Biographies of Informants and some Collectors G-H
Biographies of Informants, Performers and some Collectors (Traditional Ballads and Folk Songs)
North America (Arranged in Alphabetical order by last name)
[This section is for biographies of the important informants of Anglo-Saxon ballads and folk songs and is not all inclusive. Every collector had their best informants. Some informants by their reputations were visited by many collectors, and recordings were made in some instances. Some informants were recording artists in the 1920s and their songs were collected indirectly by the record companies.
The focus of this study is North America. At some point The British Isles will be included on a separate page.
There is little known about some collectors, for example, Fred High (MO-AR), John Stone (VA, under the auspices of the Virginia Folklore Society), Winston Wilkinson (VA, under the auspices of the Virginia Folklore Society).
R. Matteson 2015]
Informants and Some Collectors- North America
CONTENTS:
Gainer, Patrick (WV) informant; Collector author
Garrison, Theodore (AR) collector
Gentry, Jane (Hicks) informant; Sharp, EFSSA 1917
Gilbert, Ollie (AR) also her husband; Max Hunter; Wolf Folklore
Gladden, Texas (VA) informant, sister of Hobart Smith; Recordings Lomax
Gordon, Robert (ME) 1895- 1967 Folklorist; collector
Graham, George Vinton (CA-IO) recordings for American Memory by Cowell, 1938-1939
Grayson, G.B. (NC) 1888- 1930 Recordings Henry Whitter
Griffin, Mrs. G. A. (GA-FL) Recordings Lomax; Morris; Folk Songs of Florida; 1950.
Grover, Carrie (NS-ME) 1878-1959 Folk singer; her collection published; Recorded Lomax
Gunning, Sara Ogan 1910-1984
Hamilton, Goldy Mitchell (MO) 1881-1955 Student of Belden; Ballads and Songs
Hammons Family: Maggie
Harmon, Council (NC)
Harmon, Sam (NC)
Hart, George (VA) informant for Stone, Davis (TBVa 1929)
Hicks, Dee and Delta (TN)
Hicks, Nathan and Rena (NC)
Hicks, Nora (NC)
Hicks, Roby and Buna (NC)
High, Fred (MO-AR) 1978-1962 informant, collector, author. Recordings- see Hunter; Ozark collection
Hill, Lena (AL) b. 1884 informant, collection of MS ballads and songs; Arnold 1950
Hinton, Sam (OK)
Holcombe, Roscoe (KY) 1912- 1981 John Cohen
Hopkins, Doc (KY) 1899- 1988
Hudson, Authur Palmer (MS) editor, collector, author
Hummel, Mr. Lynn Ellis (MO); thesis 116 Missouri songs;
Hunter, Max (MO-AR) 1921-1999 collector, performer; Met Parler, Randolph in 1956.
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Graham was born November 12, 1871 in Iowa and died Oct. 1, 1947 in Santa Clara, CA. He learned songs from his mother when he was a boy in Iowa, and also his aunt from Ohio.
When George Vinton Graham forgot his words while singing, Robertson (Cowell) jotted down that “Mr. Graham's gravity was disturbed by the antics of the photographer.”
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Ollie Gilbert believes that other singers change their songs, but as for herself she "never put nothin' in or took nothing' out." When I first re- corded her some years ago, at her home in Timbo, Arkansas, she told me that she knew perhaps five hundred songs ("I remember ever' song I ever lernt"), a few of which have now been recorded and distributed on wax. Per- haps because she has a phenomenal memory, she appears to sing almost auto- matically, with no inclination to alter. Recordings of the same song sung by her on occasions several years apart show no important differences. Her subservience to memory is indicated by her comment on a line in "Lord Bateman." As I was transcribing a tape-recording of the song I was puzzled by an unintelligible phrase. She seemed to say that the Turkish lady could buy Lord Bateman's castle and all his "comridge inn." Unable to solve the phrase, I asked her about it. "Comridge inn" was correct, she said. What did it mean? I asked. She seemed momentarily puzzled that I should ask and then said she supposed it meant all of Lord Bateman's other possessions. Addi- tional passages of the same kind from her songs could be cited. It should be obvious from the observations above that, though Mrs. Gilbert is an impor- tant folksinger, the re-creation that she contributes to song is negligible. Because of her phenomenal memory, she does not need to patch, and she is not sufficiently critical to have any inclination to edit her songs. Oscar Gilbert, Ollie's late husband, was her opposite in most respects. He was a man of the hills, independent, bold, and outspoken. In his code of behavior, traditions were not sacred, but the love of old song was a part of his make-up; a good folksong fest drew hearty exclamations of approval from him, along with equally hearty slappings of his leg. As a folksinger, he was no zealot for precision, and approximations suited him well. He even made claims of composing parts of songs. One expected his songs to be suited to Gilbert's tastes and hence to vary widely from other versions, and one was never disappointed. Surprisingly, Oscar had a greater reputation as a singer than Ollie, although he knew less than a fifth as many old songs as she. His strong personality, resonant voice, and enthusiasm for singing doubtless made the difference.
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Folksingers and the Re-Creation of Folksong Author(s): John Quincy Wolf Source: Western Folklore,Vol. 26, No. 2 (Apr., 1967), pp. 101-111
The last time I saw the late Fred High, of near Berryville, Arkansas (died 1961), he was somewhat excited over a singing match in which he was to participate the following Sunday. A stranger who had heard of Mr. High's prowess in folksong had challenged him to a contest. It was to begin at 8:30 in the morning, and the two men were to take turns singing, with no song sung twice. The survivor was to be declared the winner. Though eighty-one years old at the time and not as alert as he had been up into his late seven- ties, Fred, with his hundred songs, was still a formidable singer in volume as well as in repertoire. Mr. High's manner of singing was old-fashioned, with yodel-like breaks in his voice on sustained notes. Once launched into song, there was no stopping him as he hurtled headlong from song to song, interspersing bits of homely philosophy and comments on the songs as he went. The happy liberties which he was pleased to take with the English language mark him as an innovator who stood in no awe of tradition. "I've made three books," he was fond of telling friend and stranger alike, and he could have added in truth that these books exhibit unusual originality and independence in syntax and orthography. His personal letters, typewritten on the reverse sides of handbills and the like, show mannerisms in the use of type as extra- ordinary as those of E. E. Cummings. Yet Mr. High, uninhibited extrovert though he was, did not deliberately edit his songs, despite the fact that they were frequently rough-hewn in rime and rhythm. Perhaps he was too un- discriminating and too much interested in the quantity of performance to do so. A comparison of the printed text of his songs (in one of the books which he "made," a collection of about seventy-five numbers) with a tape recording of the same dating several years later shows numerous differences, but all are minor and are apparently the result of fallible memory or momen- tary whim. He was well aware that his folksongs-in fact, that all folksongs- were fluid, not frozen in form. But whatever changes he made or might have made would not have been intended to improve his songs. All of them, smooth or rough, good or bad, pleased him.