When Southern Folklife Collection curator, Steve Weiss, suggested we highlight the Jack Bernhardt Papers (20061) on Field Trip South I happily offered to write the post. I’m not proud to say that conversation was over two months ago. Every time I began to research the collection, I fell down one rabbit hole after another. Should the focus be on the in-depth fieldwork and oral histories with regional gospel bluegrass band Jimmy and Tammy Sullivan?  Or Bernhardt’s excellent documentation of old-time music, with a list of recordings that include performances and interviews with some of Appalachia’s most remarkable musicians and folklorists recorded in the 1980s: Alice Gerrard, Andy Cahan, Matokie Slaughter, Ernest East, Cece Conway, Rafe Brady, Alan Jabbour, Tommy Thompson, Bill Hicks, Nimrod Workman and more. Bernhardt collected hours of interviews and recorded hours of vibrant musical performances, including many informal jam sessions, taking the listener directly into the living room of North Carolina’s legendary musicians like Tommy Jarrell and Bertie Dickens. Each of these recordings deserves consideration, and we welcome you to visit Wilson Library to listen, however it’s Bernhardt’s collection of interviews largely made in his role as critic of contemporary country music that I have been most drawn to.

An addition of 131 tapes in July 2012 to the Bernhardt collection provide a unique perspective on the landscape of country and bluegrass music in the decades straddling the turn of the century. From 1986 to 2011, Bernhardt interviewed variety of contemporary country musicians and composers. Artists include Trace Adkins, Sam Bush, Guy Clark, Susanna Clark, Vassar Clements, J.D. Crowe, Jerry Douglas, Vince Gill, John Hartford, Alan Jackson, Naomi Judd, Alison Krauss, Doyle Lawson, Charlie Louvin, Patty Loveless, Loretta Lynn, Jimmy Martin, Kathy Mattea, Martina McBride, Del McCoury, Reba McEntire, Ricky Scaggs, Earl Scruggs, the Steep Canyon Rangers, Rhonda Vincent, and Gretchen Wilson. With the assistance of SFC research assistant Laura McPherson, we have picked out a few of our favorites and over the next few days we’ll share highlights here on Field Trip South.

We’ll start with The First Lady of Country Music, the legendary Loretta Lynn.  Bernhardt’s interview of Lynn, call number FS-12132, was conducted on 20 April 2001. Bernhardt is a warm conversationalist, however he is also a pointed and professional interviewer, asking pointed and probing questions touching on the broad scope of Lynn’s life and career.  The pair kick off the interview with a frank discussion about politics and reflections on the beginnings of the Iraq War, sounding like two old friends meeting over coffee before switching over to music. Bernhardt and LynnListen as Lynn surveys American country music, frustrated with the industry push to either “go back to sitting on heybales” or going all out pop:

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Later, Lynn’s ever-present charm and humble appreciation is on full display when describing one of her most memorable moments receiving an achievement award in Washington D. C. in the late 1980s.  Ed Asner was the MC. 

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Bernhardt’s questions inspire Lynn to reflect on the her early recording career, touching on the sexism and chauvinism of the Nashville scene and Lynn’s opposition to it from the start:

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We’ll leave you with a great soundbite of Lynn talking about her role as a pioneer artist, paving the way for women in country music. Recounting an interview her daughter gave where the younger Lynn exclaimed “Momma didn’t open the doors, she kicked them down!”

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Check back in with Field Trip South for more from the Jack Bernhardt Papers including interviews with John Hartford, Townes van Zandt, and Gordon Stoker from the Jordanaires.

Country music legend George Jones died Friday in Nashville at the age of 81. Few artists have lived as hard as a character in a country song as The Possum. Born and raised in Texas, George Glenn Jones grew up with the roughnecks, cowboys, and lonely hearts of the East Texas oil-fields that populated the honky-tonk bars of Beaumont where Jones first made his mark.

