2025 at the North Carolina Folklife Institute: Stories, Partnerships, and the Work Ahead
As 2025 comes to a close, the North Carolina Folklife Institute reflects on a year shaped by collaboration, listening, and deep engagement with communities across the state. Our work this year centered the people who carry cultural knowledge forward – artists, tradition bearers, apprentices, and public servants – and the partnerships that make this work […]
NC Folklife Institute Announces 2025 In These Mountains NC Folklife Apprenticeship Awardees
$10,000 Awards Support Apprenticeship Pairs in NC’s Mountain Communities to Preserve Traditional Arts DURHAM, N.C. (November 19, 2025) — The North Carolina Folklife Institute is proud to announce the recipients of the 2025 In These Mountains NC Folklife Apprenticeship Awards, a program supporting the continuation of traditional arts and cultural practices across North Carolina’s Appalachian […]
Kingdom Voices United: Building Community and Healing Through Gospel Song
The story of Kingdom Voices United starts with a vision from God. “I was on my way to service one morning and God just dropped it so heavily in my spirit,” Minister La’Wanda Leggett recalls. Though reluctant at first to start a choir, she recalls, after consulting with lifelong friends Apostle Stanley Douglas and Tony […]
Less of Me, More of Him: Jalessa Cade’s Gospel Journey Across Church, Stage, and Song
From the beginning, Jalessa Cade knew she was destined to become a gospel singer. With a strong and emotional voice that reflects growing up in the church intertwined with influences of Broadway, R&B, jazz, bluegrass, and other styles, Jalessa possesses a clear confidence to sing in a multitude of musical scenarios. But this wasn’t always […]
Raleigh Wide Open Gospel Performances Schedule
PineCone and the North Carolina Folklife Institute (NCFI) have partnered to present a powerful lineup of gospel music performances and dynamic panel discussions as part of the Raleigh Wide Open Festival, taking place October 3–4, 2025 in downtown Raleigh. The gospel programming at Raleigh Wide Open has been developed under the artistic curation of Jared Payton, […]
NCFI and PineCone present Gospel Panel Discussions at Raleigh Wide Open
The Gospel program at Raleigh Wide Open brings the sounds, stories, and spirit of gospel music to life through five dynamic talks at the City of Raleigh Museum. On Friday, October 3, Appaloosa Redd joins Greensboro musician and storyteller Colin Cutler for a conversation on the Gospel of the Blues, followed by Kendall Kent’s exploration […]
NCFI and PineCone’s Raleigh Wide Open Gospel Performer Audiograms
PineCone and the North Carolina Folklife Institute (NCFI) have partnered to present a powerful lineup of gospel music performances and dynamic panel discussions as part of the Raleigh Wide Open Festival, taking place October 3–4, 2025 in downtown Raleigh. The gospel programming at Raleigh Wide Open has been developed under the artistic curation of Jared Payton, […]
NCFI and PineCone’s Raleigh Wide Open Gospel Performers share Music Recordings from the Field
NCFI is excited to share field recordings from a selection of the gospel performers to be presented at Raleigh Wide Open this year! The gospel artists and panel sessions are presented by the North Carolina Folklife Institute in partnership with PineCone with support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the North Carolina Arts […]
PineCone and North Carolina Folklife Institute Partner to Present Gospel Performances and Panels at Raleigh Wide Open Festival
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Contact:Stacy ChandlerPineCone Communications Managercommunications@pinecone.org919-664-8333 (office)919-946-6685 (cell) Amy GrossmannNorth Carolina Folklife Institutestaff@ncfolk.org336-223-5956 (office) Raleigh, NC — September 3, 2025 — PineCone and the North Carolina Folklife Institute (NCFI) are partnering to present a powerful lineup of gospel music performances and dynamic panel discussions as part of the Raleigh Wide Open Festival, taking […]
Applications Open for the 2025 North Carolina Folklife Apprenticeships Program
$10,000 Grants Support Mentor-Apprentice Pairs in NC’s Mountain Communities to Preserve Traditional Arts DURHAM, N.C. (July 15, 2025) – The North Carolina Folklife Institute is excited to announce the opening of the 2025 North Carolina Appalachian Folklife Apprenticeship Program. This program supports year-long, community-based mentorships in the folk and traditional arts of western North Carolina. […]
Disco Rodeo
Latino immigration has impacted North Carolina’s culture in a variety of ways. You can see it in the number of Mexican restaurants here, or in the presence of Univision, the Spanish-language TV network.
