Browse Items (23 total)

"Broadcast of some of the fourth annual White Top Fiddlers' Convention (sic), John Blakemore master of cermonies

"The present text was collected June 28, 1936 by Richard Chase and Annabel Morris Buchanan from Mrs. Maud Gentry Long, Hot Springs, North Carolina." [Southern Folk Ballads, vol. II, p 119-120]

Charles Seeger and Ruth Crawford Seeger, his second wife, traveled through Western North Carolina in the 20s and 30s, playing to entertain themselves and others but also listening and learning from local musicians.

Festival-goers participating in a folk dance

Folklorist and musician Lamar Bascom Lunsford (1888-1973) was the creative force behind The Asheville Mountain Dance and Folk Festival. Started in 1927 as the the "Rhododendron Festival" it is thought to be the first "Folk Festival."

"The festival thrived. In 1932 an estimated 6,000 people were present on the second day. At the opening in 1933, there were 800 folk musicians and 10,000 people were expected. Many rare tunes and ballads had been heard during the two previous…

Largely overshadowed by the presence of John Powell and later Richard Chase, Annabel Morris Buchanan was the animating spirit of the White Top Folk Festival.
"Nationwide publicity about the White Top Folk Festival in newspapers and magazines helped…

"[T]he history of the White Top Folk festival cannot be understood apart from the conflicted personal and working relationship between John Powell and Annabel Morris Buchanan. To Buchanan, Powell was at once teacher, role model, co-worker,…

"News that Mrs. Roosevelt might attend galvanized the White Top festival planners. Blakemore widened the roads and had an architect design a rustic festival pavilion.The Lester brothers of nearby Glade Spring cut the shingles, erected the building,…

"The idea to invite Eleanor Roosevelt to the festival came from the event's founder and director, Annabel Morris Buchanan...
"In February 1933 she wrote to the soon-to-be first lady: 'I think you and President Roosevelt might find the mountain, with…