KFW Artist Enrichment Grant

We are pleased to formally announce that our project was recently awarded an Artist Enrichment grant from the Kentucky Foundation for Women (KFW), whose "mission is to promote positive social change by supporting varied feminist expression in the arts." This is the long-awaited prospect that I've been alluding to for a while, and we can now officially share our good news! 

The KFW Hot-Flash e-newsletter included a short blurb about all of the Artist Enrichment recipients and their projects: "Tammy Clemons and Timi Reedy ... to support a documentary project about bluegrass musicians Frances and John Reedy, focusing on Frances’ musicianship, songwriting and lead vocal talent. The project will strengthen the applicants’ collaboration and filmmaking skills, help them develop a collective artistic vision and expand their experience as grassroots Appalachian activists."

It's not clear whether a wide-range press release has gone out yet, but interestingly, I found a press release about another recipient that includes a reference to our award alongside that of Elizabeth Barret from Appalshop. We're extremely honored to be included among such distinguished feminist artists and activists that KFW has long-supported and promoted. 

It's also important that our project is recognized as a consciously feminist endeavor. The Artist Enrichment proposal process was very insightful and helped us articulate the core feminist component of not only this project but all of our work.* 

Feminist Understanding, Practice and Nature of Artwork
Our primary understanding and practice of feminism, in everyday life and artistic creation, is the holistic philosophy of ecofeminism, which recognizes the interdependence of all life, the interconnection of all forms of human oppression, and the the relationship between the domination of both humans and the environment. The most concrete example of ecofeminist sustainability as well as art in our lives is the homestead we have created over the past 12 years. Much of our time and energy has been spent planning and building our house (which was under construction for about five years, two of which we lived in it amidst its unfolding).

All stages of the process were informed by extensive research in sustainability practices, and the solar dome that we built with our community's help is an inspiring sculpture that comprises numerous aesthetic layers and patterns and represents ecofeminist solidarity. Our house-building process has been our primary focus, but we have consciously approached its construction in light of its interdependence with the ecosystem. As we shift from our home to the land as the center of our creative ecofeminist efforts, we continue exploring practical and aesthetic sustainability through low-impact, yet beautiful agricultural design.

For us, ecofeminism necessarily integrates and embodies both theory and practice as a form of consciousness, a way of life, and a form of creative expression. With our house complete, we are able to engage in more contemplative activities and more focused artistic projects. The Reedy documentary is a natural progression of our commitment to ecofeminism as it seeks to tell a story about the artistic contributions of Frances Reedy on equal footing with her husband and the impact they had on regional heritage. Timi is in an especially unique position to tell Frances' her-story as her granddaughter and as a radical ecofeminist with deep Appalachian roots. 

Relationship Between Art and Social Change
Art can be a unifying force and language for individuals and communities to express their struggles, hopes, fantasies, and even nightmares. Art can be provocative as social commentary, and likewise oppression and injustice can provoke the creation of artwork and coalitions that challenge accepted behavior and model alternative possibilities. In the most general sense, art has been central to all great social development and movements throughout human history. 

As homesteaders, community activists, and cultural scholars, we consider all of these activities to be inextricably related in terms of holism, aestheticism, and social change. For us, grassroots organizing is an art-form that we try to embody in all aspects of our lives. Likewise, homesteading is both a practical and aesthetic form of activism as we attempt to model sustainable living that is modest, comfortable, and technologically innovative. As artists and cultural leaders, we consciously engage in communities that share a commitment to social change and the harnessing different forms of human creativity and expression as a tool for communication and community-building.  

Work Sample and Its Relationship to Feminism, Social Change and Proposed Activities

As Appalachian ecofeminists, we have focused most of our amateur filmmaking efforts on creating storytelling portraits of the people, culture, and geography that we call home. The Appalachia portrayed in the five short pieces on the DVD work sample is one in which ancestors are honored, relationships are celebrated, and contemporary technology is used creatively and responsibly. These pieces also reflect our ongoing commitment to and practice of ecofeminist principles of diversity, sustainability, and community.

• ComMERJal (30 sec.)
• Family Picture (3 min.)
• Go-Go Gloria Gospel (2.5 min.)
• Holidays with Frances (6 min.)
• Completing the Circle: A Labor of Love (3 min.)
• Total Time: 15 min. 

Social Change Impact
This project is fundamental to both of our ecofeminist identities and personal struggles and development of consciousness. First and foremost, this project honors important ancestors, whether a direct family relationship between Timi and her Mamaw Frances or the broader relationship that we have with the Appalachian geography and culture we call home. The documentary will also serve as a direct commentary about the way in which Frances' contributions were less recognized and a reclamation of 'herstory' as an equal partner with her husband. Ultimately, this project will also engender feminist vindication through the act of unearthing, documenting, and declaring Appalachia's unsung legacy of Frances Reedy.
...
Another long-term goal is to broadcast the completed documentary as an educational and cultural production on public television as well as to submit it for consideration at various relevant film festivals. The project's ultimate impact is directly related to its engagement of a broad audience both within and beyond the region, and such distribution outlets would provide ample opportunity for public discourse and community empowerment. This process will also expand our own experience as community organizers as we convene conversations through a new outlet. We also hope to digitally-re-master an anthology of the Reedys’ music for professional production and re-release to a new generation.

