Most of the songs were known both by my grandmother Hattie Tyler Cargill and Ms. Knott. When there were big diffences in the lyrics I have chosen to use my grandmother's version because of the family connection. The same can be said about the tunes. I use the old family tunings and tunes whenever possible. I did sing for Ms. Knott and she usually approved of the versions from my family. Of course, she had other tunes for the some of the songs and in my opinion some of her tunes were from a later period. At least it seemed that way to my ear. I met Ms. Knott at the Coons Library in Princeton Kentucky and she graciously shared her vast knowledge of folk music withme. I think she appreciated me as an eager learner. She had started the National Folk Festival and had collected many folk songs from around the country. My grandmother's material had been passed through her family and preserved for many generations. The music of Western Kentucky was older than because it was settled earlier than Appalachia. It also disappeared faster because of the earlier onset of electricity and radio. I recruited the following enthusiastic folksingers to help me record these songs: Debra Cowan (numbers 2,4, 7, 17) Susan Ruth Brown (1, 8, 11,15)Sally Ann Merrill (14, 21) Margaret Tyler (20) Elma Tuomisalo (19) John Wright (3,22) Patrick Guinee( (22) and Abby Teffeteller (13). I did most of the instrumental work myself with some assistance on guitar from Kristina Olsen. We used authentic old tunings on our instruments and played in the old modal scales. I sang on numbers 1,4,5,6,8,9,1011,12,13,14,16, 17,18, 22,23,24. My goal on this project is preservation of the old tunes and lyrics. Acie Cargill