The Fulbright Canada Student Award scholar uncovers the impact of external forces on the preservation and transformation of local music traditions.
Musical traditions based on groups of stringed instruments are common around the world – how are these bands different and similar to each other, and how do they help us all connect to each other and the environments where we find ourselves? With this Speaker Sessions presentation, Lee Bidgood will introduce a global range of string band sounds and stories, with media and live examples.
Join us on Tuesday, April 8, 2025 for our Speaker Session with Mary Munsey. For the last year, Mary Munsey’s motto has been: “If your song is well written it should paint a picture in the listener’s mind. If not, keep working on it.” And with that motto, she decided to see if some of her songs fit this tall requirement by working with several area artists to explore their interpretation of her songs in a visual format.
Join us on Tuesday, May 13 for a Speaker Session with Erika Barker and Julia Underkoffler: Country Music, Comedy, and the Small Screen. After World War II, television grew at an exponential rate. From the 1940s through the 1960s, advanced technology, greater disposable income, and the increase in the number of stations helped television to become the era’s primary mass medium. Television allowed country music to reach a wide audience, and popular shows such as I Love Lucy and The Andy Griffith Show had regular segments featuring country musicians.
Join us on Tuesday, June 10, 2025 for our virtual Speaker Session with Charles Hughes. No two kinds of music have a closer and more complex relationship than country and blues. With this Speaker Session, historian and author Charles L. Hughes will discuss the historical relationship between the two genres. Hughes will consider their shared roots, their continuing overlaps, and what the relationship between them tells us about the larger history of the United States.
Education and Outreach Archivist from East Tennessee State University's Archives of Appalachia explores the significant history of the studio where Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys and Jim Lauderdale recorded the GRAMMY Award-winning album "Lost in the Lonesome Pines," and many, many others.
Join us Tuesday, August 12 at 7pm in person or online for a fascinating discussion on the importance and vitality of community-based music in small-town America.
Folklorist Emily Hilliard talks about the future-focused and collaborative approach to cultural work she explores in her book, Making our Future: Visionary Folklore and Everyday Culture in Appalachia.
Join us on Tuesday, September 9 for a Speaker Session with Emily Hilliard. In this Speaker Session, folklorist Emily Hillard talks about the future-focused and collaborative approach to cultural work she explores in her book, Making our Future: Visionary Folklore and Everyday Culture in Appalachia.
With the breakthrough 2007 single, "Country Girl," from her self-titled debut country album, Rissi Palmer made history as the first Black female country artist to ascend the Billboard Hot Country Singles Charts since Dona Mason in 1987. Palmer highlights Black women pioneers who walked and endured so Black women could enter the space of country music with ease. There is no cost to join this virtual Speaker Session via Zoom, but pre-registration is required.