Rosalie Sorrels

Infobox musical artist
Name = Rosalie Sorrels

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Img_capt = Travelin' Lady Rides Again
Img_size =
Landscape =
Background = solo_singer
Birth_name = Rosalie Stringfellow
Alias =
Born = 1933
Idaho, United States
Died =
Origin =
Instrument = Acoustic Guitar
Genre = Folk
Occupation = Singer-songwriter
Years_active = 1950s-current
Label = Philo, Folkways, Paramount, Green Linnet, Red House, Way Out in Idaho
Associated_acts =
URL = [http://www.rosaliesorrels.com/external/Home.aspx Way out in Idaho]
Current_members =
Past_members =
Notable_instruments =

Rosalie Sorrels (1933 - ) is an American folk singer-songwriter who resides in the mountains near Boise, Idaho. She began her public career as a singer and collector of traditional folksongs in the late 1950s. During the early 1960s she left her husband and began traveling and performing at music festivals and clubs throughout the United States. She and her five children traveled across the country as she worked to support her family and establish herself as a performer. Along the way she made many life-long friends among the folk and beat scene. Currently "retired," she still performs in select concerts and festivals. Her career of social activism, storytelling, teaching, learning, songwriting, collecting folk songs, performing, and recording has spanned six decades.

Highlights

Rosalie's first major gig was at the Newport Folk Festival in 1966. Rosalie recorded more than 20 albums including the 2005 Grammy nominated album "My Last Go 'Round" (Best Traditional Folk Album.) She authored two books and wrote the introduction to her mother's book. In 1990 Sorrels was the recipient of the World Folk Music Association's Kate Wolf Award. In 1999 she received the National Storytelling Network Circle of Excellence Award for "exceptional commitment and exemplary contributions to the art of storytelling." In 2000 she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from the University of Idaho. [cite news
title = University of Idaho will be graduating 1,400 students Saturday
pages = p. 6A
publisher = Lewiston Morning Tribune (Idaho)
date = May 11, 2000] In 2001 she was awarded the Boise Peace Quilt Award. She had been featured several times on National Public Radio and profiled on Idaho Public Television.

Throughout her career, she has performed and recorded with other notable folk musicians, including Utah Phillips, Mitch Greenhill, Dave Van Ronk, Peggy Seeger and Pete Seeger. Oscar Zeta Acosta, Hunter S. Thompson and Studs Terkel wrote introductory notes for her albums. She was strongly influenced by Malvina Reynolds [ cite news
last = Alarik
first = Scott
title = Singing about her life, Sorrels has helped form folk
work = Boston Globe
pages = C1, 13
date = March 22, 2002] and went on to record several of her songs on the album "What does it mean to love?" She credits Reynolds with helping turn rebelliousness from a destructive force into an artistic one. [ cite news
last = Alarik
first = Scott
title = Rosalie Sorrels keeps Reynolds's (sic) songs alive
work = Boston Globe
date = Nov 10, 2000]

Beginnings

Rosalie was born on June 24, 1933 in Boise, Idaho to Walter Pendleton Stringfellow and Nancy Ann Kelly Stringfellow. Her parents met while attending Idaho State University in Pocatello. Her parents, like their parents before them, had a love of language and song which they passed to their children. Her father worked for the highway department and the family often travelled with him as he did field work. cite paper
author = Cochrane, Barbara A.
title = One woman, one song: a biography of Rosalie Sorrels
publisher = Boise State University
date = 1991
place = Boise, ID]

Her cultural heritage was one of language, song, and poetry from both sets of grandparents. Her father’s parents were Robert Stanton Stringfellow and Rosalie Cope who settled near Idaho City, Idaho on the Grimes Creek property. Robert was an Episcopal missionary working with various tribes and rural churches in Idaho and Montana. His wife, Rosalie Cope, was a photographer and journalist. The Cope family were journalists in Salt Lake City.cite journal
last = Kupfer
first = David
title = Rosalie Sorrels: passing the good stuff on
journal = Sing Out! The Folk Song Magazine
volume = 48
issue = 2
pages = 25–35
date = Summer 2004] Rosalie developed a love of the outdoors while spending summers on Grimes Creek. Her mother’s parents were James Madison Kelly and Arabel Beaire who married and settled on a farm in Twin Falls, Idaho where Rosalie was a frequent visitor.

