McKissick Museum has released a CD of traditional music of South Carolina, featuring works by South Carolina Folk Heritage Award winners.

Titled "Considerable Grace: The Music of the South Carolina Folk Heritage Awards," the CD complements the museum's exhibit, "Considerable Grace," which focuses on the first 15 years of the Jean Laney Harris Folk Heritage Awards. Funded by the Humanities Council and the South Carolina Traditional Arts Network, the CD costs $5 and is available through McKissick Museum. The museum also has made the CD available on loan to K-12 teachers and college educators for classroom use.

The CD was produced in response to many requests for a copy of the music that plays in the exhibit. Contact information for the performers, as well as background information on the music, is included with the CD. It is the museum's hope that the CD will make the music more accessible to a wider audience and will help people learn more about the artists who keep South Carolina's musical legacy alive.

The Folk Heritage Awards (FHA) were established in 1987 by the state Legislature, which has worked with McKissick Museum and the South Carolina Arts Commission to present the awards each year. The awards dovetail with McKissick Museum's mission to promote and celebrate Southeastern life, culture and community.

Featured artists from the CD include:

• Drink Small, Piedmont blues, Columbia, 1990 FHA recipient.
  
• Dewitt "Snuffy" Jenkins and Homer "Pappy" Sherril, bluegrass and old-time country music, Columbia/Chapin, 1988 FHA recipient
  
• The Malloy Family, gospel, Chesterfield, 1991 FHA recipient.
  
• The Lucas Family, bluegrass and old-time country music, Gaston, 1992 FHA recipient.
  
• The Brotherhood Gospel Singers, gospel, Mt. Pleasant, 1993 FHA recipient.
  
• The Lucas Sisters, gospel, Charleston, 1993 FHA recipient.
  
• Old Morrisville Brass Band, jump-up band, Andrews, 1993 FHA recipient.
  
• Roger Bellow, old-time country, Mt. Pleasant, 1995 FHA recipient.
  
• Nick Hallman, old-time country and fiddle, Pickens, 1998 FHA recipient.
  
• Bill Wells, bluegrass music, West Columbia, 1998 FHA recipient.
  
• "Colonel" Gene Wyatt, traditional country flat-pick guitar, Spartanburg, 1999 FHA recipient.
  
• J.D. Benson, mouth harp, Seneca, 1991 FHA recipient.
  
• Together As One Hymn Choir, common meter spirituals, York County, 2002 FHA recipient.
  

For more information, contact Saddler Taylor, curator of folklife and research at McKissick Museum, at 7-7251 or by e-mail at taylors7@gwm.sc.edu.

12/03