In tribute to old Possum, we pulled out his first single recorded in 1954 for Pappy Daily’s Starday Records, the classic “No Money In this Deal,” Southern Folklife Collection call number 78-12324. Listen to that guitar intro (and what kind of name is “Loyce”?):

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Jones’s incomparable knack for phrasing and brilliant vocal slides are already on full display. We listened to it three times in a row because it’s just so darn good. For me, however, it’s the b-side, “You’re In My Heart,” that made me a lifelong fan so many years ago. Play this one and let it sink in deep. The next time you are confronted with turmoils of the heart, ask yourself, what would George Jones do? Rest in peace, George Jones.

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The SFC has recently cataloged over 1,000 CDs from Europe and Argentina, mostly re-issues of songs recorded during the 1930s-1940s. This means we are now one of the world’s largest repositories of recordings by:  Nazi-era singing sextets, British and German dance orchestras, French accordion virtuosi, and mid-century tango ensembles. Put into perspective, this includes 38 albums by Argentinean guitarist Oscar Alemán, 33 albums featuring the German singing troupe the Comedian Harmonists, and 25 albums featuring the French accordion master Will Glahé.

Last week we stumbled upon an anomaly among these historical reissues: a sampler from the Swiss label West Side Studios containing a rare track by the Swiss country group Monday Morning.

West Side Studios sampler

Monday Morning was, of course, fronted by vocalist and steel guitar wizard Helmut Schoeni, who sounds almost authentically Oklahoma-born in this cover of “Tulsa Straight Ahead.”

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Schoeni may be best known for his solo album Countreeeeeeeee Music (1999) or for his duo-album with Joe Schwach A New Tropical Breeze: Counga Infection (2003). “Tulsa Straight Ahead” gives us a perhaps wider glimpse into his musical range–and especially the ease with which he is able to approximate a “boogie” feeling. We are proud to now be able to provide access to this track, as well as to the other Swiss country gems featured on the West Side Studios sampler (CD-10421).

Track listing for West Side Studios sampler

The great Herb Remington joined up with Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys his first day out of the armed Services in 1946. He auditioned in a hotel room in Los Angeles and immediately started a four-year stint with the Playboys during one one of their most productive periods. It’s no easy feat to walk into a job once held by Leon McAuliffe, but Remington brought his own style to the gig and made it his own with numbers like “Boot Heel Drag” and the tune featured here, “Remington Ride.” Listen to Remington’s classic track from Pure Remington Steel, call number FC-16229, recorded in Houston, Texas for the Stoneway label in 1973. We love the “wah” effect on Remington’s steel at the end of the track. 

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Even better, Texas legends Bob White and Clyde Brewer twin fiddle on this track. Get more steel guitar this weekend at the Southern Folklife Collection Steel Guitar Concert and Symposium. More info here.

Tickets are still available for the last symposium and concert in the Southern Folklife Collection Instrument Series. The symposium is free to the public. The concert is $15 in advance or $19 at the door. More information below. We hope to see you Saturday.  

Southern Folklife Collection Presents “The Steel Guitar”
March 23, 2013
The ArtsCenter
300-G East Main Street, Carrboro
Ticket information: (919) 929-2787, ext. 201

Steel guitar music will be the focus of a concert and symposium at The ArtsCenter in Carrboro, N.C. The Southern Folklife Collection in UNC’s Wilson Special Collections Library will sponsor the event on Saturday, March 23.

The symposium will begin at 2 p.m. with lectures by music scholars John Troutman, assistant professor of history and geography at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and Tim Miller, a Ph.D. student in musicology at UNC. At 3 p.m., steel guitar artists Allyn Love and Cindy Cashdollar will demonstrate playing styles and techniques.

That evening, a concert at 8 p.m. will feature Chris Scruggs and His Steel Guitar, followed by Cindy Cashdollar with Bill Kirchen and Too Much Fun.

The symposium is free and open to the public. Concert tickets are required for the evening performances. Admission is $8 for ArtsCenter Friends and UNC students and employees, and $15 for others ($19 day of show).

The event is the third and final symposium/concert in the Southern Folklife Collection’s Instrument Series, which also featured tributes to the banjo and the fiddle. To learn more about the series, contact Liza Terll, liza_terll@unc.edu, (919) 548-1203.