Leonard Roberts grew up in a very traditional, community in southern Floyd County. I attended his funeral - he had pulled out in front of a coal truck on his way to the Post Office in Pikeville after the President of Pikeville College had freaked him out by firing some tenured faculty friends of his and decided that Leonard needed to move his office. Leonard's brother attended the funeral wearing his overalls - not as a sign of disrespect, that was just how traditional he was. When Leonard went on to earn a PhD in folklore at the University of Kentucky, he became the ONLY professional academic folklorist of mountain people who ever was and ever will be so immersed in mountain folklore since he was a child. And Leonard transcribes the folk songs exactly as they are sung to him. He does not "clean them up." Full notes on sources, types, motifs, parallels, and possible origins of the songs make this collection especially valuable.
Pikeville: Pikeville College Press, 1978. 319 pages. Hardback without a jacket.