Research center, archive, and public-programming hub for all things related to popular music: rock,
The Center's mission is to promote research in American vernacular music, and to foster an understanding and appreciation of America's diverse musical culture. Thus, the Center:
- manages and provides public access to a research archive
- presents public programs that interpret various aspects of American vernacular music
- engages in original research projects
- disseminates the results of resear
ch via publications in various media
- maintains a state-of-the-art recorded media preservation laboratory
sustains the educational mission of Middle Tennessee State University
Operating as usual
09/08/2022
The Marvin Hedrick Collection includes historically and culturally significant recordings of bluegrass and country artists made by influential documentarian Marvin Hedrick in Brown County, Indiana between 1954 and 1973. Most of the recorded performances took place at the Brown County Jamboree in Bean Blossom, Indiana, site of the Bill Monroe Bluegrass Festival from 1968. The recordings capture performances by many of the genre’s most significant figures during a crucial time of transition for the music and its broader cultural context. You can hear samples and search the collection here: https://digital.mtsu.edu/digital/collection/p15838coll12/search
09/02/2022
Dolly is telling us to take Monday off for Labor Day, so the Center for Popular Music will be closed on Monday September 5 and we reopen on Tuesday September 6th as normal 8:30-4.
08/29/2022
Save the dates for our TWO up-coming Official: Lydia Lunch events. Head to our stories for event reminders.
08/26/2022
Stop in and check out our .lunch.official display before she visits campus on September 19th & 20th!
Welcome back to campus, everyone! The librarians will be handing out CPM sunglasses on Tuesday, August 23rd & Wednesday, August 24th from 11am - 3pm. Find us outside the BRAGG building.
We can’t use the song to promote, but we’d like to think ZZ Top would approve 😎
Do you remember? On August 10, 2013 Katy Perry released the song "Roar" to US radio; that's 9 years ago! This music video for the song was released a month later: https://youtu.be/CevxZvSJLk8
Martin aligning a new needle head for a transfer: A Series.
08/08/2022
The Center's Grammy-winning in-house record label, Spring Fed Records, has released a monumental 7-CD boxed set called Stole from the Throat of a Bird: The Complete Recordings of Ed & Ella Haley. This project was six years in the making, involving countless hours of meticulous audio restoration, historical research, and artistic work.
Ed Haley is considered a giant in the world of old-time Appalachian fiddling, but he never made any commercial recordings. In 1946 and 47 he made a series of home recordings on lacquer discs, along with his wife Ella and other family members. Ella is featured on many of the discs, too, playing accordion and singing, often in charming old-time duets with Ed.
Working directly with the Haleys' descendants who kept the original, one-of-a-kind discs, we undertook a careful restoration of these astonishing recordings, and have now made them available in a package that includes original handprinted artwork, new essays by noted scholars and musicians, and previously unpublished photographs.
Learn about the David C. Morton Collection: David C. Morton conducted pioneering research, leading to a published biography, on Country Music Hall of Fame and Grand Ole Opry Member, DeFord Bailey. Morton met Bailey in 1973 while working for the Nashville Metropolitan Development and Housing agency and they remained close friends until Bailey’s death in 1982. It became a lifetime commitment for Morton to share DeFord Bailey’s significant role in the story of country music.
The David C. Morton Collection consists of photographs, manuscript audio materials--including interviews with Bailey--as well as numerous newspaper clippings relating to Bailey. Researchers can learn more about the contents of the David C. Morton Collection from the finding aid available online on the Center’s website:https://mtsu.edu/popmusic/findingaids/DavidCMorton21.pdf
07/21/2022
On July 21, 1925, after just 8 minutes of deliberation, the jury returned a guilty verdict, and Raulston ordered Scopes to pay a fine of $100, the minimum allowed.
The so-called “Monkey Trial” began, with high school science teacher John Thomas Scopes accused of teaching evolution in violation of a Tennessee law that made it a crime to “teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible.”
