In July 2022, a devastating flood threatened one of the most significant collections of Appalachian cultural resources. The Appalshop Archive in Whitesburg, Kentucky, which holds decades of recordings documenting coal miners’ ballads, traditional storytelling, and mountain music, was inundated by the rising Kentucky River. Under threat were decades of irreplaceable audio and video recordings, including recordings of Nimrod Workman, recognized in the National Recording Registry, fiddler Clyde Davenport, and many other legends of Appalachian music and culture. This episode tells the story of a community often overlooked and unheard.
Join Sound Files, as we explore the efforts to preserve, restore, and revive the Appalshop Archive! Hear from archivists Leo Shannon and Chad Hunter, who share what it took to save these recordings. They formed human chains to rescue tapes from the archive, made agonizing decisions about which tapes to digitize first, and even scraped mud off tapes to save them from flood damage. Even as funding challenges threaten the remaining work to restore the archives, the team continues their work to preserve the voices of a region that has always told its own story.
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Episode Credits
Sound Files is presented by the National Recording Preservation Foundation (NRPF), an independent nonprofit dedicated to preserving recorded sound history with generous support from the University of Michigan School of Information and other NRPF supporters. Learn more or make a donation at www.recordingpreservation.org.
Jesse Johnston, creator of Sound Files and a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan School of Information, hosts the podcast. Teresa Carey is the senior producer, editor, and creative lead for Morse Alpha Studios, which produced the podcast. Writing is by Ashley Hamer Pritchard, editing by Jacob Pinter, and sound engineering by Steve Lack. Original music by Evan Haywood.
