Restrictions to Access

This collection contains additional materials that are not processed and 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 Tommy Edwards Collection #70165, Southern Folklife Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Cindy Edwards in September 2023 (20230919.1).

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: Rebecca Stubbs, January 2024

Encoded by: Laura Smith, January 2024

Updated by: Luke Cimarusti and Laura Smith, January 2024

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.

• Bluegrass music--North Carolina.
• Bluegrass musicians--North Carolina.
• Edwards, Tommy, 1945-2021.

Tommy Edwards (1945-2021) was a white musical artist, songwriter, music collector, and a public school teacher in Chatham County, N.C. He fronted the Chapel Hill, N.C., musical group, Tommy Edwards Bluegrass Experience, from 1971 until 2021. He also owned and operated Tommy Edwards Antiques, Art & Music in Pittsboro, N.C.

The collection of North Carolina bluegrass musical artist Tommy Edwards (1945-2021) contains audio recordings, video recordings, photographs, posters, flyers, calendars, clippings from publications, project files, song folios, unpublished and incomplete song lyrics written by hand, set lists for performances, and other papers. Most collection materials are dated between 1960 and 2021, reflecting Edwards's career as a traditional bluegrass musician, songwriter, performer, and recording artist. Formats of recordings made by Edwards include VHS, compact disc, open-reel audio tape, ADAT multitrack tape, and LPs. Formats of unpublished recordings made by others and collected by Edwards include instantaneous acetate discs and a 16-inch radio transcription disc. Of note in the printed materials is a rare song folio from the 1930s that Edwards collected. The folio highlights bluegrass and early country music artists including Wade Mainer, Zeke Mainer, and the Delmore Brothers, who played live on the Raleigh, N.C., radio station with the call letters WPTF. Photographs and other printed materials, including posters and flyers, document performances of the Tommy Edwards Bluegrass Experience at music venues in Chapel Hill, N.C., especially the Cat's Cradle, in the 1970s. Acquired as part of the Southern Folklife Collection.

• Photographs (PF-70165/1-2)
• Digital folders (DF-70165/1-9)