In interviews for a biography of Rosalie, Nancy Stringfellow explained

“She finds something … in a piece of poetry … that shines out like a precious jewel, and you can see her cupping her hands and holding it. We all have a streak of that … We are delighted with words. We’re drunk with words.”

During high school Rosalie participated in theater as had her parents while in college. She acted and sang in many productions, garnering praise for her performances in the local media. It was during this period that Rosalie became pregnant and had an illegal abortion. This experience had a profound effect on her, showing up in later poetry and song. She earned a scholarship to the University of Idaho, but as a result of a rape, she became pregnant and went to a home for unwed mothers in California to await the birth of her child, a daughter. Again, the experience of making the difficult choice of adoption shows in her later writings and music.

Sorrels did not go to college as planned, but returned to Boise after the birth of her child. SHe acted in local theater and partied with her friends. She enjoyed the love and support of her family during this unsteady time in her life. She recounted that her parents loved her and did not judge her.

Married life

Jim Sorrels and Rosalie Stringfellow met while performing in theater in Boise, Idaho. Jim worked for the phone company as a lineman and was seven years older than Rosalie. The two married in 1952 and his job took them to Salt Lake City where they opened their home to actors, musicians, and poets living or visiting in the area. During the marriage, they had five children and the house was filled with love, laughter, music, books and words. Both loved jazz music and Rosalie joked that Jim married her to get access to her collection of jazz recordings. Over time, her interest in the folk music of her childhood was piqued and she began to study at the University of Utah with noted folklorist, Wayland Hand. She learned to accompany herself on guitar during this period and attended folklore society meetings and seminars.

ong catching

There was a strong tradition in both the Stringfellow and Kelly families to celebrate the written and spoken word. The families encouraged reading and learning for their children and this was passed to the succeeding generations. Writing; whether sermons, magazine articles, poems or Personal journaling, were all activities Rosalie experienced in her youth. She followed in the same path of expressing herself in word by journaling and writing poetry and prose.

Songs and music were a natural extension of this interest in words and her love of music began early in life she listened to her father, Walter Pendleton Stringfellow, sing. [cite journal
last = Deitz
first = Roger
title = Sorrels remains true to her Green Linnet ‘heart’
journal = Billboard
volume =
issue =
date = Nov 11, 1995
pages =
doi =
accessdate = 2007-04-28] She had access to a scrapbook of folk songs collected by her Grandmother, Rosalie Cope Stringfellow. [ cite journal
last = Hand
first = Wayland
title = Two child ballads in the West
journal = Western Folklore
volume = 18
issue = 1
date = Jan 1959
pages = pp.42–43
doi = 10.2307/1496897] She began her music career collecting folksongs [ cite journal
last = Brunvand
first = Jan Harold
authorlink = Jan Harold Brunvand
title = Folk song studies in Idaho
journal = Western Folklore
volume = 24
issue = 4
pages = 235
doi = 10.2307/1499026
accessdate = 2007-04-28
year = 1965] and performing them, first with her husband Jim in the late 1950s, then later on her own. It was during this time that the Smithsonian Institution's Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage recorded Rosalie and Jim performing her collection of traditional songs. Many of these have been released by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings in various compilation albums throughout the last fifty years.

Sorrels was a regular in the Utah folk scene in the late 1950s and early 1960s when she and her husband taught folk guitar classes at the University of Utah. [cite news
last = Groutage
first = Hilary
title = Singer Rosalie Sorrels, Everyday Folk Bringing Her Stories to a Celebration of Survival
work = Salt Lake Tribune
pages = p. D1
date = ] She participated in workshops and folk festivals in the area, such as the Utah Folklore Workshop and Festival (1959). In this way she met other folklorists and performers at "song swaps"; as well as formal sessions. [cite journal
title = Folklore and folklorists
journal = Western Folklore
volume = 19
issue = 4 (1960)
pages = p. 284] Sorrels also was a concert promoter and brought Joan Baez to Salt Lake City the first time in 1963.

