Restrictions to Access

Materials are open for research.

This collection contains additional materials that are not available for immediate or same day access. Please contact Research and Instructional Service staff at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu to discuss options for consulting these materials.

Use of audio materials may require production of listening 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.

Restrictions to Use

Duplication requires permission of donor. Contact Elizabeth Drake McDonald via email at elizabeth_mcdonald@cablelan.net.

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 Elizabeth Drake McDonald Collection #20355, Southern Folklife Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Provenance

Received from Elizabeth Drake McDonald of Chase, British Columbia, Canada, in August 1998 (Acc. 98186), November 1998 (Acc. 98244), November 1999 (Acc. 98507), December 2000 (Acc. 98845), and October 2017 (Acc. 103169).

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: Amy Davis, May 2001; Emma Evans and Anne Wells, July 2018

Encoded by: Amy Davis, May 2001

Updated by: Anne Wells, July 2018, August 2018

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.

• Composers--United States.
• Country music.
• Cowboys--Songs and music.
• Hopper, Paul Lawrence.
• McDonald, Elizabeth Drake, 1943-
• Nolan, Bob.
• Popular music--Texts.
• Popular music--Writing and publishing.
• Sons of the Pioneers.
• West (U.S.)--Songs and music.
• Western films.
• Wagoner, Robert, 1928-

Born in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada, in 1943, Elizabeth Drake McDonald grew up in British Columbia's southern interior and taught school on the north coast. In 1965, she married Ralph McDonald, and they raised four daughters in Chase, British Columbia. McDonald first became acquainted with Bob Nolan's song lyrics in 1954 when she purchased his two songbooks of Original Cowboy Classics. Since that time, she has searched for the lyrics for the nearly 1500 songs that Nolan is said to have written. Her self-published collection, "Lyrics: The Song Poems of Bob Nolan," contains nearly 200 of Nolan's songs. McDonald also researched Nolan's life thoroughly and gathered much information about Nolan with the help of his daughter, Roberta Nolan Mileusnich, and grandson, Calin Coburn.

The collection centers around Elizabeth Drake McDonald's in-depth study and compilation of the lyrics of songwriter and musician Bob Nolan. Nolan is best known for his work with the singing cowboy group, the Sons of the Pioneers. He penned many trademark songs of the cowboy song genre, including "Tumbling Tumbleweeds," "Cool Water," and "Way Out There." McDonald has transcribed nearly 200 of Nolan's songs (he referred to them as "song poems") into a self-published book, "Lyrics: The Song Poems of Bob Nolan." Paul Lawrence Hopper worked with McDonald on the project, writing annotations to Nolan's song lyrics. Hopper also self-published a companion volume, "Bob Nolan: A Biographical Guide and Annotations to the Lyric Archive," which contains transcription recording information and a filmography for the Sons of the Pioneers and is included in the collection.

The collection includes material McDonald gathered during conversations with Nolan's daughter, Roberta Nolan Mileusnich, and his grandson, Calin Coburn. Mileusnich provided McDonald with lyrics from unreleased recordings, which are compiled in "Bob Nolan, Volume Two: The Last Song Poems." Calin Coburn donated 274 high-quality scans of documents, letters, manuscripts, and photographs from the Nolan family album, along with a CD-R of the images in electronic format. Printed versions of these are included in the collection as are McDonald's annotations of these materials. Also included are copies of Nolan's song lead sheets, sheet music, and lyric sheets from Brigham Young University.

The Addition of October 2017 includes materials relating to the singer, songwriter, and painter, Robert Wagoner, who was a close personal and professional associate of members of the Sons of the Pioneers. Wagoner had his own multi-track recording studio at his home in Bishop, Calif., where he recorded his own compositions and the songs of the Sons of Pioneers. The addition includes biographical materials, song indexes, and tape lists compiled by Elizabeth Drake McDonald, as well as audio recordings of Robert Wagoner's multi-track recordings, which Wagoner self-released under his label, High Country Recording (HRC). Also included are audio mixes and compilations of Robert Wagoner recordings compiled by Elizabeth Drake McDonald. Audio recordings are on audiocassette and digital media that was originally found on Compact Disc (CD).

Audiocassettes (FS-5548, FS-10767, FS-17227-17231)

Compact Disc (CD-1190)

Notes to the cassettes reside in the SFC vertical field notes files.