IDAHO SONG COLLECTING

In 2007, Gary Eller held a grant from the Idaho Humanities Council to collect historically-based songs of the Snake and Salmon River region. Songs about actual Idaho people, places and events provide a unique window into the region's rich heritage. To date, Gary has collected about 1000 songs related in some way to Idaho, of which about 100 predate 1910 and about 200 are historically rooted. These songs ranged widely and included somber event ballads, stage songs, hilarious parodies and operas. The early songs are being preserved in written and recorded forms that are accessible to present and future generations, and in public performances. Please click on Pre-1910 Idaho Songs to see an annotated bibliography of early Idaho songs. Click on Songs of the Month List to hear and read about selected early Idaho songs. Click on Nashville abstract to read about the paper to be presented at the International Conference on Country Music in May, 2008 about Idaho roots music.

The project is continuing and people with knowledge of such songs are urged to contact Gary Eller by phone at 208-442-8844 or by email at pgaryeller@aol.com.

Gary Eller also is a member of the Speaker's Bureau of the Idaho Humanities Council. He is available on request through the Council to share historically-based Idaho folk songs. The Speaker's Bureau provides support for presentations on a variety of other subjects to Idaho organizations. Details are available through the Humanities Council website or 208-345-5346.

The Idaho Humanities Council isa state-based program of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The work also was sponsored in part by the Julia Hyslop Center for Historical Research and the Owyhee Educational Programs Committee, elements of the Owyhee County Historical Society.

Copyright Pickle's Butte Music 2008

This page was last revised on April 19, 2008.