Early recordings and performances

In 1963 Rosalie began a four decade relationship with Manny Greenhill and Folklore Productions. [cite web
last = Greenhill
first = Janna Jalkanen
coauthors = Mary Katherine Alden
title = Timeline
work = Fifty years of Folklore
publisher = Folklore Productions
date = 2007
url = http://www.folkloreproductions.com/pictures/Folklore50-timeline-web.pdf
accessdate = 2007-05-05] She performed with Manny's son, Mitch at the 1966 Newport Folk Festival and produced an album in 1964 for Folk-Legacy Records entitled "If I Could Be the Rain". This is her first album which included her original songs, as previous recordings contained her renditions of traditional songs she had collected. She and her children lived for a time with Lena Spencer in Saratoga Springs, New York where she performed at Caffè Lena. She continued working on her craft, and was one of the performers at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival.

Discography

The discography for Rosalie Sorrels includes albums where she is the principal performer as well as tribute albums, retrospective albums, and compilation albums for a theme of songs.

Books

*Citation
last = Sorrels
first = Rosalie
last2 = McCarl
first2 = Robert
title = Way out in Idaho : celebration of songs and stories
place= Lewiston, Idaho
publisher = Confluence Press
year = 1991
isbn = 0917652835
** The Idaho Commission on the Arts asked Sorrels to travel the Idaho to collect the folk history of its people. The songs and stories came from hundreds of people who met with Sorrels at a series of 30 concerts and at song swaps. The book includes contributions from about 200 people of poems, stories, recipes, interviews, historical photographs and photographic portraits. Sheet music is included for 85 songs, along with words for many more. Robert McCarl, folk arts director for the Idaho Commission on the Arts, wrote a foreword and Sorrels wrote an introduction, along with separate introductions for many of the songs. [cite news
last = McCarthy
first = John
title = People of Idaho gave Sorrels their songs
pages = 1D
publisher = Lewiston Morning Tribune (Idaho)
date = October 18, 1991]
*Citation
last =Sorrels
first =Rosalie
last2 = Rudokas
first2 = Jean
last3 = Schoeberlein
first3 = Liz
title = What, woman, and who, myself, I am : an anthology of songs and poetry of women's experience
place= Sonoma, Calif.
publisher = Wooden Shoe
year = 1974
isbn = 0825699053
**An collection of songs and poetry by and about women. Some of the songwriters represented include the author, Jean Ritchie, and Toni Brown, along with such poets as Anne Sexton and May Swenson. The music includes lead sheets and chord symbols. Liz Schoberlein contributes color illustrations throughout the book. [cite book
last = Sandberg
first = Larry
authorlink =
coauthors = Dick Weissman
title = Folk Music Sourcebook
publisher = Da Capo Press
date = 1989
isbn = 0-306-80360-7]
*Citation
last = Stringfellow
first = Nancy
last2 =Sorrels
first2 =Rosalie
author-link2 = Rosalie Sorrels
title = Report from Grimes Creek after a hard winter
place= Boise,Id.
publisher = Limberlost Press
year = 1990
isbn = 0931659078
**This book is five essays, three poems, and a letter written by Nancy Stringfellow to her daughter, Rosalie Sorrels. The memoir was compiled by Rosalie from her mother’s writings. [cite web
last = Ardinger
first = Rick
coauthors = Rosemary Ardinger
title = Nancy Stringfellow
publisher = Limberlost Press
date = 2005
url = http://www.limberlostpress.com/authors/string.htm
accessdate = 2007-05-06]

Notes

*cite web
last = Keefer
first = Jane
title = Rosalie Sorrels
work = Folk Music - An Index to Recorded Resources
publisher =
date = 2006
url = http://www.ibiblio.org/keefer/sp12.htm#Sorrros
accessdate = 2007-04-29

External links

* [http://www.rosaliesorrels.com/ Official website]
* [http://www.wfma.net/sorrels.htm World Folk Music Association]
* [http://idahoptv.org/productions/DearArchive2.cfm NPR profile]