Meade, Guthrie T., 1932-1991

Guthrie "Gus" Turner Meade, Jr., was a computer programmer and systems analyst with a lifelong interest in folk music, especially traditional country music and Kentucky fiddlers. Meade avidly collected records and corresponded with record collectors, discographers, and music scholars around the world. He spent his summers recording and interviewing Kentucky fiddlers.

In 1956, Meade began an annotated discography of early traditional country music. The discography includes some 14,500 recordings of 3,500 songs organized into four categories: ballads, religious songs, instrumentals, and novelty songs. He worked on this discography until his death in 1991. Materials collected or created in the course of Gus Meade's research into traditional country music and Kentucky fiddlers. Meade drew upon many of these items to create his annotated discography of early traditional country music. Included are many artist files containing information on various performers. There are also record company logsheets; information about radio shows; a discography by Richard Spottswood; songsters, song books, and sheet music, mostly from the 1880s; correspondence with folklorists, including John Edwards, Archie Green, Eugene Earle, D.K. Wilgus, Fred Hoeptner, Willard Johnson, and Dan Mahoney; recordings of interviews with and performances by Kentucky fiddlers; and information about fiddle competitions, including the 1926 boom in contests spurred by Henry Ford's interest in reviving old-time dancing. Also included are materials relating to hymns, old-time music festivals, and collections of folklore and folk music in archives and other institutions. Note that names important in the collection appear as access points in this record.

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