Southern Music Research Center

06/04/2026

Freedom songs, 1965.

Music from Selma, Alabama's voting rights movement and from the march to Montgomery, 1965. A version of this episode initially aired in March 2025 in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of these events. This rebroadcast aired on May 16, 2026, as the Supreme Court worked to reverse the gains of the...

06/01/2026

AVAILABLE NOW! We're thrilled to introduce the Fiddling Tom Freeman Collection, an online archival companion to author Joyce Cauthen's BRAND NEW BOOK, The Ballad of Fiddling Tom Freeman: Music, Moonshine & Murder in Bug Tussle, Alabama.

Cauthen first introduced readers to the unforgettable Freeman in her classic book, With Fiddle and Well-Rosined Bow: Old-Time Fiddling in Alabama. Now, with researcher Robin Sterling, she’s returned to Freeman’s story — drawing from a wealth of newspaper clippings, family history, and Tom’s own unpublished manuscripts — to present an intimate, often hilarious, ultimately poignant portrait of the fiddler, bootlegger, and irrepressible character. The Ballad of Fiddling Tom Freeman is a remarkable achievement from a celebrated folklorist, author, and longtime chronicler of Alabama's traditional music and cultures.

In collaboration with Cauthen, the Southern Music Research Center has launched the Fiddling Tom Freeman Collection as an additional archival resource. Visit southernmusicresearch.org/fiddlingtomfreeman today to access historic photos and newspaper files; a streamable playlist of Freeman’s 1949 home recordings; and Freeman’s own raw, handwritten manuscript, ”A Story of Fiddling Tom,” which blends personal and family history with a chronicle of bootlegging adventure and a long string of murders in Tom’s native Bug Tussle.

Born in 1883 in rural Cullman County, Fiddling Tom Freeman taught himself to play on a homemade fiddle at age nine and seldom put it down after that, playing for dances and other entertainments in his community of Bug Tussle. To support his family, he became a wildcat whiskey maker, and his fiddle got him out of numerous scrapes with the law — until he ended up in Kilby Prison, where his fiddling and big personality made him popular with prisoners, guards, and powerful state officials. When released after two and a half years, he resolved to use his fiddle to help politicians he respected get elected and people who had broken the law get pardoned if he thought they had reformed. Though unschooled, he wrote an unpublished book about thirteen murders in Bug Tussle in an effort to convince his neighbors to stay away from the whiskey trade.

Buy the book today, explore the collection, and read more in the comments. We're thrilled to see this book's long-awaited publication, and we're honored to provide an archival home for some of the original research materials behind its extraordinary story.

05/27/2026

The Southern Music Research Center is proud to be one of the presenting orgs for the truly wonderful Birmingham Folk Festival. Can't wait till next year.

05/21/2026

Just uploaded to our archive: a 1989 interview with cosmic bandleader Sun Ra, conducted by Danny Newman for Aura Literary Arts Review, a student publication of the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Included are original audio and the published print transcript.

In the quote above, taken from that interview, Sun Ra addresses color and costumes in the performances of his Arkestra. TONIGHT at the Birmingham Museum of Art, SMRC director Burgin Mathews and filmmaker Jessica Chriesman will present members of the Sun Ra Arkestra in a panel discussion of Sun Ra’s visual legacy — from film to record album covers to costuming and stage performance. The conversation will follow a screening of the 1959 film The Cry ofJazz, featuring Sun Ra and members of the Arkestra. 6 PM; free admission.

See the comments for a link to Danny Newman’s interview with Sun Ra, and for a link to reserve your spot at tonight's event.

05/14/2026

Just uploaded to our archive’s Alabama Punk Flyers collection: a stash of flyers from 1990s Mobile, all from the collection of Ashley Carr. Check em out (these and about 50 more) at southernmusicresearch.org.

Ashley also generously donated to the archive a number of recordings, many unreleased, by various punk, metal, and old-time groups he’s been part of over the years — including The Hellions, The Soulcasters, Security Blanket, The Alabama Gravy Soppers, Red Ruckus, The Fall Line Frailers, The Gurley Goober Smoochers, and Kinney’s Two Carr Garage Fiddle Band.

We always welcome contributions to our punk flyers collection, whether print originals or high-quality digital scans. Hit us up if you’ve got something you’d like to contribute.

Thanks to Ashley for these gems.

05/11/2026

THIS FRIDAY!! Birmingham, don’t miss this very special show with Willis Alan Ramsey at Woodlawn Theatre — presented by The Birmingham Folk Festival and Southern Music Research Center. Then catch the songwriting legend a second time, Saturday afternoon at the folk fest in Avondale Park. Tickets available at the link in the comments. Also linked there: the SMRC’s extensive new interview with Ramsey, a must-hear for any fan.

Limited-edition prints of this great poster by Yellowhammer Creative will be available for purchase Friday night.

05/08/2026

A week ago today, the Southern Music Research Center and Whole South Heritage Works published the Old-Time Herald magazine archive at southernmusicresearch.org. We think it’s a tremendous resource, and y’all seem to agree — the OTH collection has received well over 1,000 visitors in just its first week online.

Our archive’s most-viewed item for the past week (at more than 250 views) has been the very first issue of the magazine, published in the fall of 1987. Its pages include a detailed cover story on the Slate Mountain Ramblers; a survey of 1987’s old-time music landscape and trends; an article on Black string bands by historian Charles Wolfe; a profile of Kentucky fiddler Bruce Greene; numerous album reviews; and more.

Many of the magazine’s signature themes are already evident in that first issue. There’s a mixture of deep tradition and evolving trends, past and present, with an eye too on the future. There are critical, in-depth and nuanced reviews, a feature that would stir controversy and debate in letters to the editors for years to come. There is great photography, and first-person history. And, significantly, from the magazine’s get-go, there is detailed discussion of Black influence and artistry in the (popularly white-washed) traditions of country and old-time music. The magazine's production, design, size, and scope will only grow with time, but so much is already in place here. Even the ads are happy snapshots of a time and a music and, above all, a community.

Check out this and every issue (except for one, which we're still trying to track down) at southernmusicresearch.org (direct link in comments).

05/05/2026

Artist Craig Legg & City of Birmingham Government present Sound & Sight: A Visual Tribute to Birmingham’s Music History. The Southern Music Research Center is proud to be a partner — along with Create Birmingham, Birmingham Music Archive, & East Village Arts — in today’s unveiling of this wide-ranging exhibit on the 2nd floor of Birmingham’s City Hall.

Don’t forget to purchase Craig’s extraordinary book, A History of Birmingham Rock ‘n’ Roll, at craiglegg.com; check out his full Alabama Roots Music Trading Card Series at southernmusicresearch.org; and explore his History of Birmingham Jazz and many of his other works at Birmingham’s East Village Arts (his History of Southern Rock is coming to that space later this year).

Th current exhibit pulls together works from all those series and more and will be on display at City Hall now through the end of June.

05/04/2026

Have you heard the news? You can now find every issue ever of the landmark, influential Old-Time Herald magazine, online and freely accessible in the archive of the Southern Music Research Center. Thanks to ourfriends at the nonprofit Whole South Heritage Works for partnering with us on this truly exciting project. Dig in now at southernmusicresearch.org.