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On Friday, we had a conference call to KFW to discuss the reviewers' feedback in greater detail. Grant coordinator Rae Strobel was very helpful in identifying some areas where our production timeline and technical expertise could be strengthened. We also discussed a hopeful prospect for matching our funds to accomplish a key part of our original proposal. So I'll wait and provide more details as that opportunity unfolds...

In the meantime, we're incredibly grateful to be supported by a Kentucky-based feminist organization that recognizes the value of this project. Thanks to KFW for the amazing work they do to support feminist artists around the state! 

*The sections on feminism, art, and social change and their relationship to our project are excerpted from our KFW Artist Enrichment proposal.

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UPDATE:
(26 Jan. 10:44 am)

The 2009 KFW Artist Enrichment grant recipients have been posted to their website!

Final Fellowship Report

We have finished the formal time-commitment for our 3-month research fellowship in the Berea College Special Collections and Sound Archives, and we offer this final report* as follow-up to our previous update on our overall fellowship goals and accomplishments. As with our mid-point report, this final reflection also follows the same general categories of project implementation as our proposed research timeline. Rather than repeat our previous findings and activities, this report includes only brief summaries of past work and more detail about recent outcomes. In addition to the narrative summary of our activities, this report also includes extensive supporting documentation reflecting our actual work product.

1. New Research and Documentation:
As previously noted, we conducted supplemental research on Frances and John Reedy in the John Lair, Reuben Powell, and Ed Ward collections.

John Lair's business correspondence offered some promising clues about the Reedys' possible inclusion in some of the Renfro Valley “units” of performers who traveled to various venues such as schools, civic clubs, and communities in the region. Harry Rice cautioned that the transcripts would likely only include the stars who regularly appeared in the radio programming. So it was no surprise that a complete review of the Renfro Valley Barn Dance transcripts from 1938—December 1961; Monday Night at Renfro Valley, August 1940-- April 1941; Renfro Valley Morning Shows, October 1944--December 1950; and the Renfro Valley Country Store, January—December 1951 resulted in no explicit or implied documentation of the Reedys, even in the occasional references to guest musicians or “extras” in addition to the regular cast of Renfro Valley stars.

Because of the substantial volume of transcripts, we only began to review the transcripts for the Sunday morning Gatherin' program, which is more promising because the Reedys were mostly recognized as a gospel bluegrass band. Therefore, we plan to return to Special Collections beyond our formal fellowship period and continue examining the complete set of transcripts. Likewise, we will explore additional boxes of “miscellaneous” materials in the Reuben Powell collection in our extended research at the library. And as noted previously, the cassette dubs of “Oh Death” and “Prayer is Worth More than Silver or Gold” from the Ed Ward collection were helpful dubs from Side A of a 45 record (Starday SEP 166) that we did not have in our existing collection. We would still like to acquire digital copies of several versions of “Somebody Touched Me” by various artists in the Sound Archives. Altogether, we reviewed over 33 boxes worth of material over the 3-month research period. (See Appendix 1: Outline of Archive Collections Reviewed.)

Based on additional miscellaneous memorabilia from Frances that we discovered and donated, we were able to update the family timeline with further detail about the Reedys' whereabouts at certain time periods. Previously, it appeared that they migrated full-time to Dayton, Ohio, coming home on the weekends, between the early 1950's and mid-1960's. However, postmarked envelopes, school records, etc. indicate that the Reedys' migration during that period was also broken into alternating 5—6 month residencies in Ohio and Kentucky. Thus, the Reedys never completely migrated away from their native home even while they worked in Dayton for more than a decade. (See Appendix 2: Reedy Family Timeline.) 

2. Processing and Digitizing New Materials:
We organized, digitized, and processed an inspiring amount of donated materials from Frances' music and manuscript collection for incorporation into Special Collections and Sound Archives. The commercial recordings by the Reedys that we donated include:

• First 78 rpm recording “Somebody Touched Me”
• 14 of 18 known 45 rpm records
• Tragic Songs of Death and Sorrow LP
• Hymns from the Hills of Harlan County LP
• Early Days of Bluegrass, Vol. 1 LP
• On My Way to Heaven 8-Track

Homemade recordings that we donated, almost all of which are archived in their original formats, include:

• 15 Reel-to-Reel Tapes
• More than 20 Cassette Tapes
• 1980 Christmas Home Video (DVD converted from original VHS)
• 1996 Oral History Interviews: Bluegrass Music & Forest (VHS & Audio Cassettes)

John Bondurant, Sound Sound Preservation and Access Assistant, digitized all of the reel-to-reel tapes and about half of the cassette tapes for us. So we get to keep a copy of the original material that is being archived, and the library will have a digital back-up as well. Timi's stepmother converted the Christmas video from the original VHS to DVD, and we had the original oral history VHS converted to DVD, both of which we copied for the archive. In addition to the digital video, we further exported both as audio files, including separate song tracks for the Christmas set list, and archived CD's of these as well.

