Library Collections and Links

This online display focuses on collection highlights of the Urban Pioneers folk music collection including scholarly publications, oral history interviews, songs and set lists and materials related to the Urban Pioneers reunion concert held on January 24, 2007.  The digital collection resides on University of Utah servers.  The physical collection is located in Special Collections at Weber State University Stewart Library and  contains correspondence, draft publications and other manuscripts collected by Polly Stewart related to the 1950s-60s folk music scene in Salt Lake City, Utah. 

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Digital Collections

 

• (In progress 8/29/2013) Intermountain Acoustic Music Association Newsletters (1985-2012)

The Intermountain Acoustic Music Association (IAMA) was founded as the "Utah Bluegrass Music Association in 1985 "for the furtherance and preservation of of; bluegrass and other forms of acoustic music."

• Oral History Interviews 

In 2004 the American Folklore Society (AFS) held it's annual meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah providing an opportunity for Ms. Stewart to collect oral history interviews with some of  the principals who participated in the Utah folk music revival during the 1950s and 1960s.  This was also the first time that Polly Stewart introduced the definition of the movement as "Utah Urban Pioneers Folk Music Revival," and the musicians as "Utah Urban Pioneers."   Further interviews were conducted by Jennifer Bott as part of her thesis project and after the 2007 reunion concert.

• Songs and Set Lists 

Lyrics, chords and set lists of traditional and revivalist folk songs collected by musician and folklorist Polly Stewart. 

Physical Collection 

Urban Pioneers Special Collections archive (Weber State University, Stewart Library, Special Collections)

Scholarly Articles

Stewart, Polly. (2012). Itinerant walking folksingers and other communist threats on Chief Skousen’s watch, 1956-1960. (Paper presented at the Utah State History Conference, Sept 20-23, 2012).

Bott, Jennifer. (2007). Utah Sings Out: The Folk Music Revival (1950s-1960s). Master's Thesis. Weber State University. Department of History, Ogden, UT.

Wheeler, B. V. (2009). The Stormy Mountain Boys: An Example of how Bluegrass Provided an Alternative Politically Neutral Music During the Vietnam Era. Masters Thesis. Weber State University, Ogden, Utah.

Marion, L. (2007). Alum Profile: The Revivalists. The ’60s folksong revival that captured the world’s attention also played out in Utah. Meet some of the U alumni who helped define an era. Continuum, 17(2).

Stewart, Polly. (2006). Urban Pioneers: The Folk-Music Revival in Utah, 1959-1966. Utah Historical Quarterly, 74(3), 220-230.

Broudy, Saul Frederick. (1982). The Effect of Performer-audience Interaction on Performance Strategies: "Moose-Turd Pie" in Context. (Ph.D. Thesis), University of Pennsylvania.  

Urban Pioneers Bibliography (Amy Brunvand, Librarian)

Urban Pioneers Discography (Amy Brunvand, Librarian)