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Bryan Grove - Review of Sarah Jane Nelson, Ballad Hunting with Max Hunter: Stories of an Ozark Folksong Collector

Bryan Grove - Review of Sarah Jane Nelson, Ballad Hunting with Max Hunter: Stories of an Ozark Folksong Collector


Photograph of a young white man playing guitar

Collecting field recordings of unknown or perhaps only regionally known musicians has been a hobby for some and a lifetime vocation for others for well over a century. From the time of pioneering collector Francis James Child’s work cataloguing English and Scottish ballads during the nineteenth century to John Lomax, who had his research into early-American cowboy songs rebuffed by his English professor at the University of Texas as unworthy for scholarship, collectors of field recordings have pursued both quiet respite and scholarly endeavors in this practice. We have those casual and serious collectors to thank for the volumes of music we would not enjoy today if it were not for their efforts. Artists such as Huddie Ledbetter (Leadbelly), Woody Guthrie, Muddy Waters, Edward “Son” House, Samuel “Lightnin’” Hopkins, and Mance Lipscomb owe a significant debt to the researchers who decided to put some recording equipment into the trunk of their car and drive around the countryside to see what they could find for posterity. As Sarah Jane Nelson describes in her book, Ballad Hunting with Max Hunter: Stories of an Ozark Folksong Collector, this lifestyle was not Max Hunter’s original intention. Hunter was a traveling salesman with little formal education, but when his travels led him deeper into Appalachia, an American cultural area he knew all too well, he found for himself a calling that would beckon him for decades.

Nelson’s book is one of the latest publications in the prestigious Music in American Life Series published by the University of Illinois Press, a series which boasts hundreds of titles devoted to all aspects of American music. In her introduction, Nelson delivers a well-informed history of field research and the practices and limitations of this early work. Then, while working Hunter into her narrative, she describes him as “the urban son of country parents” who grew up in a house full of old musical traditions. Hunter did not consider either the “fragility” or importance of this music until years later. This informs the entirety of Nelson’s book.

Nelson begins with a detailed history of Hunter’s family, dating back as early as his paternal great-great-grandfather, Isaac Redfearn, a veteran of the war of 1812. She continues to follow his family history up to and including Max’s birth in July of 1921, and beyond. She also depicts Hunter’s earliest collecting habit: documenting traditional Ozark remedies for common ailments that were dispersed to his family via his mother and grandmother. This small insight on Nelson’s part presents the reader with an ideal stepping-off point for Hunter’s later life as well as her research.

Hunter’s career as a folksong collector led him in many directions, which are well documented by Nelson. Her discussions of his collecting techniques, his search for distinctive types of songs, artists he found on his way, and his continued growth as a collector and festival organizer make this book a page-turner for those interested in this niche of American history. Nelson’s portrayal of Hunter’s work is both well delivered and engaging. She presents the man for whom he truly was and clearly conveys the intent he held for his work. Her prose captures the reader in much the same way Hunter’s collections have captured his listeners. Nelson’s book is a must-read for those interested in traditional American folk music, its early progenitors, and those who documented and preserved it.

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[Review length: 560 words • Review posted on November 1, 2024]