Inside ‘Traditional American Folk Songs from the Anne and Frank Warner Collection’
Beginning in the late 1930s, Anne and Frank Warner, musicians and chroniclers of American Folk music, traveled along the eastern seaboard, collecting traditional songs from every town the pair stopped in. Their archive swelled to hundreds of songs, which were collected for the first time in Traditional American Folk Songs from the Anne & Frank Warner Collection.
The new edition of Traditional American Folk Songs from the Anne & Frank Warner Collection releases next month with new photographs and other improvements to further showcase the Warner’s tremendous collection. The new edition speaks to the historical value of the collection of songs, with so many remaining beloved folk standards. Below is a playlist of versions of just some of the songs that were originally collected by Anne and Frank Warner as well as some of the new photos from the paperback edition..
Everyone making music on Beech mountain; (Left to right) Frank Proffitt, Roby Hicks (with back to camera), Frank Warner, Nathan Hicks, Sam Hicks, Vance Presnell, Linzy Hicks, Ray Hicks (lying down) is just listening 1939.Nathan Hicks, standing on the slope of the south Pinnacle of Beech Mountain, North Carolina, above his house, June 1938.Nathan and Rena Hicks, and Nell – one of their thirteen children – on the south Pinnacle of Beech Mountain above their house, 1938.Anne Warner recording Sue Thomas in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, 1941. Standing are Sue’s husband, Verdon Thomas, and her son J.B. Sutton. Frank Warner with Captain and Mrs. Culpeper on the porch of the Culpepers’ house at Nag’s Head, North Carolina, 1941. A visit to Wanchese in 1951. Mrs. C. K.. (Elezar Tillett is at the left and her sister, Mrs. Albert (Martha) Etheridge is at the right. Sally Daniels, a cousin, is in the middle, and Cliff Tillett at the back. Many people, like Mrs. Etheridge, go barefoot on the banks because of the sand. Mr. and Mrs. Colin Westcott and their family, Manteo, Roanoke Island, North Carolina, 1941. Mrs. Wectcott (Sue) is the daughter of Mr. Mann.
