a country weekend

[alocispepraluger102]

to any country fans here, wkcr radio is beginning its very fine country weekend at noon eastern.

The Bristol Sessions’ Earns Appalachian Book of the Year Award

The Bristol Sessions: Writings About the Big Bang of Country Music—that was recently named the 2006 Appalachian Book of the Year for Nonfiction by the Appalachian Writers Association

East Tennessee State University’s Dr. Ted Olson and the late Dr. Charles Wolfe of Middle Tennessee State University served as editors of a collection of 19 essays--The Bristol Sessions: Writings About the Big Bang of Country Music—that was recently named the 2006 Appalachian Book of the Year for Nonfiction by the Appalachian Writers Association (AWA).

According to Kimberly Holloway of the AWA, “The Appalachian Writers Association promotes the work of new and established authors who write about Appalachia in a variety of disciplines. At the AWA’s annual conference, the organization awards Appalachian Book of the Year honors in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and children’s literature. This year’s nonfiction contest was quite competitive, with nominations that included nine exceptional books.”

“The Bristol Sessions” is the name given to a 1927 gathering in Bristol that resulted in recordings of 19 musical acts, including two soon-to-be-famous ones--the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers--and numerous other musicians. These Bristol recordings, issued commercially in the late 1920s by the Victor Talking Machine Company (later RCA Victor), continue to interest fans of early country music and to influence musicians.

The Bristol Sessions: Writings About the Big Bang of Country Music, published by McFarland and Company, details the spark of an idea for the sessions, first-hand accounts of the music making, and the event’s place in history and tremendous influence, still felt today.

An associate professor at ETSU, Olson teaches courses in Appalachian Studies, English, and the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies program.

Olson is the author of several other works, including Blue Ridge Folklife, part of the Folklife in the South Series published by the University Press of Mississippi, and Breathing in Darkness (Wind Publications), a forthcoming poetry collection. Additionally, he is the editor of several books, including CrossRoads: A Southern Culture Annual (Mercer University Press), James Still’s From the Mountain, From the Valley: New and Collected Poems (University Press of Kentucky), and Sarah Orne Jewett’s The Country of the Pointed Firs and Selected Short Fiction (Barnes and Noble Classics).

Wolfe, who passed away recently, was a professor of English and Folklore at MTSU and a leading historian of American music. He wrote approximately 20 books, including A Good-Natured Riot: The Birth of the Grand Ole Opry and Tennessee Strings: The Story of Country Music in Tennessee.

Edited March 24, 2007 by alocispepraluger102