All the materials in these chapters are taken from conversations and interviews which were originally recorded by portable tape recorder. Full transcriptions were then made of all sessions, and these typed transcriptions were edited, cut and arranged according to the format indicated in organizing this book. Occasionally extended sections come from one session and appear almost verbatim. On the other extreme, the material found in Chapter 7, "Marybird," comes from literally dozens of tapes and has been pieced together, sometimes a few words or phrases at a time, to provide continuity.

          The statements of the contributors are highly oral in style and nature. There was often a great deal of repetition and other distracting characteristics without altering the meaning, flavor or style of the teller. Anomalous or dialect spellings have been used where they are an important or consistent factor in the presentation.

          I have tried to make all the words in the chapters those of the speakers. However some of the information was gotten by interview techniques and since the question/answer format makes for stilted reading, the following adaptations were occasionally employed.

The following exchange:

Question: Where was your father born?

Answer: Right here on this place.

Question: When was he born?

Answer: Oh, back in '87.

would appear as:

"My father was born right here on this place back in '87."

          Except for these modifications, the tales and stories are just as told by the informants whose names preceed each section. I have tried to place statements with relationship to subjects so as to allow various speakers to comment in the nature of a discussion or dialogue. In this way different points of view or explanations are presented consecutively. This required taking some statements out of their original setting and context since there was seldom more than one contributor at a recording session.

          My own comments and observations have been restricted to the introduction, sketches of the people and the appendix of songs.

          A special nod of thanks and appreciation goes to Phyllis Dickinson, who was a graduate student in the School of Music at Louisiana State University when this book was in the early stages of preparation. She spent countless hours transcribing miles and miles of reel to reel tapes which was the raw material of the book. Her meticulous work, endless patience and constant graciousness made the project not only possible but pleasurable.