DAPHNE, Ala. — Joyce Cauthen, executive director of the Alabama Folklife Association and member of the Alabama Humanities Foundation 2007-2008 Road Scholars’ speaker program, will present a visual presentation titled “Catching Songs in Alabama: Folksong Collectors and the Treasures They Found” at the Daphne Public Library at 6:30 p.m., tomorrow in the community room of the library.

“Song catchers” are people who find, record and preserve folk music that otherwise will be forgotten. Alabama, with its rich singing traditions, has long been a mecca for song collecting. In her talk, Cauthen focuses on song catchers Ruby Pickens Tartt, John and Alan Lomax, Byron Arnold, George Pullen Jackson and John Work, who were active in the 1930s and 1940s and tells of their experiences as they did their field research. She will capture the essence of the folksongs through the sights and sounds of her Microsoft PowerPoint presentation. She will share excerpts of the recordings and explain the musical forms they represent.

According to Ms. Cauthen, song catching is still being done and she will play examples of treasures recorded in recent years.

Cauthen has degrees in English from Texas Christian University and Purdue University. She currently serves as the executive director of the Alabama Folklife Association, a statewide organization that sponsors research, promotion and preservation of Alabama’s folk culture. Cauthen has researched and written about Alabama folklore extensively, and has presented her findings in books, articles, speeches and at festivals across the state. She is the author of “With Fiddle and Well-Rosined Bow: Old-Time Fiddling in Alabama,” published in 1989 by the University of Alabama Press. She also produced five recordings of traditional music of Alabama, including “Possum Up a Gum Stump: Home, Commercial, and Field Recordings of Alabama Fiddlers.”

The Alabama Humanities Foundation is a nonprofit organization funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (of which the AHF is the state affiliate), as well as by corporate and individual donors. The foundation is dedicated to the promotion and celebration of the humanities throughout Alabama and, to that end, conducts statewide programs and awards grants, on a competitive basis, to nonprofit organizations for humanities projects. For more information on the Road Scholars’ speaker program or other AHF programs, call 205-558-3980.

The public is invited to this free presentation at the Daphne Library located at the corner of U. S. Hwy. 98 and Whispering Pines Road. Refreshments will be furnished by Friends of the Daphne Public Library.

For more information about this program, contact Deborah Norris at the Daphne Public Library at 621-2818.