Timeline extended for launch of Wilson Library facilities work.

Collection Number: 20030-z

Collection Title: Tom Carter and Chuck Rupert Oysler Collection, 1973

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.


Archival processing of the Tom Carter and Chuck Rupert Oysler Collection was made possible through a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Collection Overview

Size 4 items
Abstract The Tom Carter and Chuck Rupert Oysler Collection consists of field recordings, 1973, of Willie Trice (1910-1976), an American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter, and record producer from North Carolina. The two recordings, which were made by Tom Carter and Chuck Rupert Oysler in Orange County, N.C., feature Willie Trice on guitar and vocals, as well as in conversation. The collection also contains corresponding documentation, or tape logs, created by former SFC staff members.
Creator Carter, Thomas, 1949-

Oysler, Rupert.
Curatorial Unit University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Folklife Collection.
Language English
Back to Top

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Information For Users

Restrictions to Access
Use of audio materials may require production of listening copies.
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 Tom Carter and Chuck Rupert Oysler Collection #20030-z, Southern Folklife Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Acquisitions Information
Acquisitions information unknown (Acc. 103027).
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.
Back to Top

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Processing Information

Processed by: Anne Wells, January 2017

Encoded by: Anne Wells, January 2017

Archival processing of the Tom Carter and Chuck Rupert Oysler Collection was made possible through a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Diacritics and other special characters have been omitted from this finding aid to facilitate keyword searching in web browsers.

Back to Top

expand/collapse 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.

Back to Top

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Related Collections

Back to Top

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Biographical Information

Tom Carter is an emeritus professor of architectural history in the University of Utah's College of Architecture and Planning. He has a degree in history from Brown University and studied folklore at both the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Indiana University. His chief research interest has been the building traditions of the western United States. His publications include Images of an American Land: Vernacular Architecture Studies in the West, and (with Betsy Cromley) the text Invitation to Vernacular Architecture: A Guide to the Study of Ordinary Buildings and Landscapes. (courtesy of the Department of Folklore at the University of Utah)

Chuck Rupert Oysler was born in Chicago, Ill. In 1970 he graduated from Brown University, where he met Tom Carter. Due to a shared interest in folk music, Oysler joined Carter on various trips while Carter was studying folklore. In 1973, Carter invited Oysler to join him to meet and record Willie Trice, an American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter, and record producer from North Carolina. Oysler now lives in Asheville, N.C., where he has continued his interest in folk music as a performer and teacher, with a primary focus on the harmonica. Oysler has also been the United States representative for the world's oldest harmonica maker, C. A. Seydel Sohne, since they reopened their sales in the United States in 2005.

Back to Top

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Scope and Content

The Tom Carter and Chuck Rupert Oysler Collection consists of two 1/4" open reel audio recordings, 1973, of Willie Trice (1910-1976), an American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter and record producer from North Carolina. The two recordings, which were made by Tom Carter and Chuck Rupert Oysler in Orange County, N.C., feature Willie Trice on guitar and vocals, as well as in conversation. Topics discussed by Trice include his uncle, Luther Trice, "music making and the Devil," popular dances with African Americans in Orange County, learning guitar, meeting Blind Boy Fuller, and recording 78 rpm records in New York City. The collection also contains corresponding documentation, or tape logs, created by former SFC staff members. Documentation for each recording consists of brief descriptions, guitar tunings, song titles, and topics discussed by Willie Trice during the recording.

Back to Top

Contents list

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Tom Carter and Chuck Rupert Oysler Collection, 1973.

4 items.

Processing information: Titles and descriptions compiled from SFC database and corresponding documentation. Folder 1 was formerly in Southern Folklife Collection Field Notes (#30025), folder 386.

Folder 1

Documentation: FT-20030/111-112

Formerly folder 386 within Southern Folklife Collection Field Notes (#30025)

SFC Audio Open Reel FT-20030/111

Willie Trice, blues guitar and vocal, Orange County, N.C., 26 April 1973: tape 1 of 2

1/4" Open Reel Audio

7" reel ; 7.5 ips ; 1/2 track

Guitar tuning: EADGBE

1. "Diddy-wa-Diddy" (learned from a Blind Blake record in early '30s)

2. "Poor Boy"

3. Talk about Luther Trice, Willie's uncle who played banjo in the clawhammer style

4. "Black Annie in the Woods" (from Luther Trice)

SFC Audio Open Reel FT-20030/112

Willie Trice, blues guitar and vocal, Orange County, N.C., 26 April 1973: tape 2 of 2

1/4" Open Reel Audio

7" reel ; 3.75 ips ; 1/2 track

Guitar tuning: EADGBE

1. Two stories concerning music making and the Devil; also dances which were popular with African Americans in Orange County; "Camel Walk" (dance)

2. "Shake That Thing" (Charleston: dance)

3. "Wild Bill" (Capo on 2nd fret, played in "C" position)

4. "When the Saints Go Marching In" (Capo on 2nd fret, played in "C" position)

5. "Lonesome Blues"

6. Talk about learning guitar, meeting Blind Boy Fuller and recording 78 rpm records in New York City

7. "Rock Me Baby" (with Fuller licks)

8. "My Baby's Coming"

9. "Everybody Wants to Dance with my Baby"

10. "Don't See Why My Baby Treats Me Like She Do"

11. "Talk about Boogie"

12. "Nearer My God to Thee"

Back to Top

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Items Separated

Back to Top