Center for Popular Music

Paul Wells, Director Emeritus of the Center, received the Distinguished Service Citation from the Society for American Music (SAM) during their 2012 Annual Meeting in Charlotte, NC. "This honor is given by the Board of Trustees to a current member of the Society who has given exemplary and continued service to the Society and its mission."

The full citation reads: Paul F. Wells has been a member of the Society for American Music since 1987 and has served the organization in many capacities: He has chaired or served on nearly every committee of the organization, including publications, nominating, program, honors, editorial board (twice), conference management, as well as the interest group on folk and traditional music from 2009-2011. He was on the board from 1990-1992, served as President-elect, President, and past President from 2000-2004, and hosted a most memorable Nashville meeting in 1989, when the late, great Bill Monroe was awarded honorary membership. Not only did Paul get him to the meeting (something which does not always happen with our honorary members), but also had him play for the banquet. Dancing to the music of the legendary bluegrass master is something those of us who experienced it will never forget!

Paul has always been a voice for remembering that side of American music that celebrates music of the vernacular, as well as of those people who make it happen. While on the Honors Committee and afterward, Paul was instrumental in getting honorary memberships for the Georgia Sea Island Singers in 2000, for country singer Loretta Lynn in 2002, for the folk singer and scholar, Mike Seeger in 2003, and for the legendary record producers of Arhoolie and Indian House, Chris Strachwitz in 2004, and Tony Isaacs in 2009.

His many papers and publications on various fiddle traditions in the U.S. have been memorable, and most recently, he and his wife, Sally Sommers Smith, were guest editors for the special issue of the Journal of the Society for American Music on Irish American music—a first of its kind. Beyond his contributions, Paul has been a great friend and research resource for many of us. Always good for a beer and conversation, he has been a fixture at our annual meetings.

One of the mainstays of the Society for American Music, we honor Paul Wells for his truly distinguished service and contributions to the spirit and substance of this organization.

The Center congratulates Paul on this honor!

Pa's Fiddle: The Music of America to Premiere as National Pledge Special in June
Keep an eye on your local PBS listings this June. That's when Pa's Fiddle: The Music of America will premiere as a National Pledge Special. Artists appearing on the program include Randy Travis, Rodney Atkins, Ronnie Milsap, Committed, Natalie Grant, Ashton Shepherd, and The Roys -- accompanied by an all-star Nashville band led by Grammy-Winner Randy Scruggs and featuring drummer Chad Cromwell, fiddler Matt Combs, and Hoot Hester on mandolin. Historic background on the music is provided by the Center's own Dale Cockrell. In the meantime, watch this extended trailer for the program.

Alleyne Delivers 15th Annual Bob Marley Lecture
Dr. Mike Alleyne, a member of the Center for Popular Music's Advisory Council and Professor in the Department of Recording Industry at MTSU, delivered the 15th Annual Bob Marley Lecture at the University of the West Indies in Mona, Jamaica on February 16, 2012. The lecture, titled "For the Record: Bob Marley's Island Albums and the 40th Anniversary of Catch a Fire," focused on the albums Marley released through Island Records before his untimely death. "'Catch A Fire' Begins The Marley Legend - 15th Annual Bob Marley Symposium Draws Strong Crowd" (http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20120219/ent/ent2.html), an extended article about the lecture, appeared in the Sunday, February 19, 2012 issue of the Jamaican newspaper, The Gleaner.

On a related note, Alleyne's newest book, The Encyclopedia of Reggae is currently in publication and is scheduled for release in November 2012 through Sterling Publishing.

Dale Cockrell & The Pa's Fiddle Project Come to PBS
A concert based on the music written about in the Little House on the Prairie series of books by author Laura Ingalls Wilder, was filmed on Friday, January 6th, 2012, at the Loveless Barn in Bellevue, TN before a live audience, for broadcast by the PBS television network. Pa's Fiddle: America's Music will broadcast first during the June pledge-drive season on PBS stations throughout the nation, and be available to those stations for broadcast over the next two years.

Artists performing included award-winning musician and musical director Randy Scruggs and an all-star string band, Randy Travis, Rodney Atkins, Ronnie Milsap, Ashton Shepherd, The Roys, Natalie Grant, and Committed (NBC Sing Off Champions).

Dean Butler, who played "Almanzo" on the Little House on the Prairie TV show, and the Center's own Dale Cockrell, who also happens to be President of Pa's Fiddle Recordings, teamed up to produce this unique show that featured these top-level artists performing and giving their best interpretations of the great American songs and tunes loved by Pa and Laura Ingalls during their lifetime. A documentary about the making of the show is also being produced by MTSU and will be widely available for educational purposes.

To commemorate the occasion, a brand new album will be released by Pa's Fiddle Recordings, titled Pa's Fiddle: American Fiddler. The CD will be in stores first on June 5th. It is, however, available as a pre-release special now at www.laura-ingalls-wilder.com.

This newest album spotlights the musical influence of Charles "Pa" Ingalls. Ingalls, sometimes thought of as a fictional character, was quite the opposite. He is perhaps the least recognized old-time fiddler from the 19th-century who, courtesy of the Little House books written by his daughter Laura, we have the most documentation on, in return telling us much about his life and music. His actual fiddle is on permanent display at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home & Museum in Mansfield, MO. We know the names of many of the tunes and songs he played, where he played them, for whom, and often why he chose them.

Hidden for decades in plain view, "Pa" Ingalls (1836-1902) was a central figure in the autobiographical stories told by Laura Ingalls Wilder in her Little House on the Prairie books. He was a highly regarded fiddler whose music making is captured by the 127 songs referenced in his daughter's books. It is surprising that this extraordinary musician is never included among the pantheon of American fiddlers, especially since he, his name, his stories, and accounts of his music-making are known to many millions the world over. Dale Cockrell has assembled and edited a scholarly collection of all 127 songs, entitled The Ingalls Wilder Family Songbook (A-R Editions, 2011).

