This rare 45 rpm single by The Weedpatch Boys, released in 1963, is part of a large “historically and culturally significant” bluegrass audio collection recently donated to MTSU’s Center for Popular Music by the family of Indiana music lover Marvin Hedrick. Hedrick was a member of the band, as were his two sons.

Middle Tennessee State University’s Center for Popular Music has recently acquired a trove of rare bluegrass recordings. In addition to the recordings, the center, which is housed in the university’s Media and Entertainment building, has received a Preservation Implementation grant from the GRAMMY Foundation that will allow employees to digitize, catalog and disseminate the late Marvin Hedrick’s bluegrass tape collection beginning this summer. The collection, donated by sons Gary and David Hedrick, includes 167 open-reel tapes of stage performances and jam sessions performed and recorded at the Brown County Jamboree and the Bill Monroe Bluegrass Festival in Bean Blossom, Ind. According to the Center, the work is expected to be completed by mid-2017 with a dedicated website including background and a searchable database. This is the second GRAMMY Foundation grant received by the CPM following its 2013 award to catalog and digitize the Charles Wolfe tape collection.