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Folk Music radio spot - December 2, 2024
Transcript
Shauna Johnson: At West Virginia University, mountaineers go first. Among the more than 5,000 collections housed at the West Virginia and Regional History Center is the West Virginia Folk Music Digital Collection. It's a collection that features more than 1,000 field recordings of West Virginia folk music from folklorist, Louis Watson Chappell's archive, some dating back to the 1800s. Lori Hostuttler is the director of the West Virginia and Regional History Center.
Lori Hostuttler: It's very easy to go down rabbit holes in our archival collections. You think you're just going to look at something for a minute, and then you're doing a deep dive.
Shauna Johnson: Supplementing the collection is a folk life exhibit that continues through the spring.
Lori Hostuttler: Folk life is the living traditions and the cultural heritage of an area that are passed down over time, a lot of times by word of mouth and through imitation, but also sometimes in writing. And that includes a lot of the things that everyday people do, and we all participate in, the kinds of food that we eat, the kinds of music that we listen to, the way that we're entertained, and the art that we create, are all part of our folk life.
Shauna Johnson: To start digging through field recordings, index cards with popular sayings, and home remedies, interview transcripts, photos, and more, visit the West Virginia and Regional History Center in person at the downtown library, or find the center online.
Lori Hostuttler: I think it's important to document and have these kinds of collections here available for people to come and research and enjoy because it tells the story of West Virginia. It's part of our culture, and shows the way that we live. It shows off many of the special talents, and the things that are unique to this region and make us who we are. So I think it's incredibly important to have that documented so people can continue to learn and grow, be creative, and inspired from those materials here.
Speaker 3: (singing)
Shauna Johnson: So let's go, follow our stories at wvutoday.wvu.edu.
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