Calin Coburn Collection of Bob Nolan Materials, 1920s-2000s

Collection Number: 20529

Collection Title: Calin Coburn Collection of Bob Nolan Materials, 1920s-2000s

This collection has access restrictions. For details, please see the restrictions.

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the Duplication Policy section for more information.

Expand/collapse Collection Overview

Size	5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 1095 items)
Abstract	The collection of Calin Coburn documents the performance career of his grandfather, the western singer-songwriter and film actor Bob Nolan, who was leader of the musical group Sons of the Pioneers and author of western song classics including "Tumblin' Tumbleweeds" and "Cool Water." Collection materials include promotional photographs, family photographs, posters for western movies, Sons of the Pioneer song catalog with lyrics sheets, sheet music, volumes of Bob Nolan materials compiled by Coburn and Elizabeth Drake McDonald, periodicals and newsletters, copyright documents, and slight, scattered correspondence. The collection also contains audiovisual materials consisting of live performances, demos, studio recordings, test pressings, movie clips and soundtracks, and award ceremony tributes and appearances.
Creator	Coburn, Calin.
Curatorial Unit	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Folklife Collection.
Language	English

Expand/collapse Information For Users

Restrictions to Access: Use of audio or video 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

Restrictions to Use: No usage restrictions.

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 Calin Coburn Collection of Bob Nolan Materials #20529, Southern Folklife Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information: Received from Calin Coburn in December 2016 (Acc. 102637).

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.

Expand/collapse Processing Information

Processed by: Laura Hart and Anne Wells, March 2017

Encoded by: Laura Hart and Anne Wells, March 2017

Expand/collapse Subject Headings

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.

Expand/collapse Related Collections

Expand/collapse Biographical Information

The collector Calin Coburn of Las Vegas, Nev., is the grandson of western songwriter Bob Nolan. Nolan was born 1 April 1908 in Point Hatfield, New Brunswick, Canada. He was a founding member of the musical group Sons of the Pioneers, a country western singer-songwriter, the award winning composer of an extensive catalog of western songs such as the classic standards "Tumblin' Tumbleweeds" and "Cool Water," and a film actor who appeared in more than 80 Hollywood western films during the 1930s and 1940s. Nolan died in 1980.

Expand/collapse Scope and Content

Collection materials include promotional photographs, family photographs, posters for western movies, Sons of the Pioneer song catalog with lyrics sheets, sheet music, volumes of Bob Nolan materials compiled by Coburn and Elizabeth Drake McDonald, periodicals and newsletters, copyright documents, and slight, scattered correspondence. The collection also contains audiovisual materials consisting of live performances, demos, studio recordings, test pressings, movie clips and soundtracks, and award ceremony tributes and appearances. Audio recordings are on audiocassette, 1/4" open reel audio, instantaneous disc, and Waveform Audio File (.wav) format, while video recordings are on VHS.

Contents list

Expand/collapse Collection of Bob Nolan Materials

Processing Information: Papers, printed materials, photographs, and digital objects have been placed in folders for use in the reading room and the Carolina Digital Repository. The materials have not been analyzed, arranged, or fully described.

Box 1

Sons of the Pioneers song catalog with lyrics

Song titles A-O. Includes an index.

Box 2

Sons of the Pioneers song catalog with lyrics

Song titles P-Z. Box also contains other loose sets of lyrics and sheet music.

Digital Folder DF-20529/18

Digitized covers of song folios, 1934-1940 and undated

24 image files (.jpg)

Box 3-4

Box 3

Box 4

Bob Nolan, compilations of lyrics, sheet music, and poems

Volumes compiled by Elizabeth Drake McDonald and Calin Coburn.

Digital Folder DF-20529/20

Guide to the material on Bob Nolan

3 Microsoft Word (.doc) files

Guide to the scans, music CDs and videos from Calin Coburn and Elizabeth Drake McDonald.

Box 5-6

Box 5

Box 6

Periodicals and newsletters

Issues and short runs. Titles include Sons of the Pioneers Historical Society Journal, Pioneer News, Song of the West, JEMF Quarterly, The Round-up, Pioneer News, Western Music Advocate, Country Music News, Country Sounds, Tumbleweed Times, and The Society (Sons of the Pioneers Historical Society). Also included are material pertaining to Nolan's posthumous induction into the New Brunswick Country Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Box 7

Correspondence and other papers

Correspondence is slight, but does include letters received and written by Pearl, Ione, and Bobbie between 1929 and 1936. The correspondent Pearl is likely Nolan's first wife. Other papers include copies of liner notes, newspaper clippings, Sons of the Pioneers ephemera, a small personal account book (1939), a signed guest book from "A Western Musical Evening Under the Starts Sunday July 27, 1980 at the Diamond X Ranch...to honor Bob Nolan," a typescript titled "Bobbie's Dictionary" with words and definitions, as well as papers found with select analog audio recordings, including tape logs, handwritten track listings, and ephemera.

