Physical description:

.25 l.f. including 4 audio tapes (TTA-0138A/D) (Copies)
 

Dates:

1989-1990.
 

Provenance:

Audio tapes and lecture text lent for copying by Dr. Laura Jarmon, Department of English, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro TN.
 

Biographical sketch:

Mr. W.B. "Hop" Hopson ... is now [1990] in his seventies. He was born and raised in rural West Tennessee... now lives in Haywood County. Mr. W.B.'s music career typifies that of many black performers from the southern rural community ... of his generation. Mr. W.B. spent many years as a blues performer who at an important juncture in his life experienced a spiritual conversion that resulted in a transition musically from blues performances to gospel performances.

-- from lecture text by Dr. Jarmon included with interviews
 

Scope and content:

These four tapes include interviews with W.B. Hopson conducted by Dr. Laura Jarmon during the summer of 1989 and spring of 1990. In these interviews Mr. Hopson describes his first instrument and learning to play from "a white lady"; his blues career, singing and its place in the community, playing at suppers and dances, his sons and grandsons who play music, his playing style and musical partners, his philosophy of music, his conversion and turn to gospel music and the similarities of the two musical styles. He also performs a number of songs and plays portions of a tape of songs recorded earlier with his now-deceased wife.

The lecture text by Dr. Jarmon based on this interviews both analyzes the musical and lyrical style of Mr. Hobson's performances and places his experience in the context of black musical experience and black rural life in west Tennessee.
 

Location:

The audio tapes are filed first by media type, then by tape number in the audio visual archives. The lecture text is filed by accession number with other manuscript groups.