Collection
Now What a Time: Blues, Gospel, and the Fort Valley Music Festivals, 1938 to 1943
Noncommercial Recordings: The 1940s
1940
In the later 1930s Lawrence Gellert's field trips ended, and by 1940 the Library of Congress was less involved in field recordings in the Southeast. The only known field recordings from the Southeast during the 1940s were made at an unlikely venue at first sight--a black teachers' college in central Georgia. Fort Valley State College in Perry County, south of Macon, was actually a…
1941 and 1942
The first festival recordings were made in 1941 by John Work from Nashville's Fisk University. The preliminary contest was held at 5:00 PM and the final took place at 7:30 PM on Thursday, March 6, with "Mr. W. C. Handy, Mr. Alan Lomax as guests." Unfortunately, Work's name was omitted from the official program, whereas Lomax did not attend. On the Friday the festival…
1943
J. F. Duffy and Alvin Sanders. The Peachite Vol. II, No. 2, Folk Festival Number, March 1944. Used with permission of Time Life Syndication. The 1943 festival, held on Friday, March 5, and Sunday, March 7, was again recorded. Willis James recorded AFS discs 6986 to 6993, of which the first half were of secular music. These comprised two sides by Buster Brown, a…
1944 and 1945
In 1973 Pete Lowry and I made a brief search to locate survivors from these early festivals, as well as a check of Houston and Perry County death records. While we found no trace of many performers, we quickly realized how parochial these events had been. Within a few hours, we had located John Amica, Jack Hudson, and Gus Gibson still living in or…
1950 to 1955
By the early 1950s the festival was dying. Nineteen fifty-four saw the last secular folk festival and the following year the last of sacred music. Changing attitudes among students caused it to close, for students so ridiculed folk artists that they refused to attend.13 Registration sheets exist dated Friday, March 30, 1951. Dolphus "Gus" Gibson played an "original composition," "Boogie Blues," and "Step It…
Conclusion
Thus ended a truly fascinating decade and a half of festivals at Fort Valley. Apart from a few recordings at Virginia's Hampton Institute, they constitute the only known noncommercial recordings of blues in the Southeast from the 1940s. They provide the link between pre- and postwar recordings and offer unparalleled evidence of both persistence and change in the music. With no preconceived notions--although a…
1940 In the later 1930s Lawrence Gellert's field trips ended, and by 1940 the Library of Congress was less involved in field recordings in the Southeast. The only known field recordings from the Southeast during the 1940s were made at an unlikely venue at first sight--a black teachers' college in central Georgia. Fort Valley State College in Perry County, south of Macon, was actually a…
1941 and 1942 The first festival recordings were made in 1941 by John Work from Nashville's Fisk University. The preliminary contest was held at 5:00 PM and the final took place at 7:30 PM on Thursday, March 6, with "Mr. W. C. Handy, Mr. Alan Lomax as guests." Unfortunately, Work's name was omitted from the official program, whereas Lomax did not attend. On the Friday the festival…
1943 J. F. Duffy and Alvin Sanders. The Peachite Vol. II, No. 2, Folk Festival Number, March 1944. Used with permission of Time Life Syndication. The 1943 festival, held on Friday, March 5, and Sunday, March 7, was again recorded. Willis James recorded AFS discs 6986 to 6993, of which the first half were of secular music. These comprised two sides by Buster Brown, a…
1944 and 1945 In 1973 Pete Lowry and I made a brief search to locate survivors from these early festivals, as well as a check of Houston and Perry County death records. While we found no trace of many performers, we quickly realized how parochial these events had been. Within a few hours, we had located John Amica, Jack Hudson, and Gus Gibson still living in or…
1950 to 1955 By the early 1950s the festival was dying. Nineteen fifty-four saw the last secular folk festival and the following year the last of sacred music. Changing attitudes among students caused it to close, for students so ridiculed folk artists that they refused to attend.13 Registration sheets exist dated Friday, March 30, 1951. Dolphus "Gus" Gibson played an "original composition," "Boogie Blues," and "Step It…
Conclusion Thus ended a truly fascinating decade and a half of festivals at Fort Valley. Apart from a few recordings at Virginia's Hampton Institute, they constitute the only known noncommercial recordings of blues in the Southeast from the 1940s. They provide the link between pre- and postwar recordings and offer unparalleled evidence of both persistence and change in the music. With no preconceived notions--although a…