Finding Aid for Elizabeth "Lisa" Kliger Music and Personal Papers, 1926-2020 | The Sousa Archives and Center for American Music

By Abena Ayisi, Kelly Cannon, Kyle Durango, Rosario Garcia, Tim Gintella, Colleen Hoke, Doxey Kamara, Taylor Moles, Chloe Rawlings, Izzy Sauer, Tyanna Waters, Zoe Wellik, Sydney Williams, Clare Zeller

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Collection Overview

Title: Elizabeth "Lisa" Kliger Music and Personal Papers, 1926-2020

ID: 26/20/358

Primary Creator: Kliger, Elizabeth "Lisa" (1952-)

Extent: 5.0 cubic feet

Arrangement: Organized into three series: Series 1) Student Career, 1970-1990, Series 2) Teaching and Literary Career, 1978-2020, and Series 3) Musician Career, 1971-2011. The series are arranged in chronological order.

Date Acquired: 05/02/2025

Subjects: American folk music, Balalaika music, Banjo music, Music, Poetry, Puerto Rico

Languages: English, Spanish;Castilian, Russian

Scope and Contents of the Materials

Consists of research papers, field notes and logs, sound recordings, pamphlets, photographs, correspondence, theatre scripts, poetry, and music documenting Kliger's career as a student, teacher, and musician between the 1970s and the 2000s. This includes materials relating to her studies at the University of Illinois and University of Hawi'i, music research in Puerto Rico, teaching forthe Peace Corps in Thailand, editing and writing for publishing houses, playwriting, and other ventures.

A large portion of this collection consists of materials relating to Lisa Kliger's original musical, Noodlehead! These materials include drafts of the script, newspaper clippings, original artwork, rehearsal notes, sponsorships forms, and donations to the production of the musical in Moscow, Idaho, and correspondence.

Biographical Note

Elizabeth “Lisa” Kliger was born in Evanston, Illinois in 1952 to her musically inclined parents who inspired her interests and careers. From 1970 to 1974, Kliger was an undergraduate student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She earned her degree in Independent Studies in Folk Music. While studying for her undergraduate degree, she learned the banjo and sang original songs with it at the Red Herring Coffee House. In 1975 she became a freelance folklorist for Rounder Records while in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. The following year she returned to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for her Masters in Teaching English as a Second Language, which she completed in 1978. Kliger moved to Southern Thailand and was stationed as a Peace Corps volunteer in Songkhla. She taught university level English to Thai English teachers at Srinakharinwirot University. She often incorporated her banjo music into her teaching methods. At the end of her service, she married her longtime boyfriend Bruce Barnes and moved to Singapore in 1980. Kliger worked as a freelance writer and became an in-house editor and writer of children’s books and educational materials for FEP International Private Ltd (formerly McGraw-Hill). From 1986 to 1987, Kliger resided in Hilo, Hawaii for her husband’s job at the Mauna Kea Observatory. She attended the University of Hawaii to study music and theater. Her next destination was to New Mexico for her husband’s residence at the National Solar Observatory site in 1988. Kliger worked as a freelancer and edited books for publishing houses like Random House, Crown, Viking, and Penguin. She also began attending Denver Publishing Institute in 1989. Kliger moved to Ellensburg, Washington and continued her freelance publishing work while attending Central Washington University for musical education. At Central Washington University she began writing the musical Noodlehead! Noodlehead! is based on both the Russian poem “The Little Humpbacked Horse" and Lisa’s poem “Petya Noodlehead and the Pony of Light.” The hero of “The Little Humpbacked Horse" reminded her of her Ukrainian grandfather and inspired her own works. From 1996 to 2011 she had a variety of jobs working as an archivist, cataloger, and editor. In the most recent decade she has written for her community in Moscow, Idaho, where she composes poetry and letters to the editor.

