The recordings, which range from the late 1930s to recent times, are especially strong in the areas of fiddle, banjo, harmonica, and dulcimer tunes; secular ballads and songs; gospel songs, and the unaccompanied lined-out and shape note singing styles. Included as well are such relative unknowns as the mouth bow with origins in Africa, Cherokee singing and dance music, Swiss-American singing and yodeling, Hungarian-American cymbalum playing , and the jug band sound from the early 1900s comprised of a loose rural-urban mix of blues, hillbilly, and jazz. In many instances the repertoire and playing styles documented in these recordings date well back into the 1800s. Among the music's readily detectable influences are musical expressions arising from slavery, minstrel stage music, Civil War military music, and the dance music of Britain, Ireland and, in some instances, France and Germany.

In addition to their performances many of the singers and players can be heard talking about their music, instruments, lives and times. The extensive radio program material dating from the late 1930s through the 1940s, provide data useful for studying the commercialization of the region's music and the extent to which urban music and entertainment forms were an influence in the region, especially prior to the advent of television.