Andrew Rowan Summers Explained

Andrew Rowan Summers (December 15, 1912– March 1968) was an American folk singer and player of the Appalachian dulcimer.^[1] He is credited with a large role in preserving Appalachian music from extinction.^[2] Summers was among the earliest musicians to draw attention to the dulcimer to a wider audience outside the Appalachians, with John Jacob Niles being one of the few earlier.^[3]

Summers was born in Abingdon, Virginia in 1912, and enrolled in the University of Virginia in 1930.^[4] Despite his interest in music, he ended up getting a degree in law, working as an attorney and later teaching at New York University.^[5]

Partial discography

All entries under Folkways Records

• The Unquiet Grave (1951)
• Seeds Of Love (single, 1951)
• The Lady Gay (single, 1954)
• Andrew Rowan Summers (1957)
• Christmas Carols (1966)

Further reading

• Sweet Singer of the Virginia Highlands: Andrew Rowan Summers. Virginia Cavalcade 1996 45(3): 100-109
• http://media.smithsonianfolkways.org/liner_notes/folkways/FW02348.pdf

Notes and References

1. Web site: Andrew Rowan Summers. Rate Your Music. 11 June 2015.
2. Book: Douglas Summers Brown. The Office. 1970. 5.
3. Book: Bob Coltman. Paul Clayton and the Folksong Revival. 2008. Scarecrow Press. 978-0-8108-6132-9. 94.
4. Book: Ray McKinley Lawless. Folksingers and folksongs in America: a handbook of biography, bibliography, and discography. Illustrated from paintings by Thomas Hart Benton and others, and from designs in Steuben glass. 1st ed. 1960. Sloan and Pearce. 220.
5. Book: David Bonner. Revolutionizing Children's Records: The Young People's Records and Children's Record Guild Series, 1946-1977. 26 November 2007. Scarecrow Press. 978-1-4617-1938-0. 69–.