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Xxxxxx Peter B. Lowry (April 1, 1941 – June 29, 2022)

Peter B Lowry was an American folklorist, writer, record producer,
ethnomusicologist, historian, photographer, forensic musicologist, and
teacher who dealt with aspects of popular music, mainly African-
American.

Born in Montclair, New Jersey, he attended Deerfield Academy, and
then Princeton University, where he specialized in the biological
sciences. Teaching biology for a few years after obtaining a Master's in
zoology, he changed his focus to blues and jazz with a primary focus on
the Piedmont blues of the south-eastern United States. He wrote extensively on
blues and jazz music, founded Trix Records. In later
life he moved to Australia.

The Peter B. Lowry Collection at the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, donated by him,
consists of more than 600 items including field
recordings, studio recordings, interviews, and related
materials compiled by him. The original deposit
consists of field recordings, 1972, of a medicine show

at the Chatham County Fair in Pittsboro, N.C. on 16
September 1972.

These sound recordings feature Peg Leg Sam, born
Arthur Jackson, an African American harmonica
player, singer, and comedian from Jonesville, S.C., and
Chief Thundercloud, born Leo Kahdot, a Native
American medicine show pitch-man from Oklahoma.

The ‘Addition of 2016’ consists of field recordings,
studio recordings, and interviews that primarily
feature Piedmont blues from North Carolina and the
southeastern United States.

Notable blues musicians featured on the recordings
include Pink Anderson, Floyd "Dipper" Council,
Honeyboy Edwards, Arthur Jackson, Homesick James, Eddie Kirkland, Robert Jr. Lockwood,
Dink Roberts, Guitar Shorty, Richard Trice, and Willie Trice.

The ‘Addition of 2016’ also contains documentation found with select recordings, including
inventories, tape logs, track listings, and memos. The ‘Additions of 2017’ consist of sound
recordings and documentation related to the British record label, Flyright Records, as well as
documentation related to the independent record label, Trix Records, which Lowry founded in
1971.

As Jeff Harris of the Big Road Blues Show put it, “Lowry did not go to Mississippi, did not
discover long lost bluesmen from the 1920s but in his voluminous research, writing and
recording has charted his own path, becoming the most renowned expert on the blues of the
Southeast and is credited with coining the term Piedmont Blues.”

Ian K McKenzie