UWG News Archive

Public History Center Releases New CD

November 13, 2003

CARROLLTON, GA - The Center for Public History at the University of West Georgia announces the release of a second CD in its series of old-time music from the West Georgia area. Entitled I Hear a Sweet Voice Calling, this compact disk recording features over 70 minutes of timeless music with deep roots in American tradition.

UWG News Photo After 70 years of entertaining family, friends and radio audiences with his soothing voice and seemingly bottomless repertoire of old-time country, folk, and gospel songs, Alton Stitcher has recorded his first album. His CD follows on the heels of the Center’s award-winning compact disc, Everybody’s Tuned to the Radio: Rural Music Traditions in West Georgia, 1947-1979. That compilation of “hillbilly music” by various artists from Carroll County included four of Stitcher’s home recordings from 1959.

Sticher will be featured in an upcoming concert sponsored by the Center for Public History. “Alton Stitcher and Friends: An Evening of Old-Time Music” is set for Jan. 31 at 7:30 p.m. in the Townsend Center for Performing Arts. Tickets are $5.

Born in Villa Rica in 1916, Stitcher grew up in the West Georgia countryside where he absorbed many of the traditional folk songs, ballads and hymns he sings on the CD. In 1936, he made his debut as a radio performer in Griffin, and between 1947 and 1963, Alton performed regularly on Carrollton radio station WLBB, where he helped keep old-time country music alive.

According to Dr. Ann McCleary, director of the Center for Public History, Stitcher remains a vital link in the chain of rural, folk music tradition that stretches back to the nineteenth century and includes early country music legends like the Carter Family and the Blue Sky Boys.

Through the Regional Music Project, faculty and students from the Center for Public History are documenting the music traditions of the West Georgia region. The Center is continuing to collecting oral histories, historic recordings, and other documents and artifacts connected to this music as part of its mission is to research, document, preserve and promote public discussion of the history and resources—architectural, cultural and folklife—of West Georgia and the surrounding region.

Along with Stitcher’s unique interpretations of traditional songs such as Listen to the Mockingbird and Babes in the Woods, and early country classics like Kentucky and Have I Told You Lately That I Love You, the CD features nine of his own compositions, including My Georgia Mountain Home and Model-T Love.

Stitcher is accompanied on the CD by a number of talented musical guests from his past and present. Joining him in the studio on the 18 new recordings on the disc were Faye Marshall, who sang and played guitar with Stitcher on the radio during the late 1940s; his niece, vocalist Donna Fuller; Russell McClanahan on mandolin, banjo, and harmonica; and master fiddler James Bryan and his daughter Rachel Bryan, from Mentone, Alabama.

In addition, the disc includes 10 of Stitcher’s home recordings from the 1950s and 60s. Uncle John Patterson, Carrollton’s late, great “Banjo King,” and vocalists Lee Williams and Elizabeth Cooper are featured on these vintage recordings.

The Regional Music Project is sponsored in part by the Georgia Humanities Council and the Georgia Council for the Arts through the appropriation of the Georgia General Assembly. The Georgia Council for the Arts is a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.

To share stories or otherwise participate in the project, contact the Center. The Center for Public History is located in Room 207 of the Pafford Building and is open Monday - Thursday from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. and Fridays from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m.

I Hear a Sweet Voice Calling includes a 28-page booklet and is available for $14 from the Center for Public History on the UWG campus, and other merchants on Adamson Square in Carrollton, including Clayworks Gallery, Horton’s Books & Gifts, Burson’s Feed and Seed, and Burrito Jones. For more information, contact the Center for Public History at (770) 838-3141.

To order by mail, send $14 per CD, $3 for shipping and handling for the first CD and $1 for additional CDs, to the Center for Public History, history Department, University of West Georgia, Carrollton, GA 30118. Both CDs, including Everybody’s Tuned to the Radio, are still available for sale.

Information about the Regional Music Project, liner notes from both CDs, and an order form are available on-line at www.westga/edu/~history/center.htm.

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