Jerry Zolten
Encyclopedia
Jerry Zolten is an American writer and advocate of roots music
. He is known as the author of a book tracing the 30-plus year career of the African-American Dixie Hummingbirds gospel
group and their influence on both sacred and secular music. Zolten is also known for numerous articles and CD liner notes on blues, country
, and gospel music
. He is an associate professor at Penn State University.
, the New Old Time Wooly Thumpers. The Wooly Thumpers opened for Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company at a Penn State performance and also played at venues as diverse as the Jawbone Coffeehouse and Lewisburg Penitentary
.
, In the Spirit http://www.prx.org/pieces/3187, a history of Black gospel music, and Boppin' With Pekar http://www.prx.org/pieces/20883, an overview of jazz history with Harvey Pekar
of American Splendor
and special guest, artist Phoebe Gloeckner
.
Traditional music
Traditional music is the term increasingly used for folk music that is not contemporary folk music. More on this is at the terminology section of the World music article...
. He is known as the author of a book tracing the 30-plus year career of the African-American Dixie Hummingbirds gospel
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
group and their influence on both sacred and secular music. Zolten is also known for numerous articles and CD liner notes on blues, country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
, and gospel music
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
. He is an associate professor at Penn State University.
Undergraduate Years
As an undergraduate at Penn State, he was a member of a jug bandJug band
A Jug band is a band employing a jug player and a mix of traditional and home-made instruments. These home-made instruments are ordinary objects adapted to or modified for making of sound, like the washtub bass, washboard, spoons, stovepipe and comb & tissue paper...
, the New Old Time Wooly Thumpers. The Wooly Thumpers opened for Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company at a Penn State performance and also played at venues as diverse as the Jawbone Coffeehouse and Lewisburg Penitentary
Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary
The United States Penitentiary in Lewisburg is a male inmate high security federal penitentiary and satellite minimum security prison camp housing some 1,000 and 500 respectively, just outside Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. The Lewisburg Penitentiary was opened in 1932...
.
Music Production and Criticism
Zolten was also instrumental in resurrecting the career of the Grammy-winning Fairfield Four, producing two CDs, Wreckin' the House/Live at Mt. Hope (Dead Reckoning) and, by their bass singer Isaac Freeman, Beautiful Stars (Lost Highway). Among his public radio productions are Chimpin' the Blues http://www.prx.org/pieces/177, a history of early blues and pre-blues co-hosted with underground cartoonist Robert CrumbRobert Crumb
Robert Dennis Crumb —known as Robert Crumb and R. Crumb—is an American artist, illustrator, and musician recognized for the distinctive style of his drawings and his critical, satirical, subversive view of the American mainstream.Crumb was a founder of the underground comix movement and is regarded...
, In the Spirit http://www.prx.org/pieces/3187, a history of Black gospel music, and Boppin' With Pekar http://www.prx.org/pieces/20883, an overview of jazz history with Harvey Pekar
Harvey Pekar
Harvey Lawrence Pekar was an American underground comic book writer, music critic and media personality, best known for his autobiographical American Splendor comic series. In 2003, the series inspired a critically acclaimed film adaptation of the same name.Pekar described American Splendor as "an...
of American Splendor
American Splendor
American Splendor is a series of autobiographical comic books written by the late Harvey Pekar and drawn by a variety of artists. The first issue was published in 1976 and the most recent in September 2008, with publication occurring at irregular intervals...
and special guest, artist Phoebe Gloeckner
Phoebe Gloeckner
Phoebe Louise Adams Gloeckner is an American cartoonist, illustrator, painter, and novelist.-Background:Gloeckner was born in 1960 in Philadelphia, and spent most of her later childhood and young adult life in San Francisco, where her family moved in the early 1970s...
.
Awards
In 2010, he was named as the recipient of the Kjell Meling Award for Distinction in the Arts and Humanities.Publications
- Contributor, The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore http://www.greenwood.com/catalog/GR3035.aspx
Sources
- Interviewed...Jerry Jazz Musician http://www.jerryjazzmusician.com/mainHTML.cfm?page=zolten.html
- Interviewed...Research/Penn State http://www.rps.psu.edu/zolten/
- Entry on Penn State experts database
- Cited in...Santoro, Gene, Highway 61 Revisited/The Tangled Roots of American Jazz, Blues, Rock & Country Music http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/CulturalStudies/AfricanAmericanStudies/Music/~~/dmlldz11c2EmY2k9OTc4MDE5NTE1NDgxOA