American Archivist / Vol. 48, No. 2 / Spring 1985 217 Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/48/2/217/2747265/aarc_48_2_375v82u275q0711p.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 Shorter Features

CHRISTOPHER BEAM, Editor

The Shorter Features department serves as a forum for sharply focused archival topics which may not require full-length articles. Members of the Society and others knowledgeable in areas of archival interest are encouraged to submit papers for con- sideration. Shorter Features should range from 500 to 1,000 words in length and con- tain no annotation. Papers should be sent to Christopher Beam, Shorter Features Editor, American Archivist, National Archives and Records Service (NCWA), Washington, DC 20408.

A Storyteller's Story STEPHEN WADE

When I first started playing the banjo and had in its embrace the entrancing I was fortunate to be told by someone and beguiling names of America. Here that the best records, and the most was to be found Thaddeus Willingham music, in its deepest and most substan- of Gulfport, , 1939, playing tial forms—in other words the genuine banjo on "Roll on the Ground"; sound of the banjo and folk music— "Glory in the Meetinghouse" by Luther were to be found on the albums issued Strong, fiddler from Dalesburg, Ken- by the Archive of Folk Song at the tucky; "Grub Springs" by W. E. .' I went over to the Claunch of Guntown, Mississippi; and Chicago Public Library then, and there J. M. "Sailor Dad" Hunt of Marion, on red vinyl, in a grey business-like , singing "Sally Brown." I'm album jacket, as if imbued with all the glad to say that the recollection of this solemnity and high purpose of our music and these records, which hold the government, was AFS L2. This album, fundamental sound to which I aspire in like many of its companions, was my own playing, is always with me. Two recorded in the thirties and early forties weeks ago, concerned about today's

•In 1981, the Archives of Folk Song became the Archive of Folk Culture. From 1928 through the 1950s it was called the Archive of American Folk Song. Throughout most of this presentation Archive of Folk Song has been used. 218 American Archivist / Spring 1985

presentation, I asked Leonard Rapport chaic, unavailable and deeply stirring to tell me in what I had hoped would be music. There the connection again was a long, erudite detailed explication what that here is the truth, and here are the were the purposes, accomplishments, raw materials. and intentions of the archivist's I think it is wonderful that not only Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/48/2/217/2747265/aarc_48_2_375v82u275q0711p.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 endeavor. He said warmly, quickly, and the music was to be found here at the with a wave of his hand (we were both Archive but the stories were, too. It does having a pizza), "Don't worry about it; make sense from an outsider's perspec- archives are the raw materials." tive that , who was cuator Because these records were, to the ex- of the Archive of American Folk Song, tent of my knowledge at that time, was at the same time the first director of unavailable to the buyer for purchase; the folklore collecting in the Works Pro- because they were in only one library in gress Administration (WPA) Federal Chicago and only on a 24-hour loan; Writers Project. He was succeeded in because some were even 78s, which for this, as many of you know, by Benjamin someone of my generation is altogether Botkin who later was head of the Ar- mysterious; and because I could get only chive of Folk Song. This same Archive, one or two out at a time, which meant until four years ago, housed a large por- that I would have to go through this over tion of this material. The songs were and over, I had to be both committed there, the stories were there, and the and persistent, because this wasn't going stories' disseminators had worked there. to be like buying a Beatles record. So for Starting with American Folklore; A my first contact with this music in a con- Bibliography of Major Works, compiled certed and deep way I am indebted to the by Joe Hickerson, I began reading in work of archivists. this field. Early on I was given Botkin's It was always held a tenet of faith in seminal Treasury of American Folklore Chicago among its performing folk and there read on the first page in Carl singers that if you wanted to hear the Sandburg's introduction, his praise of 2 music of America, its true forms, the Jack Conroy. He said, "Something fundamental standards, and without the rather sweetly modern and quite im- confusion and needs of music as a pro- possible to see as coming alive out of any fession, then go to Washington, go and former generation is such a story as the listen at the Archive of Folk Song. The editor dug out of the Chicago Industrial image was planted in my head that the Folklore by Jack Conroy. There it was sincere student would do this and en- hiding out in the manuscripts of the counter the real thing, wearing head- Federal Writers Project of the Works phones and concentrating very intently, Progress Administration for the state of close in a corner where card catalogues Illinois. It tells about Slappy Hooper, reached nearly to the skies, and this was the world's biggest, fastest and bestest a thing that a person born in the city as I sign painter," and so on. The Archive of was could do, because so many of the Folk Song therefore touched, contained, great players caught in the call numbers provided, and disseminated all the of the Archive of Folk Song had died or things I was interested in, like a cor- else lived very far away. This was one of nucopia, like the Mighty Mississippi, a the best ways to come to know this ar- kind of mental, musical metropolis.