Throughout the three-month fellowship, we've scanned more than 400 images, including more than 40 labels from 45's and LP's, about 40 musician photos (of the Reedys as well as other musicians, including an autographed photo of Bill Monroe), and over 200 family photos. In addition to scanning, other important archival material from our mid-point update (such as newspaper clippings, liner notes, and a radio station brochure), we scanned other memorabilia that we discovered Frances kept (such as correspondence, post-marked envelopes, school records, and obituaries). All of this new information enabled us to update the timeline of their lives and musical careers.

All of the original memorabilia and most of the original photographs that were scanned will also be archived along with the recordings. At this point, the manuscript materials are sorted by category, most of them protected by archival sleeves as necessary. There are some remaining images that are in the correct folder but need to be sorted and sleeved, but otherwise the Reedy manuscript collection is almost complete. Given the time constraints of the fellowship and the priority of the Reedys, we decided to forego digitizing all of the vinyl recordings by other artists that will remain in the Sound Archives. Rather, we selectively digitized the recordings we wanted to keep copies of; we also decided not to scan the labels of commercial recordings by other musicians. We still need to make a list of folder titles and contents, which we hope to complete before we resume archival research by the end of the month. As discussed with Harry, the Reedy collection will remain “open” for a time as we will continue to unearth photos, song lyrics, and other memorabilia as we sort through additional boxes of materials at home. 

3. Comprehensive Inventory and Finding Aid:
Through the creation and revision of the master discography (including track lists, record labels, approximate recording dates, etc.), we made substantial progress toward developing a comprehensive finding aid of Reedy materials in Special Collections. (See Appendix 3: Master Discography.) The spreadsheet includes individual pages with track lists for all known commercial recordings; all homemade reel-to-reel recordings; all cassette recordings (that have been digitized to date); and audio converted from video footage. We anticipated accomplishing more on completing this particular phase of the project (i.e., comprehensive photo logs for all of the photographs that we have scanned and are donating to Special Collections). However, we are still committed to developing a useful and cohesive finding aid to assist other researchers. We have a substantial amount of narrative about the Reedys' history from our fellowship proposal, reports, and blog, so we plan to complete a draft by the end of the month. 

Final Fellowship Reflections:
Another major accomplishment over the course of the fall semester was our graduation from the Community Scholar program sponsored by the Kentucky Folklife Program and the Kentucky Historical Society. Among our project requirements was conducting an oral history, so we chose to interview Berea College Sound Archivist Harry Rice. He was an extremely gracious participant and had many interesting stories to tell about his background and his work at the library. We enjoyed getting to know him better and gained an even greater appreciation for his depth of knowledge. (See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9virUD7AqpE.)

We had planned to complete another oral history project with David Lundy, owner of Lundy Studio in Barbourville, Kentucky where the Reedys recorded multiple 45's, an LP, and presumably the 8-track. Harry was also interested in meeting Mr. Lundy to find out more about his work and the extent of his own collection of recordings. We scheduled a day for the interview, but unfortunately we both got really sick for almost a week. We have attempted to contact Mr. Lundy again, but have yet to reschedule. As the next major phase for the documentary will be beginning to conduct interviews and gather footage, we plan to make Mr. Lundy the first on our list and to include Harry on our visit.

Much of our energy near the end of the fellowship was spending as much time in the archives as possible and preparing for the final public presentation that we shared with fellow Meredith Doster on Friday, December 18, 2009. We edited an abbreviated oral history video with historical images that were scanned, and developed PowerPoint slides summarizing the materials we archived and the research we gathered. We also created a “mash-up” of two songs, each by Frances and John to one another, so that each song sang a verse in turn. (See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfHy87ebIGw, Appendix 4: Presentation Slides, and http://yourlisten.com/channel/content/29202/Tiny_Bitty_Pieces_Knockin_On_Your_Door.) 

The presentation was immensely helpful in terms of quantifying the amount of materials that we sorted through, digitized, identified, organized, and donated. It was also a catalyst to incorporate various forms of media into a creative product that would be accessible to a broad audience. With more than 20 people at the presentation, the experience was also socially informative and affirmed that the Reedys' stories are worthy of preserving and telling.

The fellowship presentation was a wonderful experience, but as many of our audience members agreed, time seemed too short. We shared an hour-long slot with another fellow, but we neither got a full half hour out of it. So it was very challenging to share the breadth of the material we had to work with or to savor the unique and abundant variety of recorded documentation that the Reedys created. We are very pleased and proud to be reprising our research presentation at the upcoming Appalachian Studies Conference in March. We will have a 70-minute timeslot for our multi-media presentation, so we are excited about incorporating more of the original material with what we've already done. 