Subject/Index Terms

American folk music
Balalaika music
Banjo music
Music
Poetry
Puerto Rico

Administrative Information

Repository: The Sousa Archives and Center for American Music

Acquisition Source: Lisa Kliger

Acquisition Method: Gift

Box and Folder Listing

Browse by Series:

[Series 1: Student Career, 1968-1990],
[Series 2: Teaching and Literary Career, 1965-2020],
[Series 3: Musician Career, 1971-2011],
[All]

Series 1: Student Career, 1968-1990

Consists of newspaper clippings of the "Daily Illini", coursework, original songs, and event flyers from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, working papers and music from Rounder Records, playwriting coursework and research from the University of Hawai'i at Hilo, early play drafts and orchestration coursework from Central Washington University documenting Lisa Kliger's life as a student, and her time as a freelance folklorist for Rounder Records in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. Arranged chronologically.

Items of note include materials about the Urbana-Champaign folk community performances at the Red Herring coffee shop in Urbana and a flyer from the First National Women's Folk Music Festival at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1974.

Box 1

Folder 1: Daily Illini and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Publications, 1968-1976
Folder 2: University of Illinois, Red Herring Days, 1970s
Folder 3: University of Illinois School of Music Recital Programs, 1972-1977
Folder 4: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, First National Women's Music Festival, 1974
Folder 5: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Undergraduate, English as a Second Language Masters of Arts, 1976-1978: Of note is a copy of the book Christy's New Songster and Black Joker.
Folder 6: University of Illinois Lisa Kliger Original Songs, 1970s-1990s
Folder 7: Rounder Records Correspondence, 1970-1987
Folder 8: Puerto Rico and Rounder Records: Working Papers for Rounder Project, 1970s
Folder 9: Rounder Records Working Papers and Correspondence, 1975
Folder 10: La Musica Folklorica de Puerto Rico by Francisco López Cruz, 1975
Folder 11: Puerto Rico Music Notes, 1975
Folder 12: Puerto Rico and Rounder Records, 1975: Of note is a wirebound notebook containing Lisa Kliger's notes for a Recording Techniques certification from Sunday Recording Studio in Urbana, Illinois.
Folder 13: Puerto Rico and Rounder Records Music and Lyrics, 1975-1976
Folder 14: Puerto Rico and Rounder Records, Including Photographs and Photographic Slides, 1975-1977
Folder 15: Puerto Rico Working Notebook, 1975
Folder 16: Notes for Neat Fall, University of Hawai'i Hilo, 1987
Folder 17: University of Hawai'i Hilo, Playwriting, 1987
Folder 18: Central Washington University Music and Notes, Including Early Noodlehead!, 1 of 2, 1990
Folder 19: Central Washington University Music and Notes, Including Early Noodlehead!, 2 of 2, 1990
Folder 20: Cental Washington University, Orchestration Class Notes and Music with Dr. John Mickel, 1996

Box 5

Item 1: "A Day at the County Fair Part 1"/"A Day at the County Fair Part 2", 1928

Matrix Number: 15332-D

Performers: Fate Norris, Gid Tanner, Hugh Cross, Lowe Stokes, Clayton MC, K.D. Malone

Manufacturer: Columbia

Speed: 78 rpm

Item 2: "Dentist Blues"/"Root Man Blues", 1935

Matrix Number: B-6040-A, B-6040-B

Performer: Walter Davis

Manufacturer: Bluebird

Speed: 78 rpm

Item 3: "Don't Get Trouble In Your Mind"/"Nine Pound Hammer", 1928

Matrix Number: 15280-D

Performers: Frank Blevins and His Tar Heel Rattlers

Manufacturer: Columbia

Speed: 78 rpm

Item 4: "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane"/"Watermelon On The Vine", 1926

Matrix Number: 15091-D

Performers: Gid Taylor And His Skillet-Lickers With Riley Puckett

Manufacturer: Columbia

Speed: 78 rpm

Item 5: "Here Comes Santa Claus (Down Santa Claus Lane)"/"An Old-Fashioned Tree", 1947

Matrix Number: 37942, HCO 2587

Performer: Gene Autry

Manufacturers: Columbia

Speed: 78 rpm

Item 6: "Hungry Hash House"/"The Highwayman", 1927

Matrix Number: 15160-D

Performers: Charlie Poole With The South Carolina Ramblers

Manufacturer: Columbia

Speed: 78 rpm

Item 7: "I Have No One To Love Me"/"Anchored in Love", 1929

Matrix Number: V-40036-A and V-40036-B

Performers: Carter Family

Manufacturer: Victor

Speed: 78 rpm

Item 8: "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive"/"I Could Never Be Ashamed of You", 1952

