Collector of Ozark songs is subject of talks, book
FAYETTEVILLE — A writer and musician who recently authored a book about Max Hunter — a collector of songs from residents of the Ozarks over two decades — explained Tuesday that Hunter’s ability to connect with his subjects was paramount in his archiving.
“He got to know people — he built relationships, first — and it really worked for him,” said Sarah Jane Nelson, who delivered a Master Class on the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville campus Tuesday. Hunter viewed many of his sources as “extended family — he listened to what people had to say and could talk to anybody — and he meant a lot to them.”
The last of the major Ozark ballad collectors, Hunter was also a “stickler” for keeping songs precisely as he found them without alteration, said Nelson, writer and historian for the Lowell Banjo and Fiddle Contest in Massachusetts, where she also provides accompaniment for annual contestants.
Hunter focused his documentation efforts on the Ozarks in Missouri and Arkansas, including Northwest Arkansas cities such as Fayetteville, Bentonville, and Eureka Springs, recording the likes of Fred Smith, Harrison Burnett, and Odis Bird.
Nelson used materials from UA-Fayetteville’s University Libraries Special Collections Division while conducting research for her book, “Ballad Hunting with Max Hunter: Stories of an Ozark Folksong Collector,” published recently by the University of Illinois Press as part of their longstanding Music in America Series, according to UA-Fayetteville. Hunter, a native of Missouri, was a folklorist, music lover, and traveling salesman who compiled an archive of nearly 1,600 songs from around the Ozarks on his sales route from the mid-50s to the mid-70s.
The UA-Fayetteville collections were “so helpful” in Nelson’s research, as “I really wanted to get to know his singers,” she said. The university’s materials were “a game-changer.”
Hunter gave his tapes to Springfield-Greene County Library, and they were later digitized by Missouri State University, according to Missouri State. Many of his recordings are now on file at the Library of Congress and other institutions.
That fragmentation made Nelson’s early research a challenge, she said. Hunter’s materials are “scattered all over.”
Nelson was searching for ballads to sing when she alighted upon Hunter’s singers and was “astounded,” she said. She then became “really interested in Hunter himself,” which led to the book —her first.
Like Hunter, Nelson avoided rushing with her interview subjects and came back to sources repeatedly, she said. He’d often record people after dinner, when chores were completed, and they were more relaxed.
Despite his prolific collecting, archiving was always an avocation for Hunter, said the New England-based Nelson, who makes frequent musical appearances as part of her oldtime string band duo, the High Strung Strummers, at libraries, folk festivals, and house concerts.
“He had a lot of fun collecting and said it was fun, which speaks to his character.”
While sources sometimes “pointed” him toward subjects, Hunter also had an “intuitive sense,” she said. He could “read a house” and determine if there’d likely be songs and stories in it.
There was “a deep and invisible vein of songs in the Ozarks at that time,” as the “oral tradition was very alive,” she said. Though collectors first looked to Appalachia, Hunter was in the Ozarks at the “right moment to shine a light on” an area that had not “received the attention it deserved.”
In addition to Tuesday’s Master Class, Nelson will also appear today at the Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History for an author talk where she’ll perform some of the ballads recorded by Hunter, read a few excerpts from her book, discuss the impact of Hunter’s collecting efforts in the Ozarks, and sign copies of her book, said Joshua Youngblood, rare books librarian and head of Special Collections instruction and outreach at UA-Fayetteville. That 6:30 p.m. event is free and open to the public.