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This collection has use restrictions. For details, please see the restrictions.
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the FAQ section for more information.
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Collection Overview
| Size | 25.0 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 13,300 items) |
| Abstract | Musician, music producer, author, and collector Bob Carlin was born in New York City in 1953. He has authored several books on southern music traditions, African American music, string bands, shape note singing, Primitive Baptist music, banjo music, and other topics, many having to do with the western Piedmont of North Carolina. He has also produced many recordings, including African American Note Choirs of Alexander County, North Carolina (2002). The collection includes sound recordings, research files, photographs, and other materials relating to Carlin's work. Sound recordings are interviews and recording sessions from Carlin's many projects and collections assembled by Tom Lowery, Fred Olson, and Olin Berrier that Carlin has preserved. There are also recordings of interviews and concerts that Carlin produced, 1977-1989, for WHYY in Philadelphia and for National Public Radio. Research files document musicians such as Gurney Peace, Glenn Davis, George Pegram, Kirk Sutphin, Olin Berrier, James Roy Arnold, Ruth Glee Arnold, Worth Winslow, the Spencer Brothers, Larry Davis, and others. Images are chiefly photocopies of original tintypes and photographs of performers including John C. Bray, George Pegram, and Marvin Gaster. There are also several posters, newspaper advertisements, and album covers. |
| Creator | Carlin, Bob. |
| Language | English. |
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Information For Users
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Subject Headings
The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
These and related materials may be found under the following headings in online catalogs.
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Related Collections
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Biographical Information
Bob Carlin, musician, music producer, author, and collector, was born in New York City in 1953 to Vivian Fruchtbaum and Benson Carlin. Carlin's mother organized square and folk dances, and his family visited museums and attended concerts including a Pete Seeger concert in New York City. Carlin's family had a collection of folk records, his father played guitar, his mother played piano, and Bob took piano lessons. Eventually, he and his father took banjo lessons together.
The Carlin family later moved to Princeton, N.J., where Marge Seeger led an active folk music society and Roy Bookbinder was Bob Carlin's camp counselor. At this time, Carlin dabbled in radio and was on a small ten-watt radio station playing folk records. In college, Bob continued his interest in radio and began collecting hard-to-find releases and researching the history of songs. He began working with WHYY Radio in the mid 1970s and produced shows for "Fresh Air," which later was nationally syndicated. He steadily performed solo and in bands such as the Millstone Valley Boys and later with the Delaware Water Gap.
Carlin's inspiration for collecting music, performing, and making records came from mentors Roy Bookbinder, Pete Seeger, Henry Sapoznik, Charles Wolfe, and Guthrie T. Meade. Carlin has authored several books, including Southern Exposure: The Story of Southern Music in Pictures and Words , American Musical Traditions , Black Music of Two Worlds, and String Bands in the North Carolina Piedmont.
Carlin has been awarded grants for many of his research projects. The first in 1988 was funded by the North Carolina Arts Council for the Alamance County museum to research local music and produce a festival. In a project entitled "Musical Change in the Western Piedmont," friend and fellow musician Paul Brown helped Carlin work with Olin Berrier, who had a recording machine and knew a number of area players. The Olin family owned about 100 acetate discs and 25-30 reel-to-reel tapes.
Carlin has produced over 50 recordings. He has worked on projects that spotlight old time and roots musicians including Nolan and Dot Johnson, the Spencer Brothers, Larry Davis, and Marvin Gaster. In 2002, he produced a CD of Primitive Baptist shape-note singing entitled, African American Note Choirs of Alexander County, North Carolina. Throughout the development of these projects, Carlin researched and interviewed the musicians and/or their family members.
Bob Carlin plays guitar and is a skilled performer on banjo, adept at the many styles of banjo picking, most notably the claw hammer technique found in southwestern Virginia and northwestern North Carolina. He is married to potter Rachel Smith. They live in Lexington, N.C., with their son Benjamin.
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Scope and Content
The Bob Carlin collection includes sound recordings, research files, photographs, and other materials. Sound recordings consist of interviews and recording sessions from a variety of projects including African American Note Choirs of Alexander County, North Carolina ; Musical Change in the Western Piedmont; the North Carolina Piedmont Banjo Project; a cassette produced by Rounder Records called Uncle Henry's Favorites; and WHYY radio broadcasts. Also included are collections assembled by Tom Lowery, Fred Olson, and Olin Berrier that Carlin has preserved.
Radio programs contain interviews and live concerts that Carlin recorded and produced, 1977-1989, for WHYY public radio in Philadelphia and for National Public Radio. Programs such as "Country Boy Rock 'n Roll" and "Our Musical Heritage" were produced for various programs including "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross.
Interviews and songs recorded for Musical Change in the Western Piedmont , a project funded by the North Carolina Humanities Council and sponsored by Davidson County Community College, are included with a video recording of the concert celebration. This project was developed to document the musical changes in string band music in a six-county Piedmont area. Transcriptions for most of the interviews are available.
Research files contain notes documenting musicians such as Gurney Peace, Glenn Davis and family, George Pegram, and Kirk Sutphin; copies of clippings chiefly from North Carolinia newspapers dating to the mid-1800s; and interview notes and other information used in String Bands in the North Carolina Piedmont and other projects. There are also notes relating to many of the recordings. These include remarks on production and interview notes and transcripts of Carlin's interviews with Olin Berrier's children Leonard Berrier and Bernice Smith, James Roy Arnold, Ruth Glee Arnold, Worth Winslow, and others.
There are also color photocopies of original tintypes and photographs, among them one of John C. Bray with his violin; photographs of George Pegram with other musicians at a tent show; and negatives and photographs relating to Marvin Gaster. Oversize material includes the Full Circle Band's promotion poster; a Gurney Thomas and his Hillbilly Pals radio jamboree poster; newspaper advertisements from High Point, N.C.; and the cover for Glenn Thompson's album Country Songs I Love to Sing.
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Series Quick Links
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Series 1. Recordings, 1940-2002 .
Interviews and sound recordings collected by Bob Carlin for a variety of projects and radio programs including African American Note Choirs of Alexander County , Musical Change in the Western Piedmont; the North Carolina Piedmont Banjo Project; a cassette produced by Rounder Records called Uncle Henry's Favorites; WHYY radio broadcasts; and Pre-Bluegrass Banjo, an unreleased LP produced by Carlin for Kicking Mule Records. Notes, ephemera and interview transcriptions are available for many of the recordings.
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Subseries 1.1. Bob Carlin Recordings.