2Conroy is an author whose stories figure prominently in Wade's "Banjo Dancing." Shorter Features 219

Although I'd come to Washington to surveys the field, describes theory, and the Archive of Folk Song several times tells me about what has just been pub- before "Banjo Dancing" and had even lished. It is now my daily habit to go to gone to the "Buzzard's Nest"3 where the the Manuscript Reading Room at the

WPA manuscripts were located, most of Library of Congress to read in the Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/48/2/217/2747265/aarc_48_2_375v82u275q0711p.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 my reading started with Joe Hickerson's Federal Writers Project collection. The Bibliography and subsequently widened Writers Project, which I understand with the bibliographies and references took three years of constant toil to get in found in each of the books themselves. order, is immeasurably easier to work For my birthday several years ago, my with than when I came here in 1980, for manager, who is also the director of my then it was largely bound up in boxes. show, gave me Charles Haywood's A Librarian Joe Sullivan and his cheerful Bibliography of North American staff have been warm and helpful to me. Folklore and Folksong, which has been Ann Banks, as part of her master's a helpful reading guide. Another source thesis, listed the contents of this collec- for me has been the outcropping of ac- tion (and used many of the life stories tivity of Kenneth Goldstein at the from it in her well-received First-Person University of Pennsylvania. I met him America), and Sullivan has expanded it while performing at the Philadelphia to two typescript volumes and all the Folk Festival and visited him at the files, to my eye, are right in order. I only school. His love of books, his several wish the Manuscript Reading Room had libraries, and his association with a longer hours and two-cent instead of ten- publishing house led to the bibliography cent xeroxing, and for this copies of the of required reading for University of index were available for purchase, that Pennsylvania folklore students. It also would spare me the effort of duplicating led to his student, folklorist/performer it myself. Having read at the "Buzzard's Saul Broudy, who has helped me with Nest" and at the temporary location at conceptual hurdles, and to Legacy the Jefferson Building, with its hospital- Books of Hatboro, Pennsylvania, and to harsh ambience, the new Manuscript their quarterly of new book releases. Reading Room is evenly bright, quiet, Correspondence there brought me to and altogether progress. Irene Rouse, a used book dealer in near- Because I have a synoptical field, by Alexandria, Virginia, whose specialty because I don't know what I'll like or is folklore. My interest in American find of interest until after I've read it, frontier humor led me to Walter Blair at because the heading miscellaneous might the University of Chicago, who wrote be as likely to contain the piece that I the first studies in this century on this would want to perform as much as any genre. He suggested different collections other classification in the WPA manu- of stories and gave me copies of a few he scripts, be it life history, social-ethnic thought I might really enjoy. Since com- studies, or the folklore project, I enjoy ing to Washington, I have met Professor having the large indexes, for they give me Larry Mintz of the University of Mary- the hope that I might finish someday. land who edits American Humor, An In- That there is so much material is terdisciplinary Newsletter. His publica- ultimately a happy prospect for me but I tion and knowledge have brought me worry just the same. Therefore when the great rewards, for he leads me to books, Haywood book or the 1943 Check-List

