While you're reading, take a look at Jean Ritchie's Singing Family of the Cumberlands. Cecil Sharp's English Folksongs from the Southern Appalachians is also essential reading. You might even look for the two-volume LP set I produced from field recordings called The Traditional Music of Beech Mountain, North Carolina, still available from Folk-Legacy Records in Sharon, Connecticut, as "custom cassettes," with booklets containing introductory notes and lyrics of all the songs and ballads. We have a web site, too. To reach it, simply click here. You'll find other examples of traditional Appalachian music in the "custom" section. Catspaw's suggestion of Jean Ritchie's sister Edna is there, from tapes I made of her in Viper, Kentucky, in the early 1960s. You'll find Frank Proffitt's recordings there, too. All of these come with notes on the songs and complete lyrics.

Sandy