Southern Music Research Center

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Southern Music Research Center

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Documenting the diverse music communities, histories, and traditions of the American South

The Southern Music Research Center is a new 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization devoted to the documentation, preservation, and public presentation of the American South’s diverse music histories and ongoing forms of musical expression. On April 15, the SMRC will unveil its website, the real center of our Center: a free, searchable online archive of oral history interviews, rare photos, and rescued recordings from a wide range of music communities, histories, and traditions. You can support our efforts by making a donation at www.southernmusicresearch.org.

09/14/2026

We're looking for a few good businesses to sponsor our 2026 fundraiser. Send us a message with your email address, and we'll follow up with details and sponsor opportunities!

09/13/2026

Today (9/13/26) marks the one-year anniversary of the death of Patricia Weaver Byrd of Birmingham, Alabama. The Southern Music Research Center was honored this year to work with Pat Byrd's daughter, Bettina Byrd-Giles, to collect, organize, archive, and preserve for posterity numerous artifacts documenting the musical legacy of this much-loved pianist, choir member, and choir director, a longtime stalwart of Birmingham's gospel music community.

This summer we launched the Patricia Weaver Byrd Gospel Music Collection with an event at the North Birmingham Public Library. The event included gospel music performances, historical presentations, and a first look at this unique archival collection. Community members were also invited to bring their own music artifacts for digitization and preservation, furthering the documentation of the area's musical culture.

Physical holdings in the collection include several boxes of papers (including gospel event programs and lyric sheets) related to Patricia Weaver Byrd's life in music. Also included are cassette tape recordings of choir rehearsals dating to the 1990s, along with print materials reflecting Byrd's involvement in multiple organizations -- including New Pilgrim Baptist Church, Parker High School, the Carlton Reese Memorial Unity Choir, and the Birmingham Community Mass Choir. Visit southernmusicresearch .org to access a finding aid of these materials. Select items are accessible in our online archive; the full collection is available to researchers on request.

We hope that these archival resources will not only serve to commemorate a life well lived, but will also prove valuable to future generations seeking to explore and understand gospel music history and heritage, particularly here in Alabama. The SMRC continues to work with members of the Weaver-French family to preserve additional materials from their rich musical family legacy.

Pictured: Photograph of Patricia Weaver Byrd and her daughter, Bettina Byrd-Giles, at home, Camp Zama, Japan, 1968.

09/12/2026

Today! The Southern Music Research Center joins Archives Department (Birmingham Public Library System) in hosting author Joyce Cauthen in a discussion of her new book, The Ballad of Fiddling Tom Freeman: Music, Moonshine, and Murder in Bug Tussle, Alabama. Join us in the Arrington Auditorium on the 4th floor of the Linn-Henley Research Library at the Birmingham public library central branch, 11-2! The Whistlebees string band will provide live string band music.

Be sure also to check out the Fiddling Tim Freeman Collection, an online archival companion to Joyce’s book, available in the SMRC's online archive (see comments).

09/09/2026

This Saturday, 9/12, Archives Department (Birmingham Public Library System) and the Southern Music Research Center present author Joyce Cauthen in a discussion of her fascinating new book, The Ballad of Fiddling Tom Freeman: Music, Moonshine, and Murder in Bug Tussle, Alabama. There will also be live music by The Whistlebees string band. Join us 11-1 in the Arrington auditorium of the downtown central library.

Born in 1883 in rural Cullman County, AL, 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 wh***ey 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 2 ½ 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 wh***ey trade.

The SMRC archive is proud to host the Fiddling Tom Freeman Collection, an online companion to Cauthen’s book. Visit southernmusicresearch.org/fiddlingtomfreeman to explore Tom’s original handwritten “Bug Tussle Murders” manuscript, family photos, and home recordings. And if you’re in Birmingham, please join us at the library this Saturday to learn more about Tom Freeman’s world, and to hear some great live music.