A final ongoing and significant project throughout the fellowship has been our blog, “Remembering the Reedys: Appalachian Music, Migration, and Memory” (http://remembreedy.blogspot.com). To date, we have posted 17 blog updates since August 2009, and the posting of this report will make 18. We have used the blog to share our fellowship proposal and reports, selected images, unusual findings, a discography, the family timeline, videos, a detailed reflection on our presentation, and more. Now that the fellowship is officially over, we plan to continue using the blog as an interactive format to share updates about our ongoing documentary project. (See Appendix 5: Screenshot of Reedy Blog.)

We still have plans to develop a radio program, and hope to collaborate with a relevant media organization like Appalshop. We also began an account on BlogTalkRadio.com, which is a free online hosting service for creating and streaming homemade podcasts. This is another avenue for media-sharing that we plan to explore. Finally, we ultimately want to remaster and release a compilation CD of Reedy recordings, both commercial and home-spun, and to produce a feature-length documentary film about the phenomenal lives and legacies of Frances and John Reedy. 

Before the fellowship even began, our friend and Berea College Archivist, Jaime Bradley commented on the ambitiousness of our proposed activities. We knew that what we aspired to accomplish was breath-taking in its scope and potential, which is why we so are so passionately committed to do what we said we would do, even after the formal fellowship has ended. Overall, we documented more than 240 hours of fellowship-related activity in the archives and occasionally at home. (See Appendix 6: Fellowship Log.) However, this is a modest representation of our total time spent on this project as we did not formally document the numerous hours spent locating and sorting through stored photographs and memorabilia or listening to and identifying CD's of the reel-to-reel material in the car or at home. 

We are humbly indebted to the Anne Ray Charitable Trust for making the Appalachian Sound Archives Fellowship possible in the first place. Their generosity supports not only our particular project, but the work of a diverse range of researchers who are making necessary and important contributions to Appalachian scholarship. We are also forever grateful to all of the amazing staff at the Berea College Special Collections and Archives for their friendly, consistent, and valuable assistance throughout the fall.

*Printable PDF versions of this report and supporting appendices are linked throughout this post.

Fellowship Presentation Follow-up

Our fellowship presentation went very well!  And while the campus was fairly deserted for the holidays and the weather was pretty yucky, about 20+ people attended the set of research presentations, including Timi's sister and her boyfriend and other close friends. The refreshments were much appreciated, and the media classroom was a cozy and mostly effective location.  As promised, I'm following up to share some of the presentation materials that we developed for our fellowship finale.  I'll also be preparing another formal report for the conclusion of our funded research, so that will be available soon as well.

After a nice introduction by Harry Rice, we briefly introduced ourselves and why we were there.  But we decided to save the bulk of our commentary until Frances had already spoken for herself.  So we then shared the following 10-minute oral history video, which was edited from a 20-minute interview about her musical background that was originally conducted by Timi and shot by Mark Spencer for Appalachia--Science in the Public Interest (ASPI).  This abbreviated version also includes historical photographs wherever possible to illustrate what Frances is talking about.  There is also an excerpt from the first commercial recording by John Reedy and the Stone Mountain Hillbillies.

Needless to say, Frances charmed everyone in the room with her open hospitality, colorful storytelling, idiosyncracies, and accomplishments.  It was especially powerful to watch the video projected on a large screen with a sound system; it felt like we were sitting in the same room with her as she rocked in her chair and talked about her amazing musical history.  The additional images also added a whole new dimension as she described particular people and experiences.

We had planned to show an additional video excerpt from Frances and John Reedy's last recorded performance on Christmas in 1980, but there simply wasn't enough time to say everything and show everything we had hoped.  However, both videos were on the DVD that I prepared and gave to Harry to include in the Reedy collection in the Sound Archives.

We then shared a few presentation slides to summarize and illustrate our overall activities throughout the three-month fellowship.  Some of the images have previously been posted on the blog, but several are new photos or different versions.  The first introductory slide includes some images from the video oral history as well as an additional photo of Frances as a very young mother with her sons Harold and Tim.  She truly glows with love, contentment, and unmeasurable beauty.

Near the end of our presentation, we discussed the interesting twist that Frances and John's relationship took when they briefly divorced in the early 1960's.  We showed the newspaper reference to the writing of "Tiny Bitty Pieces," mentioned that John wrote his own entreaty "Knockin' on Your Door," and showed the photograph that Frances cut in half and never put back together.  Then I played part of a very rough "mash-up" that I made in which Frances and John's pair of love-lost lyrics were in conversation with one another, aptly dubbed "Tiny Bitty Pieces Knockin' on Your Door."  The story of the image with the two songs bantering back and forth tickled all our funny bones.

