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Collection Number: 20069

Collection Title: Ray Funk Collection of Zion Trio Gospel Recordings, circa 1950s

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 Ray Funk Collection of Zion Trio Gospel Recordings was made possible through a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

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Size 1 items
Abstract An instantaneous disc recording of the Zion Trio, an all women gospel trio of Rockingham, N.C., singing "Gonna Make My Heaven My Home" and "I'm Just A Stranger Here." Ray Funk, a white music collector and scholar of African American gospel music and the music of Trinidad and Tobago, donated the recording to the Southern Folklife Collection. Little is known about the Zion Trio at this time.
Creator Funk, Ray.
Curatorial Unit University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Folklife Collection.
Language English
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Restrictions to Access
No restrictions. Open for research.
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 Ray Funk Collection of Zion Trio Gospel Recordings #20069, Southern Folklife Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Acquisitions Information
Acquisitions information unknown (Acc. 20200512.1).
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.
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Processed by: Anne Wells, May 2020

Encoded by: Anne Wells, May 2020

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.

Archival processing of the Ray Funk Collection of Zion Trio Gospel Recordings was made possible through a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

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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.

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Ray Funk, a white trial judge of Fairbanks, Ala., is a music collector, scholar, and archival footage consultant whose research focuses on African American vocal harmony and gospel singing and more recently, Calypso music and Carnival culture of Trinidad and Tobago. He has presented and published on these topics, including presenting on African American gospel music quartets at the Sounds of the South Conference, held 6-8 April 1989 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Funk also researched film and television footage of traditional American music, and is credited as a footage consultant on the public television series, American Roots Music (2001). More recently, Funk's primary focus has been on Calypso music and the Carnival culture in Trinidad and Tobago. He co-curated the traveling and online exhibit, "Calypso: A World Music", with the Historical Museum of Southern Florida, and in 2014, Funk, along with white music scholar, Michael Eldridge, researched and released the CD box set Calypso Craze, 1956-57 and Beyond on Bear Family Records.

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An instantaneous disc recording of the Zion Trio, an all women gospel trio of Rockingham, N.C., singing "Gonna Make My Heaven My Home" and "I'm Just A Stranger Here." Ray Funk, a white music collector and scholar of African American gospel music and the music of Trinidad and Tobago, donated the recording to the Southern Folklife Collection. Little is known about the Zion Trio at this time.

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Contents list

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Ray Funk Collection of Zion Trio Gospel Recordings, circa 1950s.

1 item.

Processing information: Titles compiled from SFC database.

Instantaneous Disc FD-20069/1295

Zion Trio, "Gonna Make My Heaven My Home", "I'm Just A Stranger Here"

10" Instantaneous Disc

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