[sc_embed_player fileurl=”http://www.ncfolk.dreamhosters.com/audio/DiscoRodeo.mp3″] Listen to the podcast
Blue Ridge Music Trails of North Carolina: A Guide to Music Sites, Artists, and Traditions of the Mountains and Foothills
[wpshopcart_add_to_cart id=”18″] The music and dance traditions of North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains are legendary. Residents continue a musical heritage that stretches back many generations. In this lively guidebook, noted folklorist Fred C. Fussell puts readers on the trail to discover the many sites in western North Carolina where this unique musical legacy thrives. Organized […]
Red Fox Chasers: I’m Going Down to North Carolina
[wpshopcart_add_to_cart id=”17″] Complete recordings of the 1920s and ’30s string band from Northwest North Carolina. Two-disc set with extensive liner notes. [wpshopcart_add_to_cart id=”17″]
Bascom Lamar Lunsford: Ballads, Banjo Tunes, and Sacred Songs of Western North Carolina
[wpshopcart_add_to_cart id=”16″] Bascom Lunsford (1882 – 1973), who was one of the luminaries in the early days of North Carolina folklore studies, was also a talented banjo player and sweet-voiced singer of ballads. The nineteen recordings on this album are drawn mostly from his “memory collection,” a 1949 recording session at the Library of Congress […]
Joe Thompson: Family Tradition
[wpshopcart_add_to_cart id=”15″] Released in celebration of Joe Thompson’s eightieth birthday, “Family Tradition” contains some of his very best recordings. Thompson is joined by his cousin Odell and brother Nate, also important figures in the black stringband tradition, and by friends Bob Carlin and Scott Ainslie, playing oldtime piedmont stringband music and gospel songs, including a […]
George Herbert Moore: Roots and Shoes
[wpshopcart_add_to_cart id=”14″] Burgaw native and well known Wilmington performer George Herbert Moore’s second album. The sixteen tracks on “Roots and Shoes,” from traditional and original pieces to Jimmy Reed and Muddy Waters covers, displays the breadth of Moore’s mastery of blues styles. Listen: [sc_embed_player fileurl=”http://ncfolk.org/Images/mp3/georgeherbertmooregifeverrootsandshoes.mp3″] G. I. Fever [wpshopcart_add_to_cart id=”14″]
The Doc Watson Family
[wpshopcart_add_to_cart id=”13″] This album is a reissue of a 1963 Smithsonian record, which captured a remarkable moment in North Carolina’s musical history. Doc Watson, in the earliest days of his ascent to international acclaim, plays and sings here with his very musical extended family. Featured are the gentle and eerie fiddling of Watson’s father-in-law, Gaither […]
Black Banjo Songsters of North Carolina and Virginia
[wpshopcart_add_to_cart id=”12″] “The sounds and social history of African American banjo playing – 32 superb instrumentals and vocals, recorded between 1974 and 1997. Extensively annotated with performers’ life histries, tunings, lyrics, bibliography, and discography. The banjo’s gourd ancestors came to the Americas with enslaved Africans, forging the link between West African griots and performers of […]
Marcus Martin: When I Get My New House Done, Western North Carolina Fiddle Tunes and Songs
[wpshopcart_add_to_cart id=”11″] Marcus Martin, one of the finest old-time musicians from western North Carolina, had a legendary fiddling style. The Southern Folklife Collection presents rare and unreleased 1940s field recordings of this acclaimed master fiddler recorded in his prime by Alan Lomax, Jan Schinhan, Artus Moser and Margaret Mayo. Details: 2007, UNC Chapel Hill, North […]
Masters of the Banjo
[wpshopcart_add_to_cart id=”10″] The 1993 Masters of the Banjo Tour featured traditional banjo styles, African and Irish as well as American, played by some of the instrument’s star players. Among the North Carolinians featured on this album are Kirk Sutphin, Tony Ellis, and Carroll Best. Details: 1994, Arhoolie 421 [sc_embed_player fileurl=”http://ncfolk.org/Images/mp3/mastersofthebanjocarrollbestmcmitchensreel.mp3″] Listen to Carroll Best: McMichen’s […]
Menhaden Chanteymen: Won’t You Help Me to Raise ’em
[wpshopcart_add_to_cart id=”9″] Recorded in 1989 at St. Paul Episcopal Church in Beaufort, the dozen songs on this cassette are traditional work songs of a coastal Carolina menhaden fishery. The Menhaden Chanteymen are recipients of the North Carolina Folk Heritage Award. Songs: I’m Gonna Roll Here; Help Me to Raise ’em; My Way Seems So Hard; […]
Going Down to Raleigh
[wpshopcart_add_to_cart id=”3″] Going Down to Raleigh: Stringband Music in the North Carolina Piedmont 1976-1998 is a two-disc anthology that presents field recordings of stringband music from the central Piedmont of North Carolina. The musicians featured in the project are fiddlers, banjo players, guitarists, singers, and a hammered dulcimer player who first learned their music from […]