Jerry Casstevens Collection Inventory (#20275)

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Manuscripts Department, Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Collection Information
block Descriptive Summary Including Abstract
block Administrative Information
block Online Catalog Terms
block Biographical Note
block Collection Overview
block Organization of Collection
plus Series Descriptions
block Items Separated
Contact Information:
Manuscripts Department
CB#3926, Wilson Library
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC 27514-8890
Phone: 919/962-1345
Fax: 919/962-3594
Email: mss@email.unc.edu
URL: http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/
Processed by
Amy Davis
Date Completed
April 2001
Encoded by
Amy Davis
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Descriptive Summary Including Abstract

Title
Jerry Casstevens Collection (#20275) 1950-1997
Creator
Casstevens, Jerry, 1933-1990.
Extent
36 items (0.1 linear feet)
Repository
Southern Folklife Collection
Abstract
Yadkin County native Jerry Casstevens was a regionally well-known bluegrass banjo player who performed mostly in Yadkin, Surry, Wilkes, and neighboring counties of North Carolina and Virginia. Casstevens mastered many styles of music on the banjo, but preferred to play bluegrass. During his 40-year musical career, Casstevens won or placed in many contests, including Union Grove and Galax fiddlers' conventions. He led many different groups, but the Bluegrass Masters, with his son Mike Casstevens, was perhaps the best known. The collection includes materials relating to the Jerry Casstevens's musical career compiled in 1997 by his wife, Frances Casstevens. Included is Frances's biography of Jerry; a paper by high school student Freddie Mock, who interviewed Casstevens in 1981; and 32 photographs, news clippings, and fliers documenting Jerry's career. Included is a 1975 Tobacco Road Mountain Music Festival poster from Ronda, N.C. There is also an audio recording of the Bluegrass Masters, with live performances, 1975-1988, recorded at area fiddlers' conventions, theaters, and clubs. The tape was compiled and released by Frances Casstevens in 1996. Notes detailing recording information are included.
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Administrative Information

Access
No restrictions.
Usage Restrictions
Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Provenance
Received from Frances Casstevens of Yadkinville, N.C., September 1997 (Acc. 97174).
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Online Catalog Terms

Banjo music--North Carolina.
Bluegrass Masters.
Bluegrass music.
Casstevens, Jerry, 1933-1990.
Folk music--North Carolina--Yadkin County.
Musicians--North Carolina.
Yadkin County (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
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Biographical Note

Jerry Casstevens (1933-1990), from Yadkin County, N.C., was a regionally well-known bluegrass banjo player who performed mostly in Yadkin, Surry, Wilkes, and neighboring counties of North Carolina and Virginia. While growing up, Casstevens played guitar for square dances with local old-time musicians and then learned to play banjo after hearing Earl Scruggs in the 1950s. An adept musician, Casstevens mastered many styles of music on the banjo, but preferred bluegrass.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Casstevens won or placed in many contests he entered, including Union Grove and Galax fiddlers' conventions, and appeared on several LPs recorded at those festivals. Casstevens led many different groups during his career, but the Bluegrass Masters, with his son Mike Casstevens, was perhaps his best known and most widely touring group.

Casstevens died in 1990. An annual Jerry Casstevens Memorial Bluegrass Festival has been held in Yadkinville, N.C., since 1995.

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Collection Overview

Materials relating to the career of musician Jerry Casstevens, a banjo player from Yadkinville, N.C. His wife, Frances Casstevens, who wrote a history of Yadkin County, compiled the material in 1997. Included is Frances's biography of Jerry; a paper by high school student Freddie Mock, who interviewed Casstevens in 1981; and 32 photographs, news clippings, and fliers documenting the Jerry's career. Included is a 1975 Tobacco Road Mountain Music Festival poster from Ronda, N.C. There is also an audio recording of Jerry Casstevens's band, the Bluegrass Masters, with live performances, 1975-1988, recorded at area fiddlers' conventions, theaters, and clubs. The tape was compiled and released by Frances Casstevens in 1996. Notes detailing recording information are also included.

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Organization of Collection

1. Biographical Materials
2. Audio Recording
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Series Descriptions

1. Biographical Materials, 1950-1997.

34 items.
Materials relating to the career of musician Jerry Casstevens (1933-1990), a banjo player from Yadkinville, N.C. His wife, Frances Casstevens, who wrote a history of Yadkin County, compiled the material in 1997. Included is Frances's biography of Jerry; a paper by high school student Freddie Mock, who interviewed Casstevens in 1981; and 32 photographs, news clippings, and fliers documenting the Jerry's career. Included is a 1975 Tobacco Road Mountain Music Festival poster from Ronda, N.C.
   Folder 1
Biographies by Frances Casstevens and Freddie Mock
   Folder 2
Documentation of Casstevens's career, with index
   Folder 3
Festival materials

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2. Audio recording, 1996.

2 items.
Audio recording of Jerry Casstevens's band, the Bluegrass Masters, with live performances, 1975-1988, recorded at area fiddlers' conventions, theaters, and clubs. The tape was compiled and released by Frances Casstevens in 1996. Notes detailing recording information are also included.
FS-5547 The Bluegrass Masters, The Best in Bluegrass. Star Recording, C-8807. 1996.

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Items Separated

Items separated include one audio recording (FS-5547), notes to the recording (SFC Field Notes vertical files), and one poster (OP-20275/1).