The album, which features songs chronicled in the books, helps place Charles Ingalls among the first rank of old-time fiddlers whose influence is foundational to so much of modern American music. It tells of the power of music to transcend the years, as the "old" songs of Pa Ingalls becomes new again through exciting and dynamic performances by some of the today's finest acoustic musicians.

Great American songs on the CD include "Buffalo Gals," "When Johnny Comes Marching Home," "Polly Put the Kettle On," "Life Let Us Cherish," "All the Blue Bonnets," "Golden Years Are Passing By," "Boatmen's Dance," "Mary of the Wild Moor," "The Campbells Are Coming," "Haste to the Wedding," and more.

Acoustic masters Bryan Sutton, Matt Flinner, Matt Combs, David Grier, Jeff Taylor, Dennis Crouch, and others bring these great American folk songs to life on the album, and make them palatable for young ears of today.

For more information on the PBS taping, the previous two installments in the series, The Arkansas Traveler: Music from Little House on the Prairie and Happy Land: Musical Tribute to Laura Ingalls Wilder, or Pa's Fiddle: Charles Ingalls - American Fiddler, please visit –

On the web -www.laura-ingalls-wilder.com/
Twitter - @pasfiddle
Facebook - Pa's Fiddle
or contact Shari Lacy
GoodStuff PR Co. / 615.525.5303 / http://www.goodstuffpr.com/
shari@goodstuffpr.com or Dale.Cockrell@mtsu.edu

Welcome Lindsay Million!
The Center is back to being fully staffed with the addition of Lindsay Million as our Cataloging Assistant. A recent transplant to middle Tennessee from Michigan, Lindsay comes to us from Murfreesboro's Linebaugh Public Library, where she worked in both the Reference and Cataloging departments. She holds a Master of Science in Library Science from Clarion University, in Pennsylvania, and a Bachelor of Science in Anthropology from Grand Valley State University, in Michigan. We're very happy to have Lindsay as part of our team! For additional information about Lindsay, visit our Staff page.

Charles Edward Hamm (1925-2011),
eminent scholar in popular music studies,
died on October 16, 2011, in Hanover, NH.

Dr. Hamm was Professor of music emeritus at Dartmouth College, and had also held positions at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, Tulane University, and the University of Illinois-Urbana, as well as numerous special appointments. He was the author of many books on American and Renaissance music and innumerable articles and reviews. His seminal Yesterdays: Popular Song in America (W. W. Norton, 1979) remains the fullest treatment of the whole history of American popular music. He was a former president of the American Musicological Society and was honored by that organization with Honorary Membership. The Society for American Music honored him with its Lifetime Achievement Award. He was a founding member of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music.

Charles wrote the key consultant's report in 1985 that led to the establishment of the Center for Popular Music in 1986. In several ways, the Center owes its existence to him.

In all, a giant has passed from the field, one the likes of which we shall not see again.

Dale Cockrell Named Director
After a nationwide search, Dr. Dale Cockrell has been appointed as the new Director of the Center for Popular Music, effective September 1, 2011. Dr. Cockrell has a distinguished academic, scholarly and professional record in Popular Music. He comes to MTSU from Vanderbilt University, where he was Professor of Musicology in the Blair School of Music. He is the author of Demons of Disorder: Early Blackface Minstrels and Their World, Excelsior: Journals of the Hutchinson Family Singers, 1842-1846, and more than 100 other books, articles, papers and monographs devoted to the study of American popular music. His books have won various awards, and he has been elected to numerous leadership positions, including the presidency of the Society for American Music.

Dr. Cockrell has won several grants, including three NEH Fellowships. He has held positions at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa), Indiana University, Dartmouth College, Middlebury College, the College of William and Mary and the University of Alabama. He edited The Ingalls Wilder Family Songbook (a critical edition of the music referenced in the Little House books), which was recently published. He is also founder and president of The Pa's Fiddle Project, an educational, scholarly and musical program dedicated to recording the music of the Little House books and to reconnecting the nation¹s children with the rich music legacies embedded in them.

CPM Website Redesigned!
We have been busy working to improve the CPM website. It has been a long time coming (since 1997!), but it's finally here! We are still working on things, so please visit often to see what is new.

New Search Interface!
For the past 25 years researchers have searched the CPM's special collection materials through independent databases using the InMagic® database system. There was no way to search across all of our collections at the same time. But now we have combined nine unique databases into one catalog of almost 90,000 records. You can now search in one user friendly interface for manuscripts, periodicals, photographs, posters, playbills, programs, rare books and scores, sheet music, song broadsides and trade catalogues.

This spring and summer CPM staff worked with InMagic® Partners Ann Stringfield from InfoCrofters in North Carolina and Andornot from Canada to merge the databases and create a better search experience for our users. The new search interface features a quick and advanced search screen, several brief record result formats, a full display format, plus excellent database navigation. You can also choose from Email, Save and Print options, including Bookmark and Share attributes. Some of the items include images and we will be adding more in the coming months. We hope you find the new search a better tool for locating popular music items. Please let us know how you like the new search and how we might make it better.

New Display Cases
The CPM now has two new custom-made display cases in which to showcase our splendid collection items. They were designed and built by Miriam Owen and Stephen Forrester of The Owen Design Group to fit under the large windows across from the reference desk. The cases are secure, state of the art, and include casters so that they can be moved to accommodate new needs. So far, we have mounted two exhibits in them. The first was "Global Pop: Denmark," an exhibit focused on contemporary music in Denmark, to complement a CPM lecture in April. The second was "Rock Around the Clock," an exhibit exploring how clocks have been referenced in popular music through the years.

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