07/19/2022
Honoring George Hamilton IV on what would be his 85th birthday! (July, 19, 1937 - September 17, 2014)
Hamilton was a member of the Grand Ole Opry and recorded with RCA Records. Hamilton was deemed “George Hamilton IV: The International Ambassador of Country Music" for his extensive touring throughout Europe and as host of country music television variety shows in Canada and the United Kingdom.
The CPM proudly houses his collection consisting of materials collected by George Hamilton, IV and his son, George Hamilton V documenting Hamilton, IV’s music career. The manuscript papers consist of handwritten notes and letters, contracts, newspaper clippings, articles photocopied from books, journals, newspapers, magazines, correspondence, photographs, posters, and programs.
Check out the finding aid here:https://mtsu.edu/popmusic/findingaids/pdfaids/GeorgeHamiltonIVCollection.pdf
Our Director, Dr. Greg Reish, has been awarded a Fulbright Scholar fellowship. He will be teaching at the University of Veracruz from mid-January to mid-June 2023.
Congratulations Greg!
by Favour Boluwade Middle Tennessee State University faculty members Mary Ellen Sloane and Gregory Reish will be headed to Rwanda and Mexico, respectively, as Fulbright Scholar Program faculty awar…
07/13/2022
July 13 is Barbershop Music Appreciation Day! Here are just a few of the songbooks from our collection. We also suggest checking out our friends at the Barbershop Harmony Society
Sheet music: 017573-CPMSM in the Center's collection.
07/08/2022
Great news from our Spring Fed Records! Keep an eye here for more information and how to order your copy soon.
After more than six years of hard work, we're excited to officially announce the release of Stole From The Throat Of A Bird - The Complete Recordings Of Ed & Ella Haley. The box includes 7 CDs featuring Martin Fisher's amazing audio restoration along with many newly released cuts, 105 page liner note book with photos and essays and a beautiful, hand printed, hand constructed box, slip case and CD envelopes with artwork from Megan Lightell and Heather Moulder. The whole set was hand printed and assembled in Tennessee!
We will have the first copies available for sale at Clifftop on Friday, August 5th at a special session at the main lodge on Friday August 5th, 3-4.30pm. The producers, John Fabke, Stephen Haley and Greg Reish along with liner note contributor and fiddlers, Brittany Haas and Bobby Taylor and fiddlers Austin Derryberry, Tessa Dillon and others will share stories and music about the Haley legacy. Stay tuned for more details as we get nearer to the release date.
This is a collaborative project between the Center for Popular Music and the American Antiquarian Society to inventory, catalog, digitize, and provide web-based public access to their extensive music manuscripts collections. It concerns manuscripts inscribed before 1910 that are mainly American...
07/01/2022
The Center for Popular Music will be closed on Monday July 4th for the national holiday. We will reopen Tuesday July 5th.
06/25/2022
Let's take a moment to remember Grammy Award winning "King of Zydeco" Clifton Chenier and his special style of accordion playing. (June 25, 1925-December 12, 1985) Did you know Chenier was the first to play at Antone's, the famous blues club Austin, Texas?
(postcard from Ray Avery Collection)
06/19/2022
Celebrate Juneteenth with this traditional song "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" that is commonly sung during celebrations across the country. This version of the song comes from the song book, "Jubilee Songs" published in 1872 from our collection.
06/14/2022
Happy Flag Day!
CPM Item: 003202-BROAD. Author: J. Edmund Estes, Imprint: Fall River, MA s.n. ; 1898
06/11/2022
Looking for a book to read this summer?
Assistant Archivist, Olivia suggests ‘Why Bushwick Bill Matters’ by Charles L. Hughes.
Olivia states, “This book is a great blending of hip-hop, disability, mental illness, and culture studies all in Hughes’ great story telling fashion that makes the book hard to put down. It doesn’t even matter if you are fan or not of Bushwick Bill and The Geto Boys, I think this book should be known to anyone studying or interested in popular music and culture studies, because yes, Bushwick Bill matters.”