The presentation was extremely well-received and left everyone longing for more.  Even if we'd had a full half hour, time seemed too short to do justice to our research and the Reedys' story.  However, we're encouraged that we have ample material for our 70-minute multi-media presentation at the Appalachian Studies Conference.  Part of the challenge of a shorter timeframe was our desire to share more of their music on its own terms.  Other than teasers and excerpts, it's impossible to condense real-time audio and video the way that commentary can be sped up or abbreviated.  

We also experienced some inevitable technical difficulties that we overcame as best we could.  The DVD program that we used to show the video inadvertently changed settings and truncated the image on the top and bottom.  Also, the Dogpatch photo was somehow missing from the slide for the mash-up, so I had to manually locate it.  The media set-up was a little cramped with the laptop connection and podium by the door, so people entering and leaving seemed to feel a little more conspicuous.  Overall, the media room provided appropriate and effective means to share the multiple formats of material for our presentation.  

A final challenge that we noticed was that a couple of folks had difficulty locating it!  Fellowship presentations typically take place in the main lobby area of the library, so it's easily discernible when people enter the building and also invites curious onlookers who might not otherwise attend.  One of our friends came to the library, thought he was in the wrong place, and walked all the way across campus to the Appalachian Center to look for it.  He ended up having to go back to his office to read the email to discover that the presentation was on the ground floor of the library!  It would have been helpful to post some signage in the library lobby where the presentations typically occur in order to direct people to the alternate location.

It was clear that the audience thoroughly enjoyed the content and mode of our presentation and project.  Several people lingered to ask questions and exclaim about the Reedys' accomplishments and the origin of the well-loved gospel song, "Somebody Touched Me."  The response was certainly encouraging, and the experience for us was very moving as well.  It was an emotional journey for Timi and her sister to see their grandmother projected larger-than-life and appreciated for her true gifts.  It was apparent that we are on the right path to help tell the Reedys' story and preserve their many contributions to regional history and music.

Afterward, we shared a celebration sushi dinner with Timi's sister and her boyfriend!  In spite of the gloomy weather, we all felt inspired and uplifted by a successful and enjoyable presentation in honor of Frances and John Reedy. We are incredibly grateful to Harry Rice, John Bondourant, Jaime Bradley, and all of the other folks in the Berea College Special Collections and Archives for the opportunity to work with them on our fellowship project.

Fellowship Presentation 12/18

As our Fellowship draws to a close, we are excited about what we've accomplished and what remains to be done! 

We are very busy digitizing 45's and additional photos we found...

 ...sifting through archival collections...

...and now preparing for our Fellowship presentation!

We will be sharing an hour-long presentation with another Sound Archives Fellow (Meredith Doster) on Friday, December 18 at 3:00 p.m. at the Berea College Hutchins Library.  We're not sure which room yet, but it will likely be one of the multi-media classrooms downstairs on the ground floor. The event is open to the public, and there will be light refreshments.

We would love to see some of our friends, colleagues, and supporters next Friday even though it's close to the holiday. Rest assured, there will be other presentations in the future as well. We were recently informed that our multi-media proposal for the Appalachian Studies Conference in March was accepted, so we're also looking forward to updating all the happy Appy folks in Georgia!

Harry Rice Oral History *

The following oral history interview with Harry Rice, Berea College Sound Archivist, covers a variety of topics, including Harry's personal and educational background; his work in Special Collections and Sound Archives; the Appalachian Music/Sound Archives Fellowship; and the significance of Frances and John Reedy's music and documentation.

We learned a lot about Harry that we didn't know in terms of where he grew up and went to college. Timi was surprised and pleased to learn that he had lived and worked in the counties and towns in Eastern Kentucky that she is most familiar with (Barbourville, Corbin, etc.). Harry answered most of our prepared questions without being prompted and in general was an excellent interviewee who needed little guidance. He also offered some good insights about oral histories and archives that are inspiring and useful.

The overall interview is about 40 minutes long, which is relatively short given Harry's background, knowledge, and experience. There is especially much more that could be said about the Reedy project in particular, so we anticipate that we would like to interview him again at some point. He also has a special interest in David Lundy of Lundy Records in Barbourville, and he would like to meet with him in the near future to discuss his recollections and musical collections. We hope to facilitate this meeting in addition to setting up an oral history interview with Mr. Lundy. 

* We conducted this interview with Harry Rice in conjunction with our Appalachian Sound Archives Fellowship as well as the Community Scholars Program sponsored by the Kentucky Folklife Program.  The contextual information is excerpted from the corresponding "Interview Log" and "Field Notes" that we completed as part of our overall graduation requirements to become Community Scholars.

Frankie & Johnny at Dogpatch

An Archival Document Analysis Exercise*

 

 

John and Frances Reedy at Dogpatch, KY

This photo is of John and Frances Reedy, and they appear to be in their 20's or 30's. Their real clothes are not visible because they are posing with their heads peeking through cut-outs in a painted set. The costume cut-out is of a stereotypical hillbilly man and woman.

