I've spoken to Bob Nelson, Jean Smith, Bruce Baker and a number of others, as well as people in music and special collections at several university libraries about Dad's collection and the collections of folk singers past and present. It looks like there is a real need for some serious funding to pull this together, preserve it, and make it available to researchers and singers. We're talking about folk singers here, so there's no MONEY in it, but there is a need.

I haven't planned my work toward a Ph.D. ("piling it higher and deeper," as Dad called it, but he was very pleased when I told him I wanted to do this) to collect music, but we do accumulate certain skills along the way as academics: research, writing grants, and patience in general seem to be what are needed. Having a core knowledge of the people and the songs helps. One of these days I'll stop paying good money to the storage locker people and I'll be able to look at what all I have in the boxes and boxes of stuff I packed of Dad's. Hopefully taking stuff out of storage will conincide with getting out of Texas (yeah!) and getting back into the squishy Northwest. Don't start pulling all of those boxes out of your own basements and attics yet, but I'll start doing some research on funding a project like this.

Maggie

P.S. Mark--good to hear from you again! I always figured when you folks left the island that day (you'd been at English Camp in San Juan Island National Historical Park) you were singing Emma Rounds' words and Dad's tune in "The Ballad of the Merry Ferry."