The Campus Folksong Club was active on the University of Illinois campus from the early 1960s through the early 1970s. During its height in the 1960s, the CFC had over 500 members. The University of Illinois Campus Folksong Club Oral History Project was developed by Tracie Wilson, the 2006-2007 Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) Fellow and folklorist with technical assistance by Tabatha Becker, Reference and Web Resources Graduate Assistant. Additional interviews were conducted by Annie Paprocki, Anthropology and Sociology Librarian.
Doyle Moore is Professor Emeritus of Art and Design at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The Autoharp has been central to his scholarship and work as a performer. During the 1960s, he collaborated with University of Illinois students Jim Hockenhull and Paul Adkins as the Philo Glee and Mandolin Society, a group dedicated to old time and string band music. They performed at many Campus Folksong Club events and their music was the subject of the CFC's first LP. Doyle currently hosts a monthly cooking program on WILL Radio as the station's Chef-in-Residence.
Fritz Plous has worked as a freelance writer and journalist for the Chicago Sun-Times and United Press International. In his sophomore year, he discovered traditional music when he heard a freshman student, Jarvis Rich, playing a five-string banjo in the dormitory room across the hall. At Rich's suggestion, he soon became a member of the CFC, where he joined the board and was named editor of the monthly newsletter, the Autoharp. Fritz Plous currently serves as director of communications for a Chicago firm that leases railroad rolling stock and works to promote passenger-rail transportation and urban transit options in Illinois and throughout the United States.
Glenn Ohrlin is a cowboy singer and former rodeo circuit rider. He lives on a ranch near Mountain View, Arkansas. Ohrlin's music is the subject of the Campus Folksong Club's third album Hell-bound Train. During the 1960s folk revival, he performed on college campuses across the United States and produced subsequent recordings on the Philo and Rounder labels. In 1985, Ohrlin was named a National Heritage Fellow and he continues to perform at the annual National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada and at the Ozark Folk Center.
Jarvis Rich works as a computer programmer in San Francisco. As an undergraduate, he played the banjo and fiddle and became involved with the Campus Folksong Club as a freshman after meeting Vic Lukas at a Student Activities exhibition in the Union. He served as Chairman of Folksings and Master of Ceremonies at CFC events. After a long hiatus from music, he has taken up playing again, and now plays with the Babar Jug Band in the San Francisco Bay area.
Jonathan Allen completed his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania and is Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Illinois , where his work includes research on speech recognition and cochlear technologies. During his undergraduate years at Illinois, he played guitar and banjo and was a member and former president of the Campus Folksong Club. A key event in his involvement with the club was an interview that he conducted with Doc Watson during his visit to the campus.
Judy McCulloh completed her Ph.D in folklore at Indiana University and spent over thirty five years at the University of Illinois Press where her most recent positions included Executive Editor, Assistant Director, and Director of Development. She also edited the renowned Music in American Life series, making her an important force in expanding and transforming ethnomusicology scholarship. She is co-editor of The Stars of Country Music (1975). McCulloh is also a former president of the American Folklore Society and served on the Board of Trustees of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. In the 1960s, she played a central role in working with performers and producing the Campus Folksong Club's LPs.
Lyle Mayfield is a traditional musician and writer from Greenville, Illinois. He and his wife, Doris have played music together for over sixty years and have passed their appreciation of music on to their children and grandchildren. Lyle and Doris became involved with the Campus Folksong Club after a chance meeting with Archie Green at the print shop where Lyle worked in Urbana. The Mayfields were especially well received at the CFC folksings and developed many great friendships with club members. Their music is featured on the club's second LP Green Fields of Illinois. Lyle describes his involvement with the CFC as a turning point in their lives where they learned what a treasure they possessed in their musical heritage.
Neil Rosenberg earned a Ph.D. in Folklore from Indiana University and is Professor Emeritus of Folklore at Memorial University in Newfoundland. He is a renowned scholar of bluegrass and folk music and author and editor of a number of texts including Transforming Tradition and The Music of Bill Monroe (co-author). As a graduate student during the 1960s, he also served as president of the IU Campus Folksong Club and later as manager of the Bill Monroe Memorial Music Park in Bean Blossom, Indiana. As an accomplished musician, Rosenberg also played in Monroe's house band at the park. During the early to mid 1960s there was considerable collaboration between the folksong clubs at Indiana University and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, with members from each university traveling to the other to perform and attend events. In particular, UI CFC events such as the Flatt and Scruggs concert and the D. K. Wilgus lecture left a lasting impression on Rosenberg.
