Restrictions to Access

Access to audio and moving image materials may require production of listening or viewing copies.

This collection contains additional materials that are not available for immediate or same day access. This collection contains unprocessed materials that are currently not available to researchers. For information about access to these materials, contact Research and Instructional Services staff at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu. Please be advised that preparing unprocessed materials for access can be a lengthy process.

Restrictions to Use

No usage restrictions.

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 Dana Lindsey Higgins and Larry Lindsey Collection of James Lindsey and B. C. Goad Audio Recordings #20575, Southern Folklife Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Dana Lindsey Higgins and Larry Lindsey in October 2019 (Acc. 103724).

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.

This finding aid compiles archival collecting, description, and preservation work performed by: Steve Weiss, Anne Wells, and Meredith Kite, March 2020

Encoded by: Anne Wells, April 2020

Archival processing of the Dana Lindsey Higgins and Larry Lindsey Collection of James Lindsey and B. C. Goad Audio 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.

• Autoharp music--Virginia.
• Bluegrass music--Virginia.
• Burris, Otis.
• Feed Room Five (Musical group)
• Fiddle tunes--Virginia.
• Fiddling--Competitions--North Carolina.
• Fiddling--Competitions--Virginia.
• Folk dance music--Virginia.
• Folk festivals--North Carolina.
• Folk festivals--Virginia.
• Folk music--Virginia.
• Folk songs--Virginia.
• Goad, B. C. (Musician)
• Higgins, Dana Lindsey (Musician)
• Lindsey, James (Musician)
• Lindsey, Larry (Musician)
• Mountain Ramblers.
• Music festivals--North Carolina.
• Music festivals--Virginia.
• Old Fiddlers' Convention.
• Old Time Fiddlers Convention (Union Grove, N.C.)
• Old-time music--Virginia.
• String band music--Virginia.

• Tony Alderman Collection (#20011)
• Ralph Epperson Collection (#20401)
• Bobby Patterson Collection (#20574)

James Lindsey, a white musician, was the founder, leader, and manager of the bluegrass band, Mountain Ramblers. Lindsey was born 14 August 1921 in the Island Creek Community near Hillsville Va., 10 miles east of Galax, Va. Mountain Ramblers started in 1953 performing country music hits with singer Frances Diamond, electric steel player, Wayne Robinson, and guitarist Harold Hill. They performed before schoolhouses and did radio and television dates over a wide area. With lineup changes, the band switched to bluegrass in 1957, going on to win first place at the Galax Old Fiddlers' Convention, Union Grove Old Time Fiddlers Convention, and smaller conventions throughout the southern United States. Mountain Ramblers are primarily known for their 1958 recordings for Alan Lomax, released on the LP Sounds of the South (Atlantic 1346). They performed on radio and television stations, including WBOB in Galax, Va., WDBJ-TV and WSLS-TV in Roanoke, WSJS in Winston-Salem, N.C., and WPAQ in Mount Airy, N.C. Mountain Ramblers went on to release additional LP records for County, Heritage, and GHP record labels. Members throughout the years have included James Lindsey on mandolin, Larry Lindsey on guitar and vocals, Patrick Lindsey on mandolin, Don Blevins on guitar, Bill Bowls on steel guitar, Otis Burris on fiddle, Carson Cooper on banjo, Walter Dawson on banjo, Joe Drye on fiddle, Jimmy Edmonds on fiddle, Cullen Galyean on banjo, Willard Gayheart on guitar, Ronnie Gravley on bass and vocals, Charles Hawks, Ronnie Higgins on guitar and vocals, Buford Kegley on guitar, Herb Lowe on guitar and mandolin, Jim McKinnon, Ivor Melton on mandolin, Eldridge Montgomery, Thurmond Pugh on bass, Darrell Rowland on guitar, Don Weston on banjo and fiddle, and Jimmy Zeh on banjo.

B. C. Goad, a white musician and autoharpist, was a member of Feed Room Five, an old-time string band that formed in Carroll County, Va. in the early 1960s. Members of Feed Room Five included B. C. Goad, Glenn Smith, Dale and Maria Gallimore, Carl Harmon, Carl Nester, Roy Vass, Andy Sawyers, and Bobby Patterson.

Audio recordings of bluegrass, old-time string band, and early country music from Virginia and North Carolina, particularly folk music in the Galax tradition. Most of the recordings feature B. C. Goad, a white autoharpist who was a member of the string band, Feed Room Five, and James Lindsey, a white musician and the founder, leader, and manager of the bluegrass band, Mountain Ramblers. Dana Lindsey Higgins and Larry Lindsey, white musicians who performed with Mountain Ramblers, compiled the recordings, which consist mostly of musical performances, dubs of 78s, radio programs, interviews, square dances and hoedowns, and live recordings from fiddlers conventions across Virginia and North Carolina, including the Fries Fiddlers' Convention (Fries, Va.), Old Fiddlers' Convention (Galax, Va.), Independence Fiddlers' Convention (Independence, Va.), and Union Grove Old Time Fiddlers Convention (Union Grove, N.C.). Audio recordings, which are arranged alphabetically by artist or title, are on audiocassette, 1/4" open reel audio, and 8-track tape.

The collection also includes practice tapes of Otis Burris, a white old-time fiddler who played with Mountain Ramblers from 1962 to 1968, as well as his own group, Otis Burris and Fortune, whose members included James Lindsey, Wendell Cockerham, Eldridge Montgomery, Alice Gerrard, and Hilary Dirlam; master recordings of the Virginia-based string band, Feed Room Five; and scattered supporting documentation, such as track listings and notes, found with the recordings. Additionally, the collection contains audio recordings of radio programs, including appearances by the Mountain Ramblers and others on WPAQ in Mount Airy, N.C., WHHV in Hillsville, Va., and recordings of the Ramblers' Saturday night program, "Carroll-Grayson Hoedown", which aired on WBOB in Galax, Va. from 1978 to 1982.

Other notable artists featured in the collection include the Blue Mountain Quartet, Blue Sky Boys, Kyle Creed, Joe Drye, Lester Flatt, Merle Haggard, Louvin Brothers, Ted Lundy and the Southern Mountain Boys, J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers, Bill Monroe, Bobby Patterson, Charley Pride, Reno & Smiley, Enoch Rutherford, Earl Scruggs, Ralph Stanley, and Stanley Brothers, among others.

• 8-Track Tapes (8T-20575/1-15)
• Audiocassettes (FS-20575/1-404)
• Audiotapes (FT-20575/1-287)