Ted Olson

Ted Olson is a cultural historian, editor, poet, photographer, and musician. The author or editor of numerous books, he has also published articles, essays, encyclopedia entries, poems, creative nonfiction pieces, reviews, and oral histories in literary and scholarly anthologies and periodicals. Two of Olson's books won the Appalachian Book of the Year Award from the Appalachian Writers Association, and a book he edited received the Thomas D. Clark Memorial Foundation Book of the Year Award. Webpages about his poetry can be found at http://www.celticcatpublishing.com/revelations.htm

Olson has produced and written liner notes for numerous documentary albums of traditional and popular music, including Appalachia: Music from Home (2009); Old-Time Smoky Mountain Music: 34 Historic Ballads, Songs, and Instrumentals Recorded in the Great Smoky Mountains by "Song Catcher" Joseph S. Hall (2010); The Bristol Sessions, 1927-1928: The Big Bang of Country Music (2011); The Johnson City Sessions, 1928-1929: Can You Sing or Play Old-Time Music? (2013); The Folk Box: 50th Anniversary Edition (2014); Carroll Best and The White Oak String Band: Old-Time Bluegrass from the Great Smoky Mountains, 1956 and 1959 (2014); Tennessee Ernie Ford: Portrait of an American Singer (2015); Blind Alfred Reed: Appalachian Visionary (2016); The Knoxville Sessions, 1929-1930: Knox County Stomp (2016); On Top of Old Smoky: New Old-Time Smoky Mountain Music (2016); A Century of Heritage Guitar Music (2017); Big Bend Killing: The Appalachian Ballad Tradition (2017); Forever Changes: 50th Anniversary Edition (2018); Tell It to Me: Revisiting the Johnson City Sessions, 1928-1929 (2019); We Shall All Be Reunited: Revisiting the Bristol Sessions, 1927-1928 (2020); Tennessee Ernie Ford, with Billy Strange and Glen Campbell: Classic Trio Albums, 1964 and 1975 (2021); and Doc Watson: Life's Work, A Retrospective (2021). For his work as a music historian, Olson has received the International Bluegrass Music Association's Best Liner Notes for a Recorded Project Award; Independent Music Awards for Best Tribute Album and (twice) Best Compilation Album; and (twice) the Jack Spadaro Documentary Award from the Appalachian Studies Association. Additionally, Olson has been nominated for seven Grammy Awards.

Olson teaches Appalachian Studies and Bluegrass, Old-Time, and Roots Music Studies at East Tennessee State University. He was the Editor of the Journal of Appalachian Studies, and he wrote monthly columns on American music for Oxford American magazine and on poetry for Rapid River magazine. Currently, Olson serves as Book Series Editor for the Charles K. Wolfe American Music Series (University of Tennessee Press). From 1999-2004 he directed ETSU's Appalachian, Scottish, and Irish Studies program, and in 2008 he was Fulbright Senior Scholar in American Studies at the University of Barcelona and the Autonomous University of Barcelona in Barcelona, Spain.