Here is a message from Alan Jabbour, which I just got via Email, courtesy of Kerry Blech. It concerns the Library of Congress online release of the Henry Reed Collection. IMPORTANT STUFF! for fiddlers, and friends of Old Time Music.

Dear friends,

Appended is the press release regarding the latest online collection to be presented by the American Folklife Center and the National Digital Library Program through the Library of Congress Web site. FIDDLE TUNES OF THE OLD FRONTIER: THE HENRY REED COLLECTION is now available online. It's been exciting to work on the Henry Reed collection again over the last few months, and it is deeply satisfying to see and hear my mentor presented to the wider world for research, enjoyment, and contemplation. I hope you enjoy it!

Best regards,
Alan

The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress Presents
FIDDLE TUNES OF THE OLD FRONTIER: THE HENRY REED COLLECTION

The American Folklife Center's Henry Reed Collection is now available online through the Library of Congress American Memory Web site at the following URL:

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/hrhtml/

This unique American music collection, released on the 116th anniversary of his birth in Peterstown, West Virginia, features traditional fiddle tunes performed by Henry Reed. Recorded in Glen Lyn, Virginia, by folklorist Alan Jabbour in 1966-67, when Reed was over eighty years old, these tunes represent the music and evoke the history and spirit of the Appalachian frontier. Many of the tunes presented in this collection have enjoyed new popularity during the fiddling revival of the later twentieth century, and are performed today by a new generation of musicians.

The online presentation includes 184 sound recordings, available in WaveForm, MP3, and RealAudio formats; Jabbour's fieldnotes; and sixty-nine musical transcriptions. New descriptive notes on tune histories and musical features accompany the sound recordings, and an extensive listing of related publications and a glossary of musical terms provide further avenues for exploration.

An essay by Alan Jabbour (with photographs by Carl Fleischhauer, Karen Singer Jabbour, and Kit Olson) discussing Reed's life, art, and influence accompanies the collection as a special presentation.

Other folklife-related online collections, selected publications of the American Folklife Center, and information about products and services are available from the Center's home page:

http://lcweb.loc.gov/folklife

American Memory is a project of the National Digital Library Program of the Library of Congress, which, in collaboration with other institutions, is bringing important American historical materials to citizens around the world. Through American Memory, over seventy multimedia collections of digitized documents, photographs, recorded sound, motion pictures, and text are now available online, free to the public for educational purposes. This collection is the eighth collection from the American Folklife Center to be added on the American Memory Web site. All American Memory collections can be accessed through:

http://memory.loc.gov

Please direct any questions to ndlpcoll@loc.gov