John and Frances are clearly having a good time posing for the photo. Because it is a novelty photograph, they were likely visiting a tourist destination, but they may or may not have been visiting as tourists. Because the photo was cut in half and remained in separate pieces in Frances' collection of photos, this picture also more subtly depicts John and Frances at another, later stage in life when they were briefly divorced.

The photo was taken in the daytime at Dogpatch, Kentucky, a tourist destination in Eastern Kentucky. The exact date is difficult to determine because we can not see John and Frances' real clothing, but in comparison to other photos of them at similar ages, the photo was likely taken in the late 1940's or early 1950's. Again, it would be easier to tell the season of the year based on their actual clothing, but the little glimpse of leaves on the tree in the upper right-hand corner indicate it was probably during spring or summer.

The only really visible objects in the photo include the wooden costume cut-out, a wooden fence behind it, a telephone pole in the distance behind it, and the small patch of leaves on a tree in the upper right-hand corner. The sign on the fence is clearly a helpful reference that identifies their exact location. Otherwise, the most telling aspects of the photo are the significance of both the hillbilly costumes and the severing of familial ties when Frances cut the photo in two.

The picture was probably taken by a professional photographer for a fee since it was a staged scene at a tourist destination. However, it is also possible that people were allowed to take their own photos with the cut-out as the setting, in which case it could have been taken by a family member such as John's brother or sisters. The purpose of the photo is ambiguous because John and Frances were originally from Harlan, Kentucky, so the hillbilly photo would represent a different novelty than for the typical tourist at Dogpatch.

This photograph tells a couple of stories, both within the actual timeframe when it was taken as well as temporally beyond it's creation to when it was at least partially destroyed by being cut in half. The hillbilly costumes likely represent John and Frances' Appalachian heritage and love for their native home during a time when they had already moved to Dayton, Ohio to work in the factories. This would most likely place the timing of the photo during the 1950's as they were living in Dayton by around 1953. While they lived in Ohio during the workweek, they traveled home to Kentucky every weekend, so the trip to Dogpatch could have either been a pleasure visit or a destination where the Reedys were booked for a musical performance. The hillbilly costumes are also a play on the Reedy's sometime musical moniker as the “Stone Mountain Hillbillies.”

They appear happy, and the hillbilly cut-out emulates their status as a couple. This makes the subsequent story about the rending of the photograph even more significant, as the severing of the couple in the picture symbolically represents the separation of the couple later in real life. The fact that Frances never taped the picture back together also implies that she may never have fully forgiven her husband, but nevertheless she kept both halves in a keepsake box with other family photos.

It would be helpful to know the actual date of the photo, which would make more clear the relevance of their visit and the photograph when it was taken. It would also be good to know more about Dogpatch as a tourist destination and whether it was also a musical venue at which they might have played. John and Frances' son Tim Reedy or one of his cousins might be able to provide more information about the timing and purpose of their visit to Dogpatch.

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* The archival document analysis exercise was one of our graduation requirements for our Community Scholar program. Items for analysis included artifacts, documents, or photographs. The exercise included several questions as a guide to the kinds of observations to make and document, but it flowed even better when I removed them to create a cohesive narrative. This picture had too much to tell to not use it for the analysis, and its stories are too interesting not to share.  

p.s. We're now officially certified as Community Scholars! It's good to be recognized for something we already are...

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UPDATE:
(20 Dec. 4:56 pm)

Here's the press release about the Community Scholars graduates: http://history.ky.gov/news.php?articleID=330&pageid=16&sectionid=5. It erroneously refers to the graduates as "Fourteen Laurel Countians," when the class simply took place in London. There were several folks from Laurel County, but also from Rockcastle, Harlan, Madison, Rowen, Jackson, and Casey Counties!

Fellowship Goals & Accomplishments Update

We have just reached the mid-point of our research fellowship in the Berea College Special Collections and Sound Archives, and so Harry Rice asked for a brief update on our original fellowship goals and the progress we've made thus far. The details of our research plan were articulated and outlined in the residency timeframe of our fellowship proposal. Therefore, this reflection on our activities thus far follows the same general categories of project implementation as our proposed research timeline. 

1. New Research and Documentation:

A primary component of our fellowship, of course, was conducting new research on Frances and John Reedy (primarily) and their contemporaries (secondarily) in the Berea College Special Collections manuscript and audio archives. We originally identified several promising collections that we thought would likely include some reference to the Reedys. For example, one of the main collections for review was the John Lair papers and corresponding audio to look for any documentation of the Reedys at Renfro Valley. 

According to the family timeline we've compiled based on family documents, excerpts of a video oral history with Frances, and Timi's own recollections, the Reedys would most likely have played at Renfro Valley between the early 1940's and early 1950's (prior to their temporary migration to Dayton, Ohio) and between the mid-1960's and mid- to late-1970's. At this point, we have examined all of John Lair's relevant business correspondence and publicity as well as about a quarter of the relevant radio program transcripts; however, so far there are only a couple clues and no direct documentation of their presence there.