[Photo of Olivia very excited in front of book shelves, holding the Center for Popular Music's copy of the book ‘Why Bushwick Bill Matters’ by Charles L. Hughes]
Read about the upcoming Spring Fed Records release in Fiddler Magazine:
A quarterly magazine for fiddlers of all levels and styles. Site includes extensive excerpts from the magazine, hundreds of fiddle-related links, and much more.
June 1, 1796 our home state, Tennessee, became a state! To celebrate be sure to check out the My Homeland Tennessee: A Research Guide to Songs About Tennessee, based on the John S. Mitchell Collection of Tennessee Music. http://popmusic.mtsu.edu/Homeland/
A searchable online database created by the Center for Popular Music to provide access to printed and recorded music of songs about Tennessee, including the official state songs
05/27/2022
The Center for Popular Music is closed Monday, May 30th, in honor of Memorial Day.
We will resume normal hours 8:30-4 Tuesday May 31.
Sheet music published 1871 by by W.W.Whitney's "Palace of Music".
05/24/2022
Did you know the CPM houses the Travis Stimeling Collection? This collection consists of Stimeling’s digital audio recordings and transcripts of interviews related to his book, Nashville Cats: Record Production in Music City (Oxford University Press, 2020). These original interviews are between Stimeling and the musicians or relatives of musicians who played a significant role in establishing “the Nashville Sound.”
Stimeling recently received the Belmont Country Music Book of the Year Award earlier this month for Nashville Cats: Record Production in Music City (Oxford University Press, 2020).
Learn more about the collection here:https://mtsu.edu/.../findingaids/pdfaids/TravisStimeling.pdf
05/16/2022
Are you looking for all things Western Swing? Be sure to check out the Jesse Auston Morris Collection.
The Morris collection encompasses 23 linear feet of manuscript materials, 6 linear feet of photographs, and a large number of other books, periodicals, sounds recordings, and videos. Have a look at the finding aid. http://popmusic.mtsu.edu/archives/Inventory/JesseMorris.htm
05/13/2022
MTSU is doing maintenance on our HVAC systems, so things are bit off around here on Friday the 13th…
The Center for Popular Music is excited to announce the Stephen T. Gudis Collection is now open for research!
Stephen Gudis, a "Nashville production legend", collected these items relating to bands and events he worked with throughout his life and work. The collection includes manuscript materials, contracts, tour planning documents and information, photographs, press kits, posters, clippings, scrapbooks, tour passes, stickers, buttons, business cards - all relating to events he was involved in. Some items are autographed with notes to Gudis praising his work and personality.
Learn more about the collection here:https://mtsu.edu/popmusic/findingaids/StephenTGudis.pdf
05/03/2022
Our graduate assistant, Sarah, has processed and written the finding aid for the Roy Harper Collection this semester.
This collection contains a variety of materials that encompass the life and career of traditional country musician, and Spring Fed Records artist, Roy Harper, along with other materials regarding traditional country musicians. Includes newspaper clippings, correspondence, festival and performance posters, scrapbooks, and photographs.
Thanks to Sarah's hard work, the collection is now open for use! Check out the finding aid here: https://mtsu.edu/popmusic/findingaids/RoyHarper.pdf
04/27/2022
Congratulations to our Archivist, Rachel Morris for being nominated for an Administrative Employee Recognition Award today here at MTSU. We at the CPM appreciate all the hard work she does and are so thankful to have her at the CPM. Way to go Rachel!
04/26/2022
NOW OPEN: The Center for Popular Music is proud to announce the Colin Escott Collection is now open for research.
This rich collection consists of materials, mostly photographs, collected by Colin Escott for his various books, articles, and research. Escott has published works relating to Sun Records, Hank Williams, and many others . Escott is the writer of Tony nominated stage show 'Million Dollar Quartet'.