Matrix Number: 11366-A and 11366-B

Performer: Hank Williams

Manufacturer: MGM

Speed: 78 rpm

Item 9: "I Love You A Thousand Ways"/"If You've Got the Money I've Got the Time", 1950

Matrix Number: 20739 (RHCO 4189)

Performer: Lefty Frizzell

Manufacturer: Columbia

Speed: 78 rpm

Item 10: "Pavel Nechiporenko balalaika Russian Folk Songs", 1946

Matrix Number: D 6939

Performer: Pavel Nechiporenko

Manufacturer: Melodiya (USSR)

Speed: 33 1/3 rpm

Item 11: "Rainbow at Midnight"/"I Don't Blame You", 1946

Matrix Number: 46018 A and 46018 B

Performer: Ernest Tubb

Manufacturer: Mecca

Speed: 78 rpm

Item 12: "Recital of P. Nechiporenko (balalaika)", undated

Matrix: D-6939 and D-6940

Manufacturer: Melodiya (USSR)

Performer: Pavel Nechiporenko

Speed: 33 1/3 RPM

Item 13: "Ridin' Down to Santa Fe"/"Miss Molly", 1949

Matrix: A48006

Performer: Shug Fisher and Tex Williams

Manufacturer: Capitol Records

Speed: 78 rpm

Item 14: "Seveteen Years Ago"/"Days Are Blue", 1934

Matrix: 15668 and 17290

Performer: Callahan Brothers

Manufacturer: Perfect

Speed: 78 rpm

Item 15: "Sonny Boy"/"There's a Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder", 1928

Matrix Number: 4033

Performer: Al Jolson

Manufacturer: The Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company

Speed: 78 rpm

Item 16: "Thirty-Two Feet-Eight Little Tails"/"(Hardrock, Coco, and Joe) The Three Little Dwarfs", 1951

Matrix Number: 39543 (RHCO 4545)

Performer: Gene Autry

Manufacturer: Columbia

Speed: 78 rpm

Box 6

Item 1: Rounder Records, 1 of 2, undated

1/4 inch polyester magnetic tape, 10 inch reel, contents unknown.

Item 2: Rounder Records, 2 of 2, undated

1/4 inch polyester magnetic tape, 10 inch reel, contents unknown.

Item 3: "Return on Wings of Pleasure", 1978

Matrix Number: 5003 (32296)

Performers: Pedro Padilla y Su Conjunto

Manufacturer: Rounder Records

Speed: 33 1/3 rpm

Item 4: "Return on Wings of Pleasure", 1978

Matrix Number: 5003 (32296)

Performers: Pedro Padilla y Su Conjunto

Manufacturer: Rounder Records

Speed: 33 1/3 rpm

Box 9

Item 1: "Return on Wings of Pleasure", 1997: Rounder CD, songs by Pedro Padilla and his band. Barcode 0 11661-5003-2 7. LC: 3719.
Item 2: Martha Davis Field Tape for Lisa, Puerto Rico, 1975: Tape featuring "Lopimot," "Fiesta de la Cruz," "Cecil Fuentes group," "Mayoro group: Trinidad," "Martin Luther King," "Abraham (Ehr. song)," "Mi Lover Lost," "Carnival," "Nery + guitars (...)," "Yo no aparto, Cantar 045," "Guarachas" 075 & 109, "Bolero" 150, "Baile de Bomba," and an unknown name.
Item 3: Lisa Kliger Tape A Sunday Studios, Urbana IL,, 1970s: Tape containing the songs "My Time Is Your Time," "Jazzman" (690), and "Waltz on the Water."
Item 4: Lisa Kliger Tape B Sunday Studios, Urbana, IL, 1970s: Tape containing songs "Waltz on the Water" and "Cathy."
Item 5: Unidentified item, undated: 5-inch reel

Browse by Series:

[Series 1: Student Career, 1968-1990],
[Series 2: Teaching and Literary Career, 1965-2020],
[Series 3: Musician Career, 1971-2011],
[All]