Horton Barker (August 23, 1889 – August 12, 1973) was an Appalachian traditional singer. Barker was born in Laurel Bloomery,

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

, USA. Blind nearly all his life, Barker learned his unusually wide repertoire at the School for the Deaf and Blind in

Staunton, Virginia Staunton ( ) is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 25,750. In Virginia, independent cities a ...

, as well as at folk festivals in Whitetop, Virginia. Barker's pure-toned tenor voice earned him a bare living around the region but also brought him to the attention of folklorist

Alan Lomax Alan Lomax (; January 31, 1915 – July 19, 2002) was an American ethnomusicologist, best known for his numerous field recordings of folk music of the 20th century. He was also a musician himself, as well as a folklorist, archivist, writer, sch ...

, who recorded Barker in 1937, and later folksinger, folksong collector, and field recorder

Sandy Paton Charles Alexander "Sandy" Paton (22 January 1929 — 26 July 2009) was a folksinger and folksong collector, a recording engineer, and a record label executive. As a performer, Paton was hailed by critic John Greenway as "the best interpreter of tr ...

, who recorded Barker's 1962 LP ''Horton Barker: Traditional Singer''. In his early 70s when this LP was recorded, Barker still had a fine singing voice, and the record was praised for its interesting range of material, from ballads (including four

Child ballads The Child Ballads are 305 traditional ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, anthologized by Francis James Child during the second half of the 19th century. Their lyrics and Child's studies of them were published as ''T ...

) to sacred songs "in the older ''rubato'' style." This record was released on the Folkways label, catalog number FA 2362. At the age of 75, Barker appeared at the 1965

Newport Folk Festival Newport Folk Festival is an annual American folk-oriented music festival in Newport, Rhode Island, which began in 1959 as a counterpart to the Newport Jazz Festival. It was one of the first modern music festivals in America, and remains a foca ...

. A brief portion of the song "Pretty Sally" from Barker's Saturday performance at that festival is featured in the 1967 documentary film ''

Festival A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival c ...

'', directed by

Murray Lerner Murray Lerner (May 8, 1927 – September 2, 2017) was an American documentary and experimental film director and producer. Career Lerner was born May 8, 1927, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Nacham and Goldie (Levine) Lerner. Murray's father ...

.Mary Katherine Aldin, "Horton Barker," in booklet accompanying the 2017 Criterion Collection Blu-ray release of ''Festival''. . Horton Barker died in 1973 at the age of 83.

References

1889 births 1973 deaths American folk singers American gospel singers American tenors Singers from Tennessee Blind musicians American blind people 20th-century American male singers 20th-century American singers {{Gospel-music-stub