Restrictions to Access

This collection is not available for immediate or same day access. Please contact Research and Instructional Service staff at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu to discuss options for consulting this collection.

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

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 Ray Alden Collection #70115, Southern Folklife Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Diane Alden in November 2021 (Acc. 20211207.4).

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.

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.

• Alden, Ray.
• Banjo music.
• Folk music.
• Old-time music.

Ray Alden (1942-2009) was a white musician, record producer, artist, photographer, educator, and author. Alden made and produced recordings of traditional music throughout the United States, photographing and writing about old-time Appalachian music and culture. He founded the Field Recorders’ Collective, producing unique traditional music recordings. He was interested in loudspeaker design, writing two books on the topic as well as incorporating the topic into his classes at New York City's Stuyvesant High School, where he taught mathematics for 25 years.

Personal collection of Ray Alden. Collection consists largely of field recordings, festival and club performances, airchecks, and album master tapes of old-time music and bluegrass music. Recordings document many of the traditional musicians active in the 1970s and 1980s, including Tommy Jarrell, Kyle Creed, Fred Cockerham, Joe Val, J.D. Crowe, Hazel Dickens, Johnson Mountain Boys, and Bill Monroe, as well as recordings of emerging old-time musicians Alden recorded for his Young Fogies recording project. Also includes photograph albums of old-time musicians, including The Kimble Family; family photographs; research files; and Alden's old-time competition ribbons.