Restrictions to Access

Use of audio materials may require production of listening copies.

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 Bill Phillips Collection of Field Recordings #20089-z, Southern Folklife Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Acquisitions Information unknown (Acc. 103737).

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.

Processed by: Anne Wells, November 2019

Encoded by: Anne Wells, November 2019

Archival processing of the Bill Phillips Collection of Field Recordings was made possible through a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

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.

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.

• African American musicians--North Carolina--Interviews.
• Banjo music--North Carolina.
• Blues (Music)--North Carolina.
• Blues musicians--North Carolina--Interviews.
• Dance music--North Carolina.
• Earle, Eugene.
• Folk music--North Carolina.
• Folk musicians--North Carolina--Interviews.
• Green, Archie.
• Lukas, Victor Thomas.
• Musicians--North Carolina--Interviews.
• Old-time music--North Carolina.
• Phillips, Bill.
• Poole, Charlie, 1892-1931.
• Poole, Charlie, Jr., 1912-1968.
• Poss, Barry.
• Pridgen, Sam, 1910-1989.
• Roberts, Dink, 1894-1989.
• Textile workers--North Carolina--Social conditions.
• Trice, Willie, 1910-1976.

• Archie Green Collection(#20002)
• Barry Poss Collection(#20021)

White educator and local blues historian, Bill Phillips, is a native of Durham, N.C. and a lifelong North Carolina resident. He has worked in public education, social services, carpentry, and construction, getting his start as a high school history teacher. In the 1970s Phillips began playing string band music, making musical instruments, and documenting traditional folk and blues musicians in North Carolina, including African American old-time banjo player, Dink Roberts, of Haw River, N.C., and African American blues guitarist and singer, Willie Trice, of Durham, N.C. Around this same time, Phillips wrote and received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to conduct a tour of traditional musicians in North Carolina's public schools. Phillips is also a writer and local historian who has contributed to Southern Exposure and Like the Dew, an online journal on southern culture and politics.

Field recordings of North Carolina based folk and blues musicians compiled by white educator and local blues historian, Bill Phillips. The recordings feature performances and interviews with Dink Roberts, African American banjo player, slide guitarist, and singer, of Haw River, N.C., joined by family and friends, playing blues, old-time, and sacred music, with dancing, patting, and information interviews; Sam Pridgen (1910-1989), white string band guitarist, of Durham, N.C., discussing work in the hosiery mill in Durham, N.C., and his musical career in the 1930s and 1940s with string bands such as the Tobacco Tags and the Swingbillies in North Carolina and Richmond, Va.; Willy Trice (1910-1976), African American blues singer and guitarist, of Durham County, N.C., performing blues; and Charlie Poole, Jr. (1912-1968), white string band vocalist of The Swing Bellies and son of old-time musician and string band leader, Charlie Poole, of Randolph County, N.C. The collection contains dubs of original field recordings created by Bill Phillips, along with white anthropologist, Victor "Vic" Lukas, and white record label founder, Barry Poss, as well as a dub of an interview conducted by white folklorists, Eugene Earle and Archie Green. Additionally, the collection contains related documentation, or tape logs, prepared by Southern Folklife Collection staff member, Anne Kimzey. Tape logs include contextual information on the artists and recordings, including technical information, brief content descriptions, and a list of song titles performed by the musicians.

• Audiotapes (FT-1709-1720)