Jim Leary

Folklorists working for the Library of Congress in the mid-20th century recorded roughly 2000 folksongs and tunes in more than twenty-five languages from performers in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. These remarkable songs and their singers have been largely unknown until now. Jim Leary, UW Professor of Folklore and Scandinavian Studies, will introduce his Folksongs of Another America: Field Recordings from the Upper Midwest, 1937–1946 (a book with 5 CDs and a DVD) recently co-published by the University of Wisconsin Press and music publisher Dust-to-Digital.  The talk will be followed by a screening of the publication’s accompanying 25-minute documentary film, Alan Lomax Goes North, co-produced with the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.