Photograph of a front porch gathering of musicians, Cullman County, Alabama, c. 1910: Saint John “Blind Bud” Freeman (standing), John Guthrie (guitar), Ben Tingle (pump organ), William Benton “Bent” Vandiver (banjo), and Tom Freeman (fiddle). From the Fiddling Tom Freeman Collection, courtesy Donald Freeman, with thanks to Joyce Cauthen.

09/08/2026

This Saturday, 9/12, Archives Department (Birmingham Public Library System) and the Southern Music Research Center present author Joyce Cauthen in a discussion of her fascinating new book, The Ballad of Fiddling Tom Freeman: Music, Moonshine, and Murder in Bug Tussle, Alabama. There will also be live music by The Whistlebees string band. Join us 11-1 in the Arrington auditorium of the downtown central library.

Born in 1883 in rural Cullman County, AL, 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 wh***ey 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 2 ½ 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 wh***ey trade.

The SMRC archive is proud to host the Fiddling Tom Freeman Collection, an online companion to Cauthen’s book. Visit southernmusicresearch.org/fiddlingtomfreeman to explore Tom’s original handwritten “Bug Tussle Murders” manuscript, family photos, and home recordings. And if you’re in Birmingham, please join us at the library to learn more about Tom Freeman’s world, and to hear some great live music.

Photo: Tom Freeman and his wife, Ida, at their home in Cold Springs, Alabama, c. 1945. From the Fiddling Tom Freeman Collection, courtesy Helen Freeman Sturgeon, with special thanks to Joyce Cauthen.

08/28/2026

New in Our Archive: A Conversation with Pynk Beard!

Pynk Beard exploded onto TV screens earlier this summer in the season premiere of America's Got Talent, and he returns to that series next Tuesday, 9/1, to compete in the quarter finals.

But first, he sat down with the Southern Music Research Center to talk about his roots: about the matriarchs that raised & continue to inspire him; about the songwriters & singers in the Holiness church of his youth; about what's in name; about country music & gospel & hip hop & blues, and what they all have to do with each other; about why he continues to wear his hometown of Birmingham, AL, so proudly on his sleeve; and more.

Highlights of the interview will air this weekend on The Lost Child, along with a few of our favorite Pynk Beard tunes. Hear the episode, wherever you are, on these stations —

Saturday, 9 AM CT
WBHM Saturday, 5 PM CT & Sunday, 1 PM CT
WLRH 89.3 FM/HD Sunday, 7 PM CT

— or enjoy the full interview anytime in our archive (see comments).

In case you're just catching up ... In 2025, songwriter, producer, & performer Sebastian Kole reinvented himself as Pynk Beard: a dynamic solo artist whose country sound blends an eclectic range of influences, building on a long career behind the scenes of the music business. Before he was Pynk Beard, Kole had already written and produced music for Alessia Cara, Alicia Keys, John Legend, Jennifer Lopez and Flo Rida, Brandy, Halle, and others; his collaborations with Cara, Keys, and Legend, and his work on the soundtrack to the film The United States vs. Billie Holiday, had all resulted in Grammy wins. As Sebastian Kole, he'd also released his own music on a self-titled EP and on the albums Soup and Numb.

Now, as Pynk Beard, he's dug into his country roots and stepped fully into the spotlight. The 2025 single “I Lived” marked Pynk Beard’s debut, kicking off a string of country-fueled, gospel-inflected, genre-defying releases. With his electrifying first appearance on America's Got Talent he's further expanded his reach. And like the Southern Music Research Center, he's from Birmingham, AL, where we're proudly and loudly rooting him on.

Photo courtesy Anzie Blue Records.

08/10/2026

We are saddened to learn that Sand Mountain, Alabama, radio hero Beecher Hyde has died at the age of 95. Back in February, Beecher enthusiastically participated in the music preservation day the Southern Music Research Center hosted at the Boaz Legacy Museum; he was the first to arrive, just about the last to leave, and in between he shared a few of his many memories broadcasting and promoting gospel music in the region.

Hear more of our brief recorded interview with Beecher at the link in the comments.

Rest in peace to this beloved community icon.

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Birmingham, AL

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https://www.southernmusicresearch.org/

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