Riley Shepard’s “Encyclopedia of Folk Music"

http://blog.archive.org/2019/02/27/riley-shepards-encyclopedia-of-folk-music-is-finally-available/

After 50 Years, Riley Shepard’s “Encyclopedia of Folk Music” is Finally Available

By Stacya Shepard Silverman

Growing up, my father worked night and day on a massive project which he called The Encyclopedia of Folk Music. Dad’s desk was in the middle of whatever small place we rented, if indeed rent was ever paid. His desk was the center of our household universe, piled high with papers, a Corona typewriter, stacks of reference books and sheet music, his ashtray over-flowing with cigar butts.

As a kid, I believed The Encyclopedia was going to make Dad famous, and he told me we’d have loads of money when it was published. He said he was listing thousands of folk songs in detailed entries. There would be nothing like it, or so I was told; the most complete collection of folk songs in existence, and he was the person to put it all together, having been a singer and songwriter back in the day, long before I was born in 1965.