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Archie Green: "Hillbilly Music: Source & Symbol"

Archie Green, left, with Dock Walsh

Archie Green, left, with Dock Walsh, 1962. Archie Green Collection (#20002), Southern Folklife Collection.

In 1965, the Journal of American Folklore published "Hillbilly Music: Source & Symbol," by librarian and folklorist Archie Green. The article remains a touchstone of country music scholarship, serving as a concise primer on the early development of commercial country music. With many thanks to the Journal of American Folklore (www.afsnet.org), the article is presented here in its entirety, and includes links to sources mentioned within the text; these materials are housed at the Southern Folklife Collection.

To facilitate easier navigation of the article as a whole, it has been  divided into five parts. While these divisions were not part of the original article, we believe they make "Hillbilly Music" more convenient to read in an online context.