A traveling salesman with little formal education, Max Hunter gravitated to song catching and ballad hunting while on business trips in the Ozarks. Hunter recorded nearly 1600 traditional songs by more than 200 singers from the mid-1950s through the mid-1970s, all the while focused on preserving the music in its unaltered form.

Sarah Jane Nelson chronicles Hunter's song collecting adventures alongside portraits of the singers and mentors he met along the way. The guitar-strumming Hunter picked up the recording habit to expand his repertoire but almost immediately embraced the role of song preservationist. Being a local allowed Hunter to merge his native Ozark earthiness with sharp observational skills to connect—often more than once—with his singers. Hunter's own ability to be present added to that sense of connection. Despite his painstaking approach, ballad collecting was also a source of pleasure for Hunter. Ultimately, his dedication to capturing Ozarks song culture in its natural state brought Hunter into contact with people like Vance Randolph, Mary Parler, and non-academic folklorists who shared his values.

|Foreword: The Singer in Me Robert Cochran

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Max Hunter and the Ballad Field

Singing on the Way to Church

A Traveling Salesman in Eureka<<AU: Should this be Eureka Springs?>>

Rules of Collecting and How Hunter Got His Songs

The Child Ballads and Other Bounty

Singing Grandmas and the Musical Tribes of Stone County

Circle of Friends

The Importance of Columbia

More Than a Hobby

Max Hunter's Map of the Ozarks

Max Hunter and the Festival Circuit

One Eye on the Past and One on the Future

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index

|"Hunter recorded nearly 1600 songs from more than 200 singers over a period of several decades. Because he was not directly connected to academia or to the publishing world, his work might not be as familiar as are the works of other Ozark folklorists, but we learn through the determined research of Sarah Jane Nelson that his life as a collector was rich with stories of fascinating musicians, folkloristic debates, shifting attitudes, and relationships with folklorists and folklore-related institutions throughout the country." —OzarksWatch
"Vividly illuminates the efforts of a remarkable ballad-hunter, festival impresario, and personality, while offering attention to nationwide folksong currents intersecting with the Ozarks. There is an audience of scholars, folksong performers and enthusiasts, and Ozarks residents and aficionados awaiting this book."—James P. Leary, author of Folklores of Another America: Field Recordings from the Upper Midwest, 1937–1946
"I appreciate that Ms. Nelson took the time and energy to write about Max Hunter's life, his quest for ballads, and the family and singers who helped him along the way. Her writing style is clean and unpretentious." —Missouri Historical Review
|Sarah Jane Nelson is a writer and musical performer. She has written on music for Old-Time Herald, Ozarks Watch, Fiddlers Magazine, and other publications.