top of page
Tico-Tico - Liza & A.J.
00:00

NEWS

Author! Author!

Liza's book, Katherine Jackson French:  Kentucky's Forgotten Ballad Collector, published through University Press of Kentucky was awarded the KENTUCKY HISTORY AWARD 2020 is now out in paperback.  Available from Amazon, Borders, Barnes & Noble, University Press of Kentucky and other online merchants.  

​

Liza and her work on Dr. French was featured on All Things Considered on NPR in a feature by Stephanie Wolf.  You can catch it here:  https://www.npr.org/2021/01/05/953653411/katherine-jackson-frenchs-ballad-collection-published-110-years-later

​

Other features include one on Old-Time Central:  https://oldtime-central.com/katherine-jackson-french-kentuckys-forgotten-ballad-collector/ and an article in the Country Dance and Song Society Summer 2020 magazine as well: https://www.cdss.org/programs/cdss-news-publications/cdss-news/1900-cdss-news-fall-2020  

 

Dr. French first tried to publish a collection of Kentucky ballads in 1910; the story of how this did not come to be, along with how the history of Appalachian balladry would have been different if it had, is the subject of this story of one of Kentucky music's greatest unknown women. The biography may be ordered here:   https://www.kentuckypress.com/9780813178523/katherine-jackson-french/  

 

A commemorative edition of her ballads has been  published by Berea College, fulfilling a 110-year-old promise.  It, along with There Was a Fair Maid Dwelling a recording of French's ballads (#9 on the International DJ chart and #55 on the Folk Chart in 2020), is available by contacting liza@elizabethdisavinoauthor.com .

​

​

A Different World

Hello, friends,

It is a different world politically, musically, and personally for us, and for many of you.

The political situation is one which like many of you we find unconscionable and intolerable.  We are using our music to speak out against the injustices we see that are daily perpetrated against multiple groups of people in our country via social media and demonstrations, and that is where most of our effort has been going.   We still have hope, perhaps because to consider the alternative is unfathomable.

Personally, Liza is now a year cancer-free and out of the woods, according to the doc, who knows about such things.  We are both grateful and relieved.

We grieve deaths almost weekly it seems of our older friends and mentors.  It is a reminder to use well the time we are graced with.

​
Peace and Syncopation,
​
Liza & A.J
​
​

MAGAZINE TITLE

2017 Liza DiSavino and A.J. Bodnar

bottom of page