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ROOTS OF
AMERICAN COUNTRY MUSIC I have
collected ‘rural recordings’ for many years . From their lyrics
Inoticed their structure betrayed an earlier provenance. In many cases
they had evolved into American ballads, their origin long forgotten. Many
ballads surfaced during the 1920’s on early recordings originated from rural
Appalachia and had been preserved orally in the hills. Another influence was
that of urban recordings purchased by rural people from mail order
catalogues containing Victorian or tin Pan Alley era songs. For those
who enjoy history and listening to recorded music. This presentation is
to contribute to the understanding of how , where and when these
ballads and songs originated and how they evolved .This book is the result of
over 34 years of personal research, which due to career restraints I was
unable to complete until now. It has been an interesting journey, in and out
of rural Barns, innumerable junk shops, during vacation ‘stops’ in
Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, Alabama, Indiana, Tennessee , North
Carolina and Appalachian Ohio, and locally. My own compilations of
handwritten ( later typed discographies) and my
personal record collection has assisted me to collate this
information into some semblance of order. It has been an
interesting journey. |