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"Sidney Robertson was a pioneering folksong documentarian every bit as accomplished as the legendary Alan Lomax. Focusing on Robertson's late-1930s adventures in Northern California, Catherine Hiebert Kerst's vivid study reveals a brilliant woman and gritty field researcher able to overcome prejudice, win scarce funds from grudging bureaucrats, charm wary working-class immigrant performers, and illuminate the unforgettable singing voices of diverse cultural communities essential to the American experience."—James P. Leary, author of Folksongs of Another America: Field Recordings from the Upper Midwest, 1937–1946
"Combining biography, detailed descriptions of the recording process, and access to the original audio recordings, Kerst's pioneering book on Sidney Robertson is a model for presenting archival material and the motivations of those who recorded the diversity of music in America in the twentieth century."—Anthony Seeger, Director Emeritus of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, Smithsonian Institution
"By mining a disorganized and neglected treasure trove of Sidney Robertson's recordings, photographs, and papers, Kerst—archivist and ethnomusicologist at the Library of Congress—has produced a critical intervention into the narratives of ethnomusicology and folklore that privilege the 'founding fathers.' Shining a long overdue spotlight on the 'Lady on Wheels,' one of the founding mothers of music research and recording, this book brings us onto the stage of American politics and culture during the 1930s, highlighting issues of gender, technology, ethics, immigration, and artistic labor, demonstrating the formative impact of the New Deal and the WPA on the realization and creation of American culture."—Anne K. Rasmussen, coeditor of The Music of Multicultural America
List of contents
Contents
Foreword by Carla Hayden
Poem by Juan Felipe Herrera, U.S. Poet Laureate, 2015–2017
“Music That’s Gifted to Us”: Documenting the California Folk Music Project
Note to the Reader
1 • New Deal Woman: Sidney Robertson and the WPA California Folk Music Project, 1938–1940
2 • Singing of Love and Life: The Musical Heritage of California’s Spanish, Portuguese Azoreans,and Basques
3 • Popular Musical Traditions of Anglo-American Migrants to California
4 • Exploring the Diversity of Musical Cultures in New Deal California
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Chronology: Sidney Robertson in California, 1937–1940
Notes
Note on Sources
Selected Sources
Subject Index
Title Index
About the author
Catherine Hiebert Kerst is a folklorist, cultural researcher, and writer who worked for many years as Folklife Specialist and Archivist in the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress. Her work focuses on archival collections from the New Deal era and research on Danish American culture in the Midwest.
