Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the George H. Fehr Collection #20060, Southern Folklife Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from the D. K. Wilgus, date unknown.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

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.

• 49ers (Musical group)
• Cowboys--Songs and music.
• Critchlow, Slim.
• Fehr, George H.
• Musicians--Utah.
• Old-time music.
• Oral history.
• Salt Lake City (Utah)--Social life and customs.
• West (U.S.)--Songs and music.

In 1928, George "Hen" Fehr organized the 49ers, the first of several musical outfits that he would come to lead throughout the ensuing decade. A full-time optician, Fehr initially pursued music on the side as a means of supplementing his family income. A versatile musician, Fehr sang and played a number of instruments including the mandolin, guitar, banjo, harmonica, and Jew's harp. By advertising in the newspaper for local guitar, accordion, and violin players in Salt Lake City, Fehr assembled a group of musicians to perform popular old-time music. While most of the members played music by ear and lacked formal musical training, Fehr read music and was primarily responsible for collecting and arranging the group's material. In the beginning, the group's live appearances consisted mainly of small private parties. As the group's experience grew and the act expanded, so too did the group's reputation, and the musicians quickly found themselves local radio favorites, performing weekly on Salt Lake City radio stations KDYL and KSL.

Among the groups with which Fehr performed, the 49ers, the Old Country Store, the 79ers, and the Utah Buckaroos each achieved considerable notoriety, reaching radio audiences throughout the west, to listeners as far away as Montana, California, and even Hawaii. Through the various group incarnations, two members besides Fehr remained fixtures, Eugene Turner and Slim Critchlow. In addition to the radio shows, Fehr's groups performed in a number of live settings including small parties, dances, church functions, and public gatherings across the state of Utah until popular music tastes changed and old-time and cowboy music fell out of style.

The collection of musician George N. Fehr consists chiefly of music and musical group memorabilia. Included are handwritten music arrangements and typed lyric sheets of popular old-time music, cowboy music, and western music materials. The music and lyric sheets were transcribed by group leaders George H. Fehr and Slim Critchlow from old recordings. Also included are some pages of sheet music and pieces torn from song books, song clippings cut from newspapers, fragments of musical pieces, and folios. The group memorabilia include primarily of fan letters, set and song lists, newspaper clippings, photographs of band members, and transcriptions of oral histories done by Fehr's wife and Critchlow during the 1960s.

Though now reorganized, notes written on the outside of the collection's original folders labeled the materials by categories: ballads, hoedowns, and fast numbers (schottische, polka, etc.), novelties (comic songs, yodels, etc.), cowboy songs and train wreck songs, and musical numbers (waltzes, marches, etc.)