Restrictions to Access

Access to 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 Anne Kimzey Collection of Interviews on the Music of North Carolina Tobacco Farms #20248, Southern Folklife Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Acquisitions information unknown (Acc. 20200616.1)

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.

Processed by: Anne Wells and Meredith Kite, June 2020

Encoded by: Anne Wells, June 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 Anne Kimzey Collection of Interviews on the Music of North Carolina Tobacco Farms was made possible through a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

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.

• Austin, Bill Joe, 1911-1991.
• Byrd, Paul, 1909-
• Corbett, Grace, 1911-1990.
• Country music--North Carolina.
• Folk music--North Carolina.
• Johnston County (N.C.)--Songs and music.
• Kimzey, Anne.
• Lamm, Carl, 1927-
• Musicians--North Carolina--Interviews.
• North Carolina Arts Council. Folklife Section
• Old-time music--North Carolina.
• Ruffin, Josephine Rice, 1922-
• Shape-note singing--North Carolina.
• Songs, English--North Carolina.
• Stevens, Alice, 1925-
• Taylor, Roy G.
• Tobacco Farm Life Museum (Kenly, N.C.)
• Tobacco farmers--North Carolina--Music.
• Tobacco industry--Social aspects--North Carolina.
• Tobacco workers--North Carolina--Music.
• Wilson County (N.C.)--Songs and music.
• Woodard, Betty Lee, 1918-2000.

• Nancy Kalow and Anne Kimzey Recordings of Earl Scruggs Day at Gardner-Webb University #20084
• Southern Folklife Collection Field Notes #30025

Anne Kimzey is a white folklorist at the Alabama State Council on the Arts. She received her bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she also pursued graduate studies in Folklore. She previously worked for the McCormick Arts Council in McCormick, S.C., the North Carolina Arts Council, and the McKissick Museum at the University of South Carolina. She grew up in Chattanooga, Tenn.

Recordings of interviews with white and African American musicians, most of whom grew up either on piedmont tobacco farms, or were involved with the tobacco business in eastern North Carolina. Anne Kimzey, a white folklorist, conducted the interviews in July and August of 1987 while an intern at the North Carolina Arts Council, Folklife Section, for an exhibit at the Tobacco Farm Life Museum in Kenly, N.C. Included are Paul Byrd, an early white country musician; Glenn Stancil (1925- ), a white guitar player and singer of Kenly, N.C.; Roy Taylor (1918-1995), a white guitar player and author of Wilson, N.C.; Alice Stevens (1925- ), an African American singer of Wilson, N.C.; Paul Pittman (1926- ), a white fiddler of Pine Level, N.C.; Grace Corbett (1911-1990), a white pianist of Kenly, N.C.; Josephine Rice Ruffin (1922- ), an African American musician of Wilson, N.C.; Carl Lamm (1927- ), a white radio station owner and disc jockey of Smithfield, N.C.; Floy Landon, a white woman of Four Oaks, N.C.; William Joseph “Bill Joe” Austin (1911-1991), a white band leader, saxophone and clarinet player of Smithfield, N.C.; Donnie Byrd, guitarist, of Selma, N.C.; Betty Lee Woodard (1918-2000), a white shape note singer of Kenly, N.C. Interview subjects discuss musical histories, repertoires, and social and community functions of the music, especially in relation to their life on the farm and tobacco farming. There are also recordings of Paul Byrd singing country and popular songs, both solo and with the Radio Pals, on two tapes recorded between 1941 and 1946. Recordings are on audiocassette, which are presumably dubs made from Anne Kimzey's original recordings. The collection also includes supporting documentation, such as field notes with extensive biographical information on interview subjects, photocopies of original containers, clippings, and select release forms created and compiled by Anne Kimzey. A memo from Anne Kimzey found in the supporting documentation makes note that not all field notes found in the collection have a corresponding audio recording.

• Audiocassettes (FS-395-405)
• Field Notes (Folders 13-14), Southern Folklife Collection Field Notes #30025