Scope and Content
Collection of concert and workshop recordings of events at the National Folk Festivals, Lowell Folk Festivals, and other festivals, tours, and concerts sponsored by the National Council for the Traditional Arts (NCTA), formerly the National Folk Festival Association founded in 1934. Features performances of ballads, blues, bluegrass, contra dance music, country music, cowboy songs, fiddle tunes, folk music, gospel music, hymns, old-time music, singer songwriters, steel band music, storytelling, Western swing, and more; with numerous performers playing music from African, African American, American Indian, Cajun, Canadian, Caribbean, Eastern European, Hawaiian, Irish, Latin American, Mexican, Scottish, Sea Islands, Sicilian, Ukrainian, and many other traditions from throughout the United States and from around the world. Manuscripts include documentation from the containers of the original sound recordings.
The collection includes a database with track-level information, performers associated with each track, musical styles, identifiers, and technical metadata about the recordings. Recording artists and music categories are listed in the Primary Recording Artists and Genres lists in this finding aid. Complete lists of performers can be found in the Appendix: Full List of Recording Artists. Please contact the Folklife Reading Room with requests.