This project, by Maria Melius, focuses on folk music. Ms. Melius interviewed Tom Barr of Galax, Virginia who is well known as an instrument shop owner, music teacher Marisa Osborne, and musician and teacher Ricky Cox of Indian Valley in Floyd County, Virginia. Topics covered in these interviews include the question of whether folk music is a dying art, why or why not folk music may be a dying art, what role or purpose does folk music serve, and what is the future of folk music. This is among projects created by students enrolled in English 446 (initially English 452), “Appalachian Folklore,” 1981-2019, and in graduate level counterparts English 548 and 648 “Appalachian Folk Culture(s)” offered 17 fall semesters between 1987 and 2009. Minimally contain collector’s introduction and analysis, transcribed informant interviews, and excerpted and labeled examples of oral, customary, and/or material folklore/folklife collected primarily within the Appalachian region. Most include also tables of contents, informant information, indexes (outlines) of interviews, photographs, miscellaneous paper items, and indexes of informants, genres, and geographic locations. Accompanying audio recordings (several minutes to 2+ hours). Transferred to McConnell Library Archives & Special Collections from Appalachian Regional and Rural Studies Center, Fall 2013.