John Lair's business correspondence alluded to some of the Renfro Valley “units” of performers who traveled to various venues such as schools, civic clubs, and communities in the region. This could possibly correlate to Frances' recollections of the different places they played. For example, we found among her memorabilia an old ticket stub of a “Hill-Billy Show,” and a Renfro Valley booking agent uses this same phrase in a 1943 letter to responding to an inquiry about bringing performers to their community. “I could not give you a Renfro Valley Name Show for $550 Per week. However, I could give you a good hill-billy show to play these camps, for that amount.”

A review of the Renfro Valley Barn Dance transcripts from 1938—April 1950 has not surfaced even a minute lead such as this one, although there are occasional references to guest musicians or “extras” in addition to the regular cast of Renfro Valley stars. It seems doubtful that they will be included in subsequent transcripts of that program, but we plan to continue browsing them nonetheless. Since the Reedys were mostly recognized as a gospel bluegrass band, we are more hopeful that they might be referenced in the transcripts for the Sunday morning Gatherin' program.

Another area we planned to explore was the Reuben Powell collection. So far, we have only looked through one box of material focusing on some Renfro Valley festivals, etc. While there was no direct mention of the Reedys, there are several “track lists” of bluegrass festival performances that Reuben Powell recorded, one of which included an interesting lead worth pursuing. The track list for the first annual Bluegrass Festival indicates that Shenandoah Valley Quartet performed “Somebody Touched Me” at the end of their set on Sunday, July 10, 1971. This recording will at least provide another audio version of the song for our collection and may also include a reference to John Reedy as the song's composer and/or how the group came to learn the song. We plan to explore additional manuscripts and recordings in the Reuben Powell collection before our fellowship ends.

A preliminary search of the sound archives database resulted in several recordings by John and/or Frances Reedy on cassette. Two of these, “Oh Death” and “Prayer is Worth More than Silver or Gold,” were in the Ed Ward collection; however, after listening to them, we determined that were dubs of a 45 record, most likely Starday SEP 166 as both songs were included on Side A of that recording. (While these are not live recordings, they are fortuitous because this 45 is one of the few we do not currently have in the collection.) The other three recordings are obviously of another man named John Reedy as they were made in the early 1990's, nearly a decade after Timi's papaw's death. Otherwise, there are several versions of “Somebody Touched Me” by various artists in the Sound Archives that we would like to digitize for comparison at some point. 

2. Processing and Digitizing New Materials:

The other significant set of tasks we set out to accomplish was organizing, digitizing, and processing the donation of Frances' music and manuscript collection for incorporation into Special Collections and Sound Archives for use by other researchers. Because of the volume of material and the urgency to get it into appropriate climate conditions, we ended up spending most of the first month of our fellowship on this task (as opposed to new archival research, which we began in more recent weeks).

Of particular importance was the digitization of several reel-to-reel recordings for which we previously had no way to playback. John converted these tapes to CD so that we could listen and identify titles of songs, participating musicians, and approximate recording dates. We have completed preliminary track-lists for all 15 CD's worth of reel-to-reel material. Most of these are home recordings of jam sessions or what we believe to be multiple takes of songs that they were rehearsing prior to commercial recordings. There is also a tape of performances at an unknown church with additional unknown singers and musicians. Some recordings are of family gatherings, and others are dubs of 45 recordings. One tape included a recording of a radio “infomercial” advertising the release of the Starday Hall of Fame records and playing selected tracks, including “Oh, Death.”
 

These recordings are important because they reveal a process of collaborative musicianship that is sometimes contentious and comical but always fun-loving and focused. They're also valuable because they include a couple of original songs written that were not commercially recorded (i.e., “Parking Meter Blues”) as well as a John singing an unusual medley combining song titles from their repertoire.

We had some difficulty playing cassette tapes ourselves, so John was also able to convert these to CD for us.

We are still in the process of listening and identifying track lists for these 10 CD's, but it's already clear that some of them are dubs of 45's and the reel-to-reel recordings. Fortunately, one of them apparently includes a dub of the single commercial 8-track recording.

In addition to digitizing and identifying audio tracks, we've also scanned a substantial number of images. For example, we've scanned more than 40 labels from 45's and LP's, about 20 musician photos (of the Reedys and others), and over 50 family photos.

We have also scanned other important archival material such as newspaper clippings, liner notes, and a radio station brochure that Frances had kept. This process was sometimes tedious but still illuminating as we discovered material that we hadn't seen before. The newspaper articles and other archival documents have also provided valuable facts, points of reference, and leads that have been useful as we have drafted a timeline of their career and begun researching in the archives.

For the most part, we have completed this phase of our fellowship with the exception of digitizing vinyl recordings that will remain in the Sound Archives. We recently purchased a turntable with a USB connection so we can have digital copies of recordings of not only the Reedys' commercial recordings but other musicians that they collected as well.

Digitizing the Reedy recordings will also enable us to more closely compare different versions of the same song at different times in their lives. 

