Restrictions to Access

Use of audio or moving image materials may require production of listening or viewing copies.

Access to streaming audio or moving image materials may be restricted to researchers who can authenticate with an ONYEN or who are physically present on campus. For further information about access to streaming audiovisual materials, contact Research and Instructional Services staff at Wilsonlibrary@unc.edu

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 Bobby McMillon Collection #20007, Southern Folklife Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Bobby McMillon.

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.

Processed by: Elizabeth Matson, June 2003

Encoded by: Elizabeth Matson, July 2003

Updated by: Alison Waldenberg, August 2006; Anne Wells, February 2017; Nancy Kaiser, February 2021; Anne Wells, April 2021.

Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.

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.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Appalachian Region, Southern--Civilization.
• Appalachian Region, Southern--History.
• Appalachian Region, Southern--Social life and customs.
• Appalachian Region, Southern--Songs and music.
• Ballads, English--North Carolina.
• Carter, Janette.
• Country music.
• Country musicians.
• Ellison, Rolf.
• Ellison, W. T.
• Family--North Carolina--Social life and customs.
• Folk music.
• Folk songs.
• Folklore.
• Gilbert, Wade.
• Hopson, Isaac.
• Hopson, Lounette.
• Lenoir (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
• Lenoir (N.C.)--Songs and music.
• McMillon, Bobby.
• Music--North Carolina.
• Musicians--North Carolina.
• North Carolina--Social life and customs.
• North Carolina--Songs and music.
• Phillips, Mae.
• Schilling, Jean.
• Schilling, Lee.
• Shape note singing--North Carolina.
• Silver, Frankie.
• Storytelling--North Carolina.

• Ken Kenkel Collection (#20082)

Bobby McMillon was born 20 December 1951 in Lenoir, N.C. He developed an early appreciation for the traditional stories, ballads, and religious songs performed by his grandparents and other older relatives in the southern Appalachian region and started learning them as a child. He has performed professionally since 1978 as a traditional ballad singer, musician, and storyteller. As a performer, he is best known for his ballad and story renditions about Frankie Silver, to whom he is distantly related. He received a North Carolina Folk Heritage Award in 2000. In addition to continuing the tradition with his own performances, McMillon has collected interviews with and songs and stories from family members, neighbors, and friends since 1968 when he earned his first RCA sound recording machine in his late teens.

The collection of white traditional ballad singer, musician, and storyteller Bobby McMillon of Lenoir, N.C., consists primarily of audiovisual materials created or collected by McMillon, including audio and video recordings of Bobby McMillon in performance, documentary audio recordings compiled by McMillon, and acetate discs of the 50th annual Hollow Springs Shape Note Singing Convention. The collection also contains paper materials, McMillon family photographs, and field notes, or supporting documentation, that correspond to the audiovisual materials found in the collection. Paper materials include the song folio, Cowboy Loye Presents 20 Famous Heart Songs, and photocopies of the handwritten text, "Ballads, Love Songs, Meeting House Songs, Verses and Others." Audiovisual recordings are on 1/4" open reel audio, Digital Audio Tape (DAT), and VHS.

• Song folio (FL-811)
• Acetate Discs (FD-20007/606-608)
• Audio Tapes (FT-20007/1239-1244, FT-20007/11182-11215, FT-20007/11217-11229)
• Digital Audio Tapes (DAT-20007/1-11)
• Videotape (VT-20007/1)