The collection contains many hard to find artists and a few rare and never before published photographs. See the full list of items in the finding aid:https://mtsu.edu/popmusic/findingaids/pdfaids/Escott.pdf
04/19/2022
Emmy Lou Harris sharing the microphone with singer and guitar player Ann Savoy in a performance at a Cajun and Zydeco dance. The other member of the Savoy-Doucet Band from Eunice, Louisiana visible is Marc Savoy, accordion. Taken November 15, 1993 in the Tennessee Room of the James Union Building on MTSU campus. Photo by Ken Robinson (MTSU Photo Services).
04/14/2022
The Osmond Family Collection includes artifacts and many manuscript and iconographic photographs of the Osmond Family, as well as manuscript materials and clippings of the Osmonds and other miscellaneous musicians and performers. The materials in this collection were acquired by Twila Carter, who professionally worked with the Osmonds in the early and mid-1970s and was a close friend of the family’s. The materials were collected throughout the 1970s, with the majority of the collection coming from the time period between 1974 and 1976.
Learn more about the collection here:https://mtsu.edu/popmusic/OsmondFamily.pdf
04/12/2022
The Murfreesboro Hip-Hop Collection consists of interviews, photographs, and memorabilia related to hip-hop in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. The collection includes audiotapes and CD listening copies of forty-two interviews and transcription copies, photographic contact sheets and negatives of live hip-hop performances in Murfreesboro and accompanying materials including CDs, DVD, T-shirts, posters, fliers and other ephemera related to hip-hop performances. Learn more about the collection here:https://mtsu.edu/popmusic/findingaids/pdfaids/hiphopinventory.pdf
04/08/2022
The Center for Popular Music is excited to announce the Stephen T. Gudis Collection is now open for research!
Stephen Gudis, a "Nashville production legend", collected these items relating to bands and events he worked with throughout his life and work. The collection includes manuscript materials, contracts, tour planning documents and information, photographs, press kits, posters, clippings, scrapbooks, tour passes, stickers, buttons, business cards - all relating to events he was involved in. Some items are autographed with notes to Gudis praising his work and personality.
Learn more about the collection here:https://mtsu.edu/popmusic/findingaids/StephenTGudis.pdf
04/04/2022
The CPM is proud to support the String Band Summit this weekend at ETSU, presenting Spring Fed Records artist Belen Escobedo y Panfilo's Güera! Belen will take part in this *free* concert on Friday night along with many other wonderful artists. You can also catch Belen on Saturday night when the String Band Summit partners with the Corazon Latino Festival in downtown Johnson City!
Belen will also offer a workshop on Saturday afternoon as part of the SBS for registered participants.
❤️🧡💛💚💙💜 FREE this Friday, April 8...We welcome all to join! 💜💙💚💛🧡❤️
String Band Summit Concert, featuring:
Belen Escobedo
Bill and the Belles
Tray Wellington Band
Larry Bellorín and Joe Troop
with Brittany Haas and Friends
Martin Center for the Arts
East Tennessee State University
1320 W. State of Franklin
Johnson City, TN 37614
Friday April 8, 2022, 7:00 pm
Sponsored by Bluegrass, Old-Time, and Roots Music Studies at ETSU, and the Center for Popular Music at Middle Tennessee State University
With support from the Mary B. Martin School of the Arts, and the International Bluegrass Music Association Foundation, in cooperation with the ETSU LCRC Corazón Latino Festival
❤️🧡💛💚💙💜 Please share this poster widely! 💜💙💚💛🧡❤️
04/04/2022
Blues singer-songwriter, McKinley Morganfield, better known as Muddy Waters, was born on April 4, 1913. Did you know that the Center holds the first known photograph of , taken by John W. Work III?
Join us April 7th when Nancy Yunhwa Rao will speak about “Spectacle, Sound and Desire: Transpacific History of American Music”.