Box 8

Copyright and royalties documents

Oversize Paper Folder OPF-20529/1

Small movie posters and other papers

Other papers include New Brunswick Country Music Hall of Fame items, a 1941 issue of Tumbleweed Topics, a sheet of lyrics with guitar chord changes for an unidentified song, and original record sleeves for select instantaneous discs found in the collection (FD-20529/9, FD-20529/11 and FD-20529/18).

Image Box IB-20529/1

Photographs

Black-and-white prints

Chiefly promotional images and stills from Hollywood movies. Some personal and family photographs included.

Image Box IB-20529/2

Photographs

Black-and-white prints

Color prints

Chiefly promotional images and stills from Hollywood movies. Some personal and family photographs included. Also included and filed together are images from two photograph albums, which were disassembled for preservation of the photographs.

Digital Folder DF-20529/5

Images and audio for slide show.

Digital Folder DF-20529/1

SFC Audio Cassette FS-20529/31

Rex Allen Jr., "Riders in the Sky"

Audiocassette

SFC Audio Cassette FS-20529/1

John Barrett presents Sundance, Las Vegas, Nev.

Audiocassette

Published by John Barrett

SFC Audio Cassette FS-20529/2

SFC Audio Cassette FS-20529/5

Bob Nolan

Audiocassette

SFC Audio Cassette FS-20529/6

Bob Nolan, Sons of the Pioneers, Republic Pictures movie soundtracks

Audiocassette

SFC Audio Cassette FS-20529/7

Bob Nolan, "My Mistress, The Desert," 8 June 1980; KLAC Tribute; Bob Nolan and the Reinsmen at Bob Wagoner's, Bishop, Calif., 1978-1989. master

Audiocassette

Published by KLAC

SFC Audio Cassette FS-20529/8

Bob Nolan, "My Mistress, The Desert," 8 June 1980; KLAC Tribute; Bob Nolan and the Reinsmen at Bob Wagoner's, Bishop, Calif., 1978-1989

Audiocassette

Published by KLAC

SFC Audio Cassette FS-20529/9

Bob Nolan, "My Mistress, The Desert," 8 June 1980; KLAC Tribute; Bob Nolan and the Reinsmen at Bob Wagoner's, Bishop, Calif., 1978-1989

Audiocassette

Published by KLAC

SFC Audio Cassette FS-20529/10

Bob Nolan, "My Mistress, The Desert," 8 June 1980; KLAC Tribute; Bob Nolan and the Reinsmen at Bob Wagoner's, Bishop, Calif., 1978-1989

Audiocassette

Published by KLAC

SFC Audio Cassette FS-20529/11

Bob Nolan, "My Mistress, The Desert," 8 June 1980; Hall of Fame Awards

Audiocassette

SFC Audio Cassette FS-20529/12

Bob Nolan, "My Mistress, The Desert," 8 June 1980; "The Sound of a Pioneer"; demo tracks and songs by Rex Allen Jr., Jim Nabors, and Sons of the Pioneers

Audiocassette

SFC Audio Cassette FS-20529/13

Bob Nolan, "My Mistress, The Desert," 8 June 1980; "The Sound of a Pioneer"; demo tracks and songs by Rex Allen Jr., Jim Nabors, and Sons of the Pioneers

Audiocassette

SFC Audio Cassette FS-20529/14

SFC Audio Cassette FS-20529/32

Roy Rogers and Sons of the Pioneers, The Republic Pictures Years

Audiocassette

SFC Audio Cassette FS-20529/33

Roy Rogers and Sons of the Pioneers, The Republic Pictures Years; Bob Nolan, "Till You Return"; The Sons of the Pioneers sing the songs of Bob Nolan

Audiocassette

SFC Audio Cassette FS-20529/34

Singing Cowboys Ride Again

Audiocassette

SFC Audio Cassette FS-20529/35

Sons of the Pioneers, early Decca recording sessions, Los Angeles, Calif., 8 August 1934

Audiocassette

Published by Decca

SFC Audio Cassette FS-20529/36

Published by KLAC and 570 Metromedia Radio

Instantaneous Disc FD-20529/1

Instantaneous Disc FD-20529/10

Pecos Bill, two takes

12" Instantaneous Disc

Instantaneous Disc FD-20529/11

Jack Elliott, "Springtime in the Sierras"; [unidentified performer], "What Are We Gonna Do Then?"

12" Instantaneous Disc

Processing information: original record sleeve for FD-20529/11 is located in OPF-20529/1.

