The following books should prove useful in providing context for the traditional styles of Southern music and for listing and describing songs, artists, and subgenres. Books are arranged by general topic: blues music, country music, traditional ballads, discographies and catalogs, and Southern music in general. After each citation is the call number and library in which it is shelved at UNC. Books listed at "Manuscripts Dept SFC" are non-circulating books available in the Manuscripts Dept. on the 4th floor of Wilson Library. To see if circulating books are available, check the library catalog. Brief annotations follow many of the call numbers.

On Ballads:
Child, Frances James, ed. The English & Scottish Popular Ballads. New York: Dover Publications, 1965.
Davis Reference, Davis, UL PR1181 .C5 1965
Manuscripts Dept SFC PR1181 .C5 1965b (Cooper Square Publishers' edition)
The definitive resource for ballad research, this five volume set is a reprint of Child's first edition, published 1882-98 (which is available at Davis Folio PR1181 .C5 1883)

On Blues Music:
Harris, Sheldon. Blues Who's Who: a Biographical Dictionary of Blues Singers. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House, 1979.
Davis, Music Reference ML102.B6 H3
Entries on a diverse and comprehensive array of blues musicians focus more on the musical performance than on the personal lives of the artists. Entries list labels the artist recorded for, significant live performances, collaborations and tours, and influences. The book has a 12 page bibliography and indexes of film/radio/TV/theater, song title, names, and places. It may be old, but this book is invaluable for research into blues performers.

Herzhaft, Gérard. Encyclopedia of the Blues. 2nd ed. Fayetteville, AR: University of Arkansas Press, 1997.
Music Reference ML102.B6 H39 1997
Most entries are of blues performers, and are narrative-driven accounts of their personal and professional lives. Entries on cities/regions with significant blues scenes, and on instruments are also included. The book includes a bibliography, discography, list of anthologies, and indexes of blues standards and of artists by instrument.

Stambler, Irwin and Lyndon Stambler. Folk and Blues: The Encyclopedia. New York: St. Martin's, 2001.
UL Reference, Music Reference ML102.F66 S74 2001
Includes narrative-driven entries on artists, most of which are more extensive than that of Herzhaft's encyclopedia, award lists, and a bibliography.

On Country Music:
Bufwack, Mary A. and Robert K. Oermann. Finding Her Voice: Women in Country Music, 1800-2000. Nashville: Country Music Foundation Press/Vanderbilt University Press, 2003.
UL, Music ML3524 .B83 2003
This is the third edition; the first was titled: Finding Her Voice: The Saga of Women in Country Music (UL ML3524 .B83 1993), and the second: Finding Her Voice: The Illustrated History of Women in Country Music (Manuscripts Dept SFC ML3524 .B83 1995).

Green, Archie. Hillbilly Music: Source and Symbol. Urbana, Ill., University of Illinois, 1965.
Manuscripts Dept SFC ML3524 .G74 1965

Kingsbury, Paul, Ed. The Encyclopedia of Country Music: The Ultimate Guide to the Music. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Davis Reference, Manuscripts Dept SFC, Music Reference ML102.C7 E54 1998
Compiled by the staff of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, this volume blends typical encyclopedia entries with longer essays on aspects of the art and business of country music. Entries (which cross-reference heavily) are mostly of artists, but also include genres and phenomena (e.g. brother duets), record labels, and organizations. Covers country back to the string-band era of the 1920's and '30's, and also touches on crossover and peripheral artists in folk, rock, and blues. Appendices list best-sellers, country music radio station statistics, members of the Grand Ole Opry, Country Music Hall of Fame members, and awards. Highly valuable for any country music research.

Malone, Bill C. Country Music, U.S.A. 2nd rev. ed. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2002.
UL, Music ML3524 .M34 2002
The foremost scholar of country music traces the history of country music, from its origins to its contemporary trends.

Malone, Bill C. Singing Cowboys and Musical Mountaineers: Southern Culture and the Roots of Country Music. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1993.
Davis, Music, Manuscripts Dept SFC ML3551 .M26 1993
NCC C784.4 M25s
Country music scholar Malone strikes again with this history of the origins of country music. Like Country Music USA, it's not a reference book per se, but a worthwhile read for anyone looking for some cross-cultural context for country music.

Discographies and Catalogs:
Cornwell, Robena, editor. A Directory of Music Collections in the Southeast United States. 3rd ed. Winston-Salem: The Southeast Chapter of the Music Library Association, 1994.
Music Reference ML14.S68 D57 1994

Library of Congress Music Division. Folk Music: a Catalog of Folk songs, Ballads, Dances, Instrumental Pieces, and Folk Tales of the United States and Latin America on Phonograph Records. Washington: Library of Congress,1964.
Davis, SILS Lib ML156.4.F5 U5
Music 789.9 U58fo

Meade, Guthrie T. Country Music Sources: A Biblio-discography of Commercially Recorded Traditional Music. Chapel Hill, NC : Southern Folklife Collection, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries in association with the John Edwards Memorial Forum, 2002.
NCC C027.7 N87um1
Manuscripts Dept SFC, Music Reference ML156.4.F5 M43 2002
The Southern Folklife Collection sponsored this extensive, comprehensive discography of country music. It lists individual songs by topic, genre, and theme (e.g., "lovers parted" and "prison songs"), listing song title and a list of recordings and variants. It contains an artist index, and may be a little hard to use by novices, as it relies heavily on abbreviations (all of which are explained in the introduction). It would be very useful, however, for tracing the origin and progression of a particular song.

On Southern Music in General:
Carlin, Richard. Southern Exposure: The Story of Southern Music in Pictures and Words. New York: Billboard Books, 2000.
NCC C784.4 C282s
Music ML3557 .C37 2000
Largely a collection of photographs chronicling the music of the South, culled from the Library of Congress's collections.

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. 2nd ed.
online through Article Databases and More (must be accessed on UNC campus network or through the UNC proxy server)
See description under Research Databases.

Wilson, Charles Reagan and William Ferris, editors. Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1989.
Davis Reference, UL Reference F209 .E53 1989
The most complete guide to the study of southern culture available, this hefty reference book is organized by major subject area (e.g., "Agriculture," "Education," and Women's Life"), each of which begins with an introduction and is then subdivided into smalled topics. For instance, the section on Music (pp. 981-1091) includes entries on Blues, Square dancing, and Zydeco. Entries are written by prominent scholars, include bibliographies, and are cross-referenced to related entries.

last updated 11 March 2004 by Jessica F. Kem