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This collection has access restrictions. For details, please see the restrictions.
This collection has use restrictions. For details, please see the restrictions.
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.
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Collection Overview
| Size | 8 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 265 items) |
| Abstract | Lauchlin Nordan Shaw, a third-generation farmer from Anderson Creek Township, Harnett County, N.C., taught himself how to play his father's fiddle when he was ten years old. Shaw traveled and recorded extensively, often with A. C. Overton, his musical partner for 50 years. He was repeatedly honored for his traditional fiddling style and promotion of old-time music. The collection includes sound recordings, many recorded by Lauchlin Shaw's wife, Mary Lily Shaw, at the Shaw residence; notes from 8-track and reel-to-reel tape boxes; and other documentation. Musicians include Apple Chill Cloggers, the Britt Brothers, Virgil Craven, Glenn Davis, Marvin Gaster, Tom Hearn, Wayne Livengood, Margaret Martin, Wayne Martin, Fred Olson, A. C. Overton, Evelyn Shaw, Malcolm Shaw, Robert Temple, and Wade Yates. Scattered throughout the recordings are Christmas carols that were recorded during family gatherings. |
| Creator | Shaw, Lauchlin, 1912-2000. |
| Curatorial Unit | Southern Folklife Collection |
| Language | English. |
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Information For Users
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Processing Information
Processed by: Allyn Meredith, April 2004
Encoded by: Allyn Meredith, May 2004
Updated by: Anne Wells, November 2016; Jodi Berkowitz, January 2017; Nancy Kaiser, February 2021
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Subject Headings
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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Related Collections
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Biographical Information
Lauchlin Nordan Shaw (1912-2000), a third-generation farmer, lived in Anderson Creek Township in Harnett County, N.C., where his ancestors from the Isle of Jura, Scotland, settled around 1830. Lauchlin, the ninth child of twelve, taught himself how to play his father's fiddle when he was ten years old. Lauchlin learned many songs from his father, Archibald Alexander, his Uncle Colin, and his older brothers. Malcolm Shaw, who was three years older than Lauchlin, became a well-known storyteller in the Gaelic tradition. By the mid 1920s, Lauchlin began playing songs for dances, unique to the Sandhills region, such as: "Dancing Ladies," "Little Moses," and "Sally With The Run-down Shoes."
In the course of learning the local repertoire from older players, Lauchlin Shaw developed a distinctive playing style, combining complex melody lines with a rhythmic bowing pattern suited to dance music. Shaw's affection for old-time music shows in the finely crafted renditions of songs and tunes in an exuberant playing style.
Shaw attended local dances less often after he married and began raising children. In those days, the only time he played was when his neighbor Robert Temple, or Wade Yates and A.C. Overton from Chatham County, would come to visit at Christmas and other occasions. As the children grew up, however, Lauchlin returned to play at dances. His daughter Evelyn Shaw, also a fiddle player, remembers being bundled up to go to winter dances with her parents.
Beginning in the mid 1970s, a group of musicians, young and old, would come to Shaw's home fondly called, "the home place," to play music and enjoy a potluck dinner. At these gatherings, Shaw led musicians such as Wayne and Margaret Martin, Virgil Craven, Fred Olson, Glenn Davis, Marvin Gaster, Tom Hearn, Smith McInnis, and others. Many of the songs played during these evenings at Shaw's home were passed down from generation to generation: "Tiptoe Betty Martin," "Uncle Joe," and "Duck's Eyeball."
Lauchlin Shaw began to take his musical abilities far outside Harnett County, N.C. In 1978, he toured Europe with the Apple Chill Cloggers of Chapel Hill, N.C., as the lead fiddler. In 1982, he played at the World's Fair in Knoxville, Tenn. In 1987, he was honored for his traditional fiddling style and for promoting old-time music with North Carolina Folklore Society's Brown-Hudson Folklore Award. In 1992, Lauchlin Shaw and A. C. Overton received the North Carolina Arts Council's Heritage Award in the category of Folk/Traditional Music.
In 1996, a CD was produced, Sally With the Run-Down Shoes, with Lauchlin Shaw and A. C. Overton, his musical partner of 50 years. This CD, a collaborative project between the North Carolina Arts Council's Folklife Institute and Marimac Records, documents the fiddle and finger-style banjo music of the eastern Carolina Piedmonts, a fiddle and banjo tradition that has been largely overlooked. Lauchlin Shaw's daughter, Evelyn Shaw, is appears on the CD, playing "Home Waltz" and "Little Moses" with her father.
Lauchlin Shaw died in 2000 at the age of 88.
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Scope and Content
The collection of fiddler Lauchlin Shaw includes sound recordings, notes from 8-track and reel-to-reel tape boxes, and other documentation. His wife, Mary Lily Shaw, recorded many of the tapes at Lauchlin Shaw's residence. A variety of songs were played in the old-time tradition by musicians including A. C. Overton, the Britt Brothers, Tom Hearn, Marvin Gaster, Robert Temple, Wade Yates, Wayne Livengood, Wayne Martin, Margaret Martin, and Evelyn Shaw. Scattered throughout the recordings are Christmas carols that were recorded during family gatherings with Shaw's daughters Carolyn, Marie and Evelyn.
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Series Quick Links
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Series 1. Audio Recordings, 1968-1983.
Arrangement: By format.
Audio recordings contain songs performed by Lauchlin Shaw, family members, neighbors, and others. Many of the tapes contain more than one recording session. Mary Lily Shaw, Lauchlin Shaw's wife, recorded many of the tapes in their home in Harnett County, N.C.
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Subseries 1.1 8-Tracks, 1968-1983.
Arrangement: Roughly chronological.
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Subseries 1.2 Open Reel Audio, 1976-1981.
Arrangement: Roughly chronological.
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Series 2. Documentation, 1968-2000 and undated.
Documentation includes photocopies of original containers and memos found with select recordings.
Processing information: Folders 1 and 2 were formerly in Southern Folklife Collection Field Notes (#30025), folders 986 and 980. Additional paper materials related to Lauchlin Shaw, including handwritten lists of Shaw's musical repertoire and articles about Shaw's musical legacy, such as one written by Lee Wilder for Leader Magazine, can be found in folders NF-2287 and NF-3403 within the Southern Folklife Collection Artist Name File Collection (#30005).
| Folder 1 |
8-track field notes: 8T-20375/42-8038 items Formerly folder 986 within Southern Folklife Collection Field Notes (#30025) |
| Folder 2 |
Open reel audio field notes: FT-20375/11705-11784108 items Formerly folder 980 within Southern Folklife Collection Field Notes (#30025) |
| Image Folder PF-20375/1 |
Lauchlin Shaw and family music circle, 19908x10 black and white photograph, taken by Wayne Martin in Harnett County, N.C. This photograph was received as Accession 103021 in January 2017. |
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Items Separated