Biography
The Derek Piotr Fieldwork Archive was established in August 2022. The Archive, established by Derek Piotr and other fieldworkers, contains over one thousand audio recordings collected from March 2020 onward, and preserves diverse representations of folklife; ballads, hymns, tales, poems, children’s songs, and interviews among them.
The focus of this collection is on the "non-singer"; in other words, someone with no background in musical performance who can nevertheless relate a song or folkloric memory. However, the Archive features a wide variety of informants, including professional singers, descendants of musicians, laypeople, and ballad scholars. The vast majority of the recordings in the Archive showcase unaccompanied vocal performances.
In browsing the Archive you will hear singing from all walks of life: from nuns to bartenders, children to centenarians, folk-song scholars, siblings making barnyard noises in unison, residents of a nursing home collectively recalling patriotic standards, farmers singing murder ballads, and legends of the folk scene sharing their earliest remembrances of learning through home-singing. You will hear memories of hospice journeys, faith healing practices, tornado survival, and supernatural hauntings.
Key figures from the tradition bearers of Appalachia also candidly offer personal songs to the Archive: original compositions by the likes of Rick Ward, Bobby McMillon, and Orville Hicks are represented here. Folklorists with a keen eye will also spot familiar names within the collection — descendants of Lena Turbyfill, Charles Seeger, Almeda Riddle, Texas Gladden, Frank Proffitt, Lester Hubbard, Sandy Paton, Margaret MacArthur, Lydia Gydesen, Berzilla Wallin and Oscar Parks are all documented.
Though the vast majority of this material is recorded by Piotr on-site in informants’ homes, twenty-first century fieldwork allows for telephony and Zoom to be used as methods to collect material. Recordings made on-site by other field agents and contributors on behalf of the Archive are also periodically included.
The focus of this collection is on the "non-singer"; in other words, someone with no background in musical performance who can nevertheless relate a song or folkloric memory. However, the Archive features a wide variety of informants, including professional singers, descendants of musicians, laypeople, and ballad scholars. The vast majority of the recordings in the Archive showcase unaccompanied vocal performances.
In browsing the Archive you will hear singing from all walks of life: from nuns to bartenders, children to centenarians, folk-song scholars, siblings making barnyard noises in unison, residents of a nursing home collectively recalling patriotic standards, farmers singing murder ballads, and legends of the folk scene sharing their earliest remembrances of learning through home-singing. You will hear memories of hospice journeys, faith healing practices, tornado survival, and supernatural hauntings.
Key figures from the tradition bearers of Appalachia also candidly offer personal songs to the Archive: original compositions by the likes of Rick Ward, Bobby McMillon, and Orville Hicks are represented here. Folklorists with a keen eye will also spot familiar names within the collection — descendants of Lena Turbyfill, Charles Seeger, Almeda Riddle, Texas Gladden, Frank Proffitt, Lester Hubbard, Sandy Paton, Margaret MacArthur, Lydia Gydesen, Berzilla Wallin and Oscar Parks are all documented.
Though the vast majority of this material is recorded by Piotr on-site in informants’ homes, twenty-first century fieldwork allows for telephony and Zoom to be used as methods to collect material. Recordings made on-site by other field agents and contributors on behalf of the Archive are also periodically included.
