Folk Songs of the Coalfields | WVU Libraries


The Chappell Collection: Music from the Coalfields Digital Collection features over a hundred historic field recordings of West Virginia folk music from the Louis Watson Chappell Archive. Music from the Coalfields focuses on a 1940 collecting trip Chappell made to Logan, Lincoln, and Mingo Counties, includes recordings of the ballad singer Kate Toney, as well as fiddle tunes and other types of traditional music.

The recordings are from aluminum and lacquer discs made with a portable disc recorder. Performers were logged with a name, place of recording, and with a list of pieces performed. Sometimes a detail like age or occupation of the performers was included, but not always.

More information about the Chappell collection can be found in the searchable descriptive guide . More information about some of the performers and their repertoire can be found on the Folk Music of the Southern West Virginia Coalfields blog.

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