'The staff used this name for the room in which the WPA collections of the Archive of Folk Song and the Music Division were housed. 220 American Archivist / Spring 1985

of Recorded Songs in the English , in taking all Language in the Archive of American the different banjo songs recorded prior Folk Song to July, 1940 became avail- to 1950 and putting them together on able to me, I was happy to get them, tape, so all this good banjo music will be snapped them up, for even though gathered like an encyclopedia. Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/48/2/217/2747265/aarc_48_2_375v82u275q0711p.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 dated, they were not obsolete and pro- To a far greater extent than the in- vide some concision to my interests. strumental music of the British Isles, Three important musical scholars for me banjo music in the U.S. is learned usual- have been Charles Wolfe of Middle Ten- ly in an oral manner. Even the wide nessee State University, Art Rosenbaum usage now of tablatures, which are a of the University of , and Joseph schematic description of banjo playing T. Wilson, Director of the National —the how of the tune, the what, the Council for the Traditional Arts. They time values, and the rhythm—is not as are all archivists, historians, field clear in this system as in standard nota- workers, and authors and have intro- tion. Much of my learning has been duced me to musician-informants in from people or records, going straight their areas. Their collecting has led to from their sound to my hearing, and my collecting, and I am currently ready- sensing the tune and remembering it and ing some tapes for submission to the Ar- thinking it in my mind and then finding chive here. it with my fingers. In this music of in- I have found it challenging to work dividualists and stylists, where per- with the musical materials at the Archive sonality and playing are indivisible, it is of Folk Culture, as it is now known. The best to start with the ear rather than the music on the reference tapes is dense and eye. This is a music where style, the closely packed, and, because the tapes sound, is as significant as (or perhaps reflect the eclecticism and the sequence more so than) the melody, given the of the collection, I have found myself essential simplicity of the tunes. It must distracted by performances on my way be heard to be understood. with the fast-forward lever to find what I On the other hand, the stories I per- set out to locate. Because the banjo form are often written, literate imita- music, for instance, is so scattered in its tions of oral events. Often the economy numbering, there is a lot of it and it is all and selectivity of the written story is over, it is hard to get a continuous more direct and contextually clear than a uninterrupted listening session going for verbatim transcription of a person talk- oneself in an afternoon at the Archive. ing might be. In the best life stories of the One must go from tape to tape, one song Federal Writers Project, there is little here by an artist on one tape, and then wandering and much immediacy; a por- another by him on a different tape. This trait is being made. In the lesser pieces is not always the case and certainly less there is more prolixity and diminished so with more contemporary tapes, but communication. The criteria I use in fortunately, for me, another bibliogra- selecting pieces is what delights me. I ask pher, Robert Clayton, again under the myself, does the piece engage me and en- direction of Joe Hickerson, put together trance me? Would I be proud to perform an eighty-eight page bibliography of it? Is it moving? Is it interesting and banjo songs in the collection as part of compelling to the uncommitted? Does it his master's thesis. I am now involved have dramatic relevance? To what extent with Reference Librarian Gerry Parsons is it universal? and with , head of the The interpolation of tunes and words Shorter Features 221

is conditioned by what I think the tone the majority of pieces I do are verbatim of the piece might be and by my limita- though edited pieces of literature tions as a musician/actor who is at- which, after hundreds of performances, tempting an ambidextrous activity in the fascinate me still and, I hope, delight same way a concert pianist plays with others. I believe that the stories Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/48/2/217/2747265/aarc_48_2_375v82u275q0711p.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 each hand different parts, simultaneous- and the music have a depth and ly. In an interaction between my director an endless changing diverse quality and myself we discuss the interpretation because they are near the bone, where it of the pieces and often he suggests is sweetest; they are close, because peo- devices in the performance or in the text ple like you archivists have made it which might help it to reach the au- possible for others, like me, to get to the dience. Sometimes we might alter a life up close, to get to the raw materials. story's context or else anneal elements to I can't thank you enough. create a different mood, but usually,

Early in January 1981, Stephen Wade began a three-week engagement at the Arena Stage in Washington, D. C. This engagement has never ended and is now the longest continuing perfor- mance in that city's history. Even before coming to Washington, Wade was seeking in archival repositories materials for "Banjo Dancing," his story-telling, singing, clogging, banjo-playing one-person show. Washington and its various repositories, and particularly the Library of Con- gress, has become, for Wade, richly productive. It is rare, perhaps unique, for such an artist to narrate for an audience of archivists and curators his experiences in locating, adapting, and transforming such materials into live perfor- mances. Even without the banjo playing and the dancing with which he illustrated points in his talk, Wade's words capture the cadences of his stage presentations. This article was presented at the 48th annual meeting of the Society of American Archivists, 3 September 1984, Washington, D.C.