Bill C. Malone Collection, 1950s-2016

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Summary

Creator:
Malone, Bill C.
Abstract:

The Bill C. Malone Collection documents the culture, history, and performers of country music, folk, bluegrass, gospel, and other related music genres and topics. Materials include audio and video recordings compiled by Bill C. Malone, a white historian of country music; newspaper clippings, articles from scholarly, trade, and popular publications, Malone's notes, and photographs. Audio recordings consists of interviews with Bill C. Malone, public and class lectures given by Malone, research materials compiled by Malone, and episodes of Malone's weekly radio program, Back to the Country.

Extent:
17,000 items (28.5 linear feet)
Language:
Materials in English
Library Catalog Link:
View UNC library catalog record for this item

Background

Biographical / historical:

Bill C. Malone received his Ph.D. in 1965 at the University of Texas. Malone is known for his cultural and historical studies of country music. He has hosted a weekly radio show, Back to the Country, on WORT-FM (89.9) in Madison, Wisc. His books include Country Music, U.S.A.; Stars of Country Music (co-edited with Judith McCulloh); Southern Music/American Music; Singing Cowboys and Musical Mountaineers: Southern Culture and the Roots of Country Music; Music from the True Vine; Blue Sky Boys: The Sunny Side of Life; and Bill Clifton: America's Bluegrass Ambassador to the World. During the spring semester of 2000, he served as the first Lehman Brady Chair Professor, an endowed position shared between the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University. Malone is professor emeritus of history at Tulane University.

Scope and content:

The Bill C. Malone Collection documents the culture, history, and performers of country music, folk, bluegrass, gospel, and other related music genres and topics.

Series 1. Audio and video recordings compiled by historian of country music, Bill C. Malone. Recordings consists of interviews with Bill C. Malone conducted by David Whisnant, Henry Armijo, and Wells Tower in 2000; audio and video recordings of public lectures given by Bill C. Malone, including a video recording and accompanying text of "Take This Job and Shove It: Country Music and Work," a singing lecture given by Bill C. Malone at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on 29 March 2000; audio recordings of class lectures on popular music given by Malone, including Malone's course on "Women and the Making of Southern Folk and Country Music" (syllabus included), which he taught at UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke University in spring 2000; and miscellaneous audio and video research materials compiled by Bill C. Malone, including interviews, field recordings, compilations and mix tapes, commercial releases, radio broadcasts, and unidentified recordings from various sources. The series also includes related paper materials, including transcripts, syllabi, tape logs, memos, and ephemera found with the audiovisual recordings.

Series 2. Performers consists of biographical newspaper clippings; articles from scholarly, trade, and popular publications; and notes on performers. More biographical materials related to individual performers can also be found in Series 5. Subject Files, often in the "Loose papers."

Series 3. Subject files consists of newspaper clippings; articles from scholarly, trade, and popular publications; bibliographies; and Bill Malone's notes on secondary sources, performers, genres.

Series 4. Book Projects is divided into four subseries and includes materials related to Malone's dissertation, A History of Commercial Country Music in the United States, 1920-1964, which he later published as Country Music U.S.A.; Music from the True Vine: Bill Clifton: America's Bluegrass Ambassador to the World; and Blue Sky Boys: The Sunny Side of Life.

Series 5. Back to the Country consists of program logs and audio recordings of Bill C. Malone's weekly radio program, Back to the Country, on WORT–FM community radio in Madison, Wis..

Series 6. Photographs consists of publicity portraits and snapshots of country, bluegrass, and performers and music festivals, including Kerrville in 1977 and a fiddlers' convention. Many performers are identified, including Bill Monroe, Bob Wills and the Light Crust Doughboys, the Carter family, Hank Williams, and many others. Also of note are snapshots of Johnny Rodriguez as a small child.

Acquisition information:

Received from David Whisnant in March of 2001 (Acc. 98596), the Folklore Archives, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in March 2000 (Acc. 98601), from Henry Armijo in April 2000 (Acc. 98602), Tes Thraves in May 2000 (Acc. 98637), and from Bill C. Malone in April 2000 (Acc. 98638), January 2010 (Acc. 101234), and September 2016 (Acc. 102648).

Processing information:

Processed by: Sarah Starnes and Elizabeth Matson, July 2003

Encoded by: Alison Waldenberg, August 2006

Uopdated by: Nancy Kaiser, October 2016; Brad San Martin and Anne Wells, November 2016; Anne Wells, March 2019; Nancy Kaiser, November 2019, October 2020, January 2021

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.

Access and use

Restrictions to access:

Use of audio or moving image 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

Library use only for digital files found in this collection. Contact wilsonlibrary@unc.edu to discuss access options.

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.

Restrictions to use:

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 C. Malone Collection #20315, Southern Folklife Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Location of this collection:
Louis Round Wilson Library
200 South Road
Chapel Hill, NC 27515
Contact:
(919) 962-3765
wilsonlibrary@unc.edu