts, all right here in this blog post.
Posted in: Asian American History, Bluegrass, Concerts with Archive Challenge Content, Homegrown Concert Series, Homegrown Plus, Old Time Music