3. Comprehensive Inventory and Finding Aid:

The final phase of the fellowship is compiling a comprehensive inventory and finding aid of Reedy materials in Special Collections. We have completed a substantial portion of this part of the project already as we created a master discography spreadsheet at the very beginning on and have updated throughout all of the aforementioned activities. For example, while sorting through 45's and scanning labels, we compiled track lists, record labels, approximate recording dates, etc. The spreadsheet now includes additional pages of track-lists for the reel-to-reel tapes and now cassette tapes. We have shared this information with Harry as we have added more detail to the discographies, but this process will likely comprise our primary activity, along with photo logs for all of the photographs that we have scanned and are donating to Special Collections, as our fellowship draws to a close.

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With just over a month remaining, we feel very productive so far, but we also realize that there is still a lot to accomplish, especially in the archival research. This part of the project has been very time-consuming with relatively little reward, which can sometimes be frustrating. However, there is still a lot of valuable information to garner from reading about the Reedys contemporaries and musical industries like Renfro Valley.

In the next couple of weeks, we will be completing the requirements for our Community Scholar program and preparing for a short presentation on our project for our last class session. We anticipate that this will be an excellent opportunity to share our findings with others in an abbreviated format and will help us prepare for our final fellowship presentation on campus at the end of the semester.

Fellows' First Month

Much has transpired over the course of our first fellowship month and since we last posted an update. We have gathered, discovered, and digitized various photos, audio, and video footage that are really exciting and important to the overall project. We have also begun digging around in the numerous archival manuscripts and sound archives to try and find other evidence and reference of the Reedys' career. And we've continued to participate in the weekly Community Scholars Program where we have learned much and enjoyed the unique group of people we are getting to know there.

One major accomplishment and rewarding process was listening to the digitized reel-to-reel tapes and identifying the track lists, performers, etc. So far, John has converted and we've labeled more than 15 CD's worth of material. Most of the material is musical performances, sometimes with multiple takes of the same song, and occasionally with comedic outtakes as they fuss about who's supposed to sing or play what when. There are also some conversational recordings of pseudo-radio interviews, sermons, or family gatherings. The intentionality regarding the creation and preservation of this material is astounding.

Another substantial digitization project was scanning the labels of all of the 78, 45's, LP's, various photographs, and a few news clippings. Timi scanned most of these materials, and there are some intriguing leads in terms of people they played with and places they played. 

Timi remembered her mamaw and papaw having a comedy routine called "Scrapiron," and she was tickled to find this photo of them at what might be WHLN radio station in Harlan in the 1940's or early 1950's.

Here's an interesting article that was published in the Corbin Times-Tribune when their song "Somebody Touched Me" was included on The Early Days of Bluegrass, Vol. 1 in 1975.

 
The article is interesting for several reasons. Of course, the obvious message of the story is a celebration of local residents being included in a commercial compilation with other well-known bluegrass artists. But there is a more subtle story when they discuss the songwriting process and other songs they had written, such as Frances' song "Tiny Bitty Pieces." 

She attributes the origin of this catchy country tune of lost love and trust to the demise of "a couple of friends," but it was in fact written to and for John. "You took my heart and you broke it/Into little bitty pieces/Tiny bitty pieces/So small you can't mend/You say that you're sorry/And you ask me to forgive you/Why should I forgive you/I'd just get hurt again." Similarly, John wrote "Knocking on Your Door" to Frances as a result of their brief separation. "I'm knockin' on your door again, my darlin/I'm knockin' on your door please answer me/I've tried to make you realize, my darlin'/That no one else was ever meant for me."

We finally found a VHS copy of the oral history video that Timi helped produce in the mid-1990's. We had anticipated that the bluegrass interview would help clarify the timeline of their career, who they played with, etc., and it has certainly provided valuable information that we hadn't documented yet. For example, all of our current sources indicated that the first recording of "Somebody Touched Me" on the Twin City label was produced in 1949, but Frances said it was recorded in 1947. So we need to follow up on this to find out which date is in fact correct.

However, the interview narrative is truncated and ends before they even migrated to Dayton, so it didn't include as much information as we were counting on. We also need to follow up with our friend Mark who video-taped the interviews to see if there might be additional raw footage or another, more complete version of the video. The video does end with Frances performing a couple of traditional tunes that Timi loved from her childhood.

Such a performance was a truly rare and special treat during the latter part of Frances' life. And the interview footage is an extremely important piece of media for the overall documentary project.

Next week, we plan to visit with David Lundy, who produced the LP Hymns from the Hills of Harlan County Kentucky at Lundy Studio in Barbourville. We hope to interview him as part of our Community Scholars project and for the documentary, of course. Harry also wants to meet with him, so we're going to help set up a meeting between the two of them in the near future. We also plan to interview Harry at some point before our fellowship ends.

So we have accomplished much in the past month, and I will post some additional photos and other fun treasures in the near future. We also still have a lot of material to look through in the archives, so there is much left to do for the remainder of the semester!