Also read about other great upcoming events from our friends at the MTSU Center for Chinese Music and Culture:
MTSU’s Center for Chinese Music and Culture is welcoming spring with several events to celebrate Asian culture. • Nancy Yunhwa Rao will speak about “Spectacle, Sound and Desire: Transpacific Histor…
03/29/2022
We picked up a wonderful and massive collection of sound recordings today from Mary Ellen and Don Robertson, a delightful couple with a long history in the Nashville music business and in music education. The collection is particularly rich in gospel music, but also includes country, pop, soul, rock, jazz, Mexican music, and other styles on LP, 78, 45, and CD. More than 90 boxes! What a treasure trove!!
Address
1735 Blue Raider Drive (Bragg Media And Entertainment Building) Murfreesboro, TN 37132
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CPM Sunglasses
Welcome back to campus, everyone! The librarians will be handing out CPM sunglasses on Tuesday, August 23rd & Wednesday, August 24th from 11am - 3pm. Find us outside the BRAGG building.
We can’t use the song to promote, but we’d like to think ZZ Top would approve 😎
Snow Day!
The Center for Popular Music will be closed Thursday and Friday! We will reopen Monday January 10th.
The Center for Popular Music is closed December 23 - January 2 for the winter holidays.
Remember our online catalog and digital collections are available anytime on our website! https://www.mtsu.edu/popmusic
It being New Music Friday and all, we thought we would share a #FunFactFriday.
Do you know why we call an album released today, an album? Because back when 78rmp discs could only hold one or two songs each, people would put them together in a album very similar to a photo album. These would become their playlists. Put around 10 of these one or two song discs and you have a 10-20 song album!
The Center's mission is to promote research in American vernacular music, and to foster an understanding and appreciation of America's diverse musical culture. Thus, the Center:
manages and provides public access to a research archive
presents public programs that interpret various aspects of American vernacular music
engages in original research projects
disseminates the results of research via publications in various media
maintains a state-of-the-art recorded media preservation laboratory
sustains the educational mission of Middle Tennessee State University
Thanks to The Center for Popular Music for visiting the MTSU School of Music today and bringing some of your collections for our students to interact with!
Go visit with our friends and learn more about The Center for Popular Music!
80 years ago today, John W. Work III and Alan Lomax made the first recordings of McKinley Morganfield, aka Muddy Water, at the Stovall Plantation in Coahoma Co., Mississippi. Lomax's misrendered his nickname, published the plural form in a 1942 album featuring Muddy's debut performances, and "Muddy Waters" stuck.
Photo/caption by JWW III. From the John Wesley Work III collection at the The Center for Popular Music at Middle Tennessee State University, and under its administration.
DON'T MISS IT: The Center for Popular Music is wrapping up its inaugural series of special “unconferences” on old-time music on Friday with a live online discussion on building, supporting and growing the music community.
You're invited! The role music continues to play in activism and social justice is the focus of a free online discussion, with three special guests, planned for this Thursday, April 8, by the The Center for Popular Music.
This event is free and open to the public. Visit the link for more info and registration.
The role music continues to play in activism and social justice is the focus of a free online discussion, with three special guests, planned Thursday, April 8, by The Center for Popular Music.
The Center for Popular Music will welcome authors of three recent books on the humanitarian, entrepreneur, pop culture legend and songwriting icon Dolly Parton beginning at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, March 24 via Zoom.
We love Albert Gore Research Center and The Center for Popular Music!
Happening today! The The Center for Popular Music will host a trio of experts to discuss race, class and gender at 2 p.m. CT.
More info and registration below:
DON'T MISS: The Center for Popular Music is continuing its new series of special “unconferences” on old-time music, this time bringing together a trio of experts to discuss race, class and gender on Friday, March 12 at 2 p.m.
MARK YOUR CALENDAR: The Center for Popular Music is continuing its new series of special “unconferences” on old-time music, this time bringing together a trio of experts to discuss race, class and gender on Friday, March 12.
Our grad student Maia got inspired by The Center for Popular Music's valentines, so she made her own Albert Gore, Sr. one.
Happy Valentine's Day from Gore Center staff! ❤️
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