Sarah Bryan

Sarah Bryan, a UNC-trained folklorist (MA, 2003), has worked in the field of folklife documentation for more than a decade. Specializing in the cultural heritage of the American South, she has conducted documentary work for and with a variety of organizations including the North Carolina Folklife Institute, North Carolina Arts Council, South Carolina Arts Commission, and Levine Museum of the New South.

Current projects:

For the University of South Carolina’s McKissick Museum and the South Carolina Arts Commission, conducting documentary fieldwork to identify traditional artists in Allendale, Calhoun, Clarendon, Colleton, Hampton, Marion, and Williamsburg Counties, South Carolina. The project is the current phase of the Survey of South Carolina Tradition Bearers.

Editor, Old-Time Herald

Executive Director, Old-Time Music Group

The Old-Time Herald is a quarterly magazine about old-time string band music, from or in the traditions of the American South. Published by the nonprofit Old-Time Music Group, the OTH was founded in 1987 in Galax, Virginia, by Alice Gerrard. Now based in Durham, North Carolina, we are celebrating our 27th year of publication.

Recent publications:

Current projects:

Developing web content about traditional music venues and events for the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area’s Blue Ridge Music Trails site, to launch in 2013.

African American Music Trails, a visitor’s guide to exploring the African American musical heritage of Eastern North Carolina along the African American Music Trail. Co-authored with folklorists Beverly Patterson and Michelle Lanier, and produced in collaboration with more than 90 musicians from Eastern North Carolina, the book will be published by the North Carolina Arts Council and UNC Press in late 2013.

Recent publications:

An untitled essay about Depression- and Prohibition-era country music, introducing Disc 2 of the three-disc set Work Hard, Play Hard, Pray Hard: Hard Time, Good Time, and End Time Music, 1923 – 1936. The set, produced by Nathan Salsburg and released in November 2012 by Tompkins Square, also includes antique photographs and paper ephemera from Sarah Bryan’s collection.

“Bless Her Heart,” an essay in Never a Pal Like Mother: Vintage Songs and Photographs of the One Who’s Always True, a 2011 book-and-two-CD set on the Dust-to-Digital label.

Moon North Carolina,  a 2010 travel guide to the state of North Carolina, in Avalon Travel’s international Moon Handbooks series.

Moon North Carolina Coast, a 2010 travel guide to Eastern North Carolina, in the Moon Spotlight series from Avalon Travel.

Click here for more publications.

Collector of vintage snapshots and vernacular portraits, blogging at Everyday Ago.

Photographs from the collection appear in:

Work Hard, Play Hard, Pray Hard: Hard Time, Good Time, and End Time Music, 1923 – 1936, 2012 Tompkins Square three-disc set produced by Nathan Salsburg, and featuring essays by Salsburg, Amanda Petrusich, John Jeremiah Sullivan, and Sarah Bryan.

Talking Pictures: Images and Messages Rescued from the Past, by Ransom Riggs, (2012), Harper Collins imprint It Books.

Never a Pal Like Mother: Vintage Songs and Photographs of the One Who’s Always True, a 2011 Dust-to-Digital release with text by Rosanne Cash and Sarah Bryan.

“Artist Unknown/The Free World,” a 2010/2011 exhibition organized by Oliver Wasow and John D. Monteith at the Art and Culture Center of Hollywood (Florida).