Photo of Nathan Salsburg, while at a 2012 residency at Space Gallery in Portland, ME accompanied an interview by Nat May (email), Executive Director of the gallery.
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Nathan Salsburg (blog), of Louisville, KY, curates the Alan Lomax's archives for The Association for Cultural Equity. He was in Blacksburg September 23 to perform most of the songs on his his second album "Hard to Win and Can't Be Won" at Trad in the Attic in Blacksburg.
The album contains, in addition to one sung ballad, "Coll Mackenzie," written by Archie Fisher, eight of Salsburg's guitar instrumentals:
First Field Path
Mrs. Gristles Reel
Paraffin Turpentine
Concessions
Dog At Bay
Chief Wants
To Welcome the Travelers Home
What Can't Be Won
Salsburg set up playing "Coll Mackenzie," by saying he had learned the tune in the traditional way for music to be passed down from earlier generations in the 21st century --YouTube. Salsburg had written Fisher for the lyrics and gained his permission to record it.
Salsburg also played others' music including Norman Blake's "Whiskey Deaf and Whiskey Blind" with his friend Nathan Bowles of The Black Twig Pickers sitting in on banjo.
Afterwards, Salsburg screened clips from the Lomax archive. You can find many of the videos (but not the bawdiest, evidently) on YouTube. For instance, here's a screen shot of the video of Tommy Jarrell playing "Breaking Up Christmas" in 1983:
