Richard Shepard: grifter & Encyl. of Am Folk Song

Subject: Richard Riley Shepard: Hillbilly music
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Jul 21 - 12:30 PM

I was looking for something else and stumbled upon a podcast from Hidden Brain called The Cowboy Philosopher: A Tale Of Obsession, Scams, And Family

As a young girl, Stacya Shepard Silverman idolized her dad. He was handsome and smart and a great cook. He spent his days typing away in their small Hollywood apartment on a massive writing project: an encyclopedia that would cover the entire history of American vernacular music.

Richard Riley Shepard's interest in music stretched back to his childhood. He dropped out of school in the fifth grade and decided to try his luck as a "hillbilly" musician. In the 1940s, he cut country western records, including a few small hits. He also worked as a promoter for a variety of famous singers, including the Andrews Sisters and Red Foley.

But by the time his daughter Stacya was born, Riley had dropped out of the music business and begun work on his encyclopedia.

"I was told constantly that we were artists," recalls Stacya. "That there were artists, and there were ordinary people, and we were artists."

Stacya says her relationship with her dad changed when she was 12 years old. One day, the house phone rang, and she picked it up. It was an old man.

"His voice was shaking and I could tell he was elderly and he just sounded like a mean old man to me," Stacya recalls. "He scared me, and he told me that my father was a crook, that my father took his life savings. The phone is in my ear and he's saying, 'Your father is a crook, did you know that? Your father is a crook!'"

This week on Hidden Brain, we trace the life of Riley Shepard. He was a hillbilly musician, a music promoter, a porn writer, a man with an all-consuming obsession and, perhaps, a genius.

Additional Resources:

Read an excerpt of Stacya Shepard Silverman's essay about her father and the moment she received the phone call alleging he was a crook.

You can also learn more about Riley Shepard at a Facebook page that Stacya created, find a discography of his music here, and see Shepard's encyclopedia online on the Internet Archive.

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The podcast has a few ads (the original program would have had a few station breaks - these are shorter.) It's a fascinating story, and who knows, there might be something of use (but trustworthy?) in that book.

Subject: RE: Richard Shepard: grifter & Encyl. of Am Folk Song
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Jul 21 - 01:08 PM

Richard Riley Shepard

It took me several tries to name this thread. As you listen to the podcast you realize that the bulk of his social business life was as a grifter, but the heart of the man seems to have been dedicated to compiling an authoritative cross-reference list of song titles with their subjects and sources.

Subject: RE: Richard Shepard: grifter & Encyl. of Am Folk Song
From: Lighter
Date: 12 Jul 21 - 02:27 PM

My first impression is that many of the texts have been conflated and "improved" from the specified sources.

Subject: RE: Richard Shepard: grifter & Encyl. of Am Folk Song
From: maeve
Date: 12 Jul 21 - 02:46 PM

Master Book of American Folk Song

Subject: RE: Richard Shepard: grifter & Encyl. of Am Folk Song
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Jul 21 - 02:59 PM

Thanks, Maeve. It wasn't coming up for me, but it seemed something that must have landed here before. (I tidied the link a little.)

It sounds like he got his hands of lots of books to do his research, I'm interested in looking at the scans. And in the other thread one of the daughters says there are hard copies extant that could probably be used for more precise scanning. It sounds like a HUGE job.