Willie O.: Very few of the folks from whom I have collected songs learned their songs from records. The tradition continues among people like William Harrison Burnett in the Ozarks, who could tell me about learning each song "from (so & so), a fellow from (such & such) County, when we were picking apples up in Washington State back in (such & such year)." Buna Hicks' daughter Rosa had learned songs from Carter Family recordings, yes, but her mother and her older sister sang songs and ballads from their regional oral tradition. The old woodsmen of New Brunswick were singing songs learned in the lumber camps, precious few of which, if any, had ever appeared on recordings. Grant Rogers learned songs from records, that's true, but he also learned from other Catskill Mountain tradition bearers. Sara Cleveland's huge repertoire came from her family in upstate New York, not from records.

The suggestion that all traditional singers learned their songs from recordings is clearly contradicted by the evidence. Ian Robb learned many songs from Edith Fowke's great informant O. J. Abbott (among others), and Abbott's repertoire was from oral tradition.

Sandy