Bruce Jackson is SUNY Distinguished Professor and James Agee Professor of American Culture at University at Buffalo. He is author or editor of more than forty books, including The Story Is True, Second Edition, Revised and Expanded: The Art and Meaning of Telling Stories and Ways of the Hand: A Photographer's Memoir, both published by SUNY Press.

• Introduction: Getting HerePart I: Scenes 1. Prison Folklore2. In the Valley of the Shadows3. In the Arctic with MalauriePart II: Outside the Law 4. From In the Life5. From A Thief 's PrimerPart III: The Folksong Revival 6. The Folksong Revival7. Skip James: "Skippy been places..."8. Liner Notes: Phil OchsPart IV: Black Studies 9. The Glory Songs of the Lord10. The Other Kind of Doctor: Conjure and Magic in Black American Folk Medicine11. Foreword to Lydia Parrish, Slave Songs of the Georgia Sea Islands12. Introduction to The Negro and His Folklore in Nineteenth-Century Periodicals13. Prison Worksongs: The Composer in Negatives14. What Happened to Jody15. The Afro-American Toast and Worksong: Two Dead GenresPart V: People 16. Benjamin A. Botkin (1901–1975)17. Remembering Alan Lomax (January 31, 1915–July 19, 2002)18. Legman: The King of X70019. In Prison with Pete SeegerPart VI: The Folklore Business 20. Things That from a Long Way Off Look Like Flies21. Folkloristics22. Arctic Silence: Icy Terror in the Heart of the Smithsonian23. "Only the Sailor Knows the Archipelago"24. From the Editor: The Humanities at Risk25. From the Editor: Dead Soldiers and the Arctic NightIndex

"Folklore Matters is a richly deserved salute to Bruce Jackson's unswerving commitment to document and preserve American voices and a challenge to future generations to carry his torch forward." — William Ferris, former Director of the National Endowment for the Humanities"Bruce Jackson is as comfortable with the blues of traditionalist Skip James and the folk revival passions of Pete Seeger as with the theoretical concerns of Michel Foucault." — Nick Spitzer, Producer of American Routes