Sidney Stripling was an

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

old-time and blues musician from

Kathleen, Georgia Kathleen is an unincorporated community in Houston County, Georgia, United States. It is part of the Warner Robins, Georgia Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is home to roughly 11,500 people. Education Houston County Board of Education (Georgi ...

. He is believed to have been born in the 19th century, and died some time between 1941 and 1945. At the request of

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 ...

, in charge of the

Archive of American Folk Song The Archive of Folk Culture (originally named The Archive of American Folk Song) was established in 1928 as the first national collection of American folk music in the United States of America. It was initially part of the Music Division of the Libr ...

at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

John Wesley Work III John Wesley Work III (July 15, 1901 – May 17, 1967) was a composer, educator, choral director, musicologist and scholar of African-American folklore and music. Biography He was born on July 15, 1901, in Tullahoma, Tennessee, to a family of pr ...

Fisk University Fisk University is a private historically black liberal arts college in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1866 and its campus is a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1930, Fisk was the first Africa ...

recorded ten of Stripling's songs at the Fort Valley State College Folk Festival in

Fort Valley, Georgia Fort Valley is a city in and the county seat of Peach County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 8,780. The city is in the Warner Robins metropolitan area and the Macon–Warner Robins combined statisti ...

in March 1941. These are the only known recordings of the artist, and include

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

spirituals Spirituals (also known as Negro spirituals, African American spirituals, Black spirituals, or spiritual music) is a genre of Christian music that is associated with Black Americans, which merged sub-Saharan African cultural heritage with the e ...

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

, dance tunes and children's songs. Stripling sings and plays what may be a four-string

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

in a style typical of the period around 1900.

Available recordings

The recordings of Stripling found in The Archive of Folk Culture are: AFS 5149 *B1. "Standin' on the Corner Smokin' a Cheap Cigar" AFS 5154 *A2. "Hammering in My Soul" *B2. "Whoa, Mule Whoa" AFS 5155 *A1. "Alabama Red" *A2. "Coon Gi'nt" AFS 5161 *A1. "Breakaway" *A2. "Sevassafool" *B1. "Where You Been So Long" (with Gus Gibson, guitar) *B2. "Lookin' For the Bully in This Town" *B3. "Sally Walker" The following songs have been published on the CD ''Deep River of Song: Georgia'' (Rounder Records 2001), a selection of songs from the Allan Lomax Collection: * "Sally Walker" (Children's song) * "Coon Gi'nt" ("Coonjine") * "Breakaway" * "Sevassafool" ("Sebastopol") The song "Breakaway" is featured on the soundtrack of the

Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominatio ...

movie

Gangs of New York ''Gangs of New York'' is a 2002 American epic historical drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Jay Cocks, Steven Zaillian and Kenneth Lonergan, based on Herbert Asbury's 1927 book ''The Gangs of New York''. The film stars Le ...

(2002).

References

Trivia

*Is the Great-Grandfather (paternal) of the American socialite David Stripling.

External links

The Allan Lomax Collection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stripling, Sidney 19th-century births Fort Valley State University 1940s deaths African-American musicians Old-time musicians People from Houston County, Georgia 20th-century African-American people