Instantaneous Disc FD-20529/12

[unidentified sound recording]

12" Instantaneous Disc

Instantaneous Disc FD-20529/13

Stuart Hamblen, "Texas Plains"

10" Instantaneous Disc

Published by Bob Ross Music Service

Instantaneous Disc FD-20529/14

Bob Nolan, "A Broken Heart," "Waltz"

10" Instantaneous Disc

Instantaneous Disc FD-20529/15

Bob Nolan, "Covered Wagon," "High Sierras"

10" Instantaneous Disc

Published by Eccles Recordings Inc.

Instantaneous Disc FD-20529/16

Bob Nolan, "Daddy's on the Rainbow"

10" Instantaneous Disc

Published by Eccles Recordings Inc. and Hill and Range Songs, Inc.

Instantaneous Disc FD-20529/17

Bob Nolan, "Frontiers"

10" Instantaneous Disc

Instantaneous Disc FD-20529/18

Bob Nolan, "Have You?"

10" Instantaneous Disc

Published by Eccles Recordings Inc.

Processing information: original record sleeve for FD-20529/18 is located in OPF-20529/1.

Instantaneous Disc FD-20529/19

Bob Nolan, "If You Are Willing"

10" Instantaneous Disc

Published by Eccles Recordings Inc.

Instantaneous Disc FD-20529/20

Bob Nolan, "Let Me Share Your Name," 7 December 1949

10" Instantaneous Disc

Published by Hill and Range Songs, Inc. Songs, Inc.

Instantaneous Disc FD-20529/21

Bob Nolan, "Little Spaceman"

10" Instantaneous Disc

Instantaneous Disc FD-20529/22

Bob Nolan, My Heart in Deep Despair

10" Instantaneous Disc

Published by Eccles Recordings Inc.

Instantaneous Disc FD-20529/23

Bob Nolan, "My Love's a Voice in the Green Willow Tree"

10" Instantaneous Disc

Published by Eccles Recordings Inc.

Instantaneous Disc FD-20529/24

Instantaneous Disc FD-20529/27

Bob Nolan, "Three Guesses"

10" Instantaneous Disc

Published by Eccles Recordings Inc. and Hill and Range Songs, Inc.

Instantaneous Disc FD-20529/28

Bob Nolan, "Vagabond Whirlwinds"

10" Instantaneous Disc

Instantaneous Disc FD-20529/29

Bob Nolan, "Volvere a Pasar Por Aqui"

10" Instantaneous Disc

Published by Eccles Recordings Inc. and Hill and Range Songs, Inc.

Instantaneous Disc FD-20529/30

Bob Nolan, "What Can We Lose? "

10" Instantaneous Disc

Published by Eccles Recordings Inc. and Hill and Range Songs, Inc.

Instantaneous Disc FD-20529/31

Bob Nolan, "The Wonder of It All"

10" Instantaneous Disc

Published by Eccles Recordings Inc. and Hill and Range Songs, Inc.

Instantaneous Disc FD-20529/32

Bob Nolan, "The Wonder of It All"

10" Instantaneous Disc

Published by Eccles Recordings Inc. and Hill and Range Songs, Inc.

Instantaneous Disc FD-20529/33

Bob Nolan and Ivan Lehrer, "Love Evergreen"

10" Instantaneous Disc

Published by Eccles Recordings Inc. and Hill and Range Songs, Inc.

Instantaneous Disc FD-20529/34

Instantaneous Disc FD-20529/37

Instantaneous Disc FD-20529/41

"Stray Wind"

10" Instantaneous Disc

Published by Hill and Range Songs, Inc.

Instantaneous Disc FD-20529/42

"That Old Outlaw, Time," 1975

10" Instantaneous Disc

Published by Peso Music

Instantaneous Disc FD-20529/43

Instantaneous Disc FD-20529/47

"Tumbling Tumbleweeds"

7" Instantaneous Disc

Published by Intersong Music

Videotape VT-20529/1

Expand/collapse Items Separated

Image boxes (IB-20529/1 through IB-20529/2)
Oversize paper (OPF-20529/1)
Audiocassettes (FS-20529/1 through FS-20529/41)
Audiotape (FT-20529/1)
Instantaneous Discs (FD-20529/1 through FD-20529/47)
Videotape (VT-20529/1 through VT-20529/5)

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Collection Number: 20529 Collection Title: Calin Coburn Collection of Bob Nolan Materials, 1920s-2000s

Expand/collapse Collection Overview

Expand/collapse Information For Users

Expand/collapse Processing Information

Expand/collapse Subject Headings

Expand/collapse Related Collections

Expand/collapse Biographical Information

Expand/collapse Scope and Content

Contents list

Expand/collapse Collection of Bob Nolan Materials

Box 3

Box 4

Box 5

Box 6

Expand/collapse Items Separated

Collection Number: 20529

Collection Title: Calin Coburn Collection of Bob Nolan Materials, 1920s-2000s