Steve Weiss (2)

Record producer and curator of the Southern Folklife Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Steve Weiss grew up in Cumberland, Maryland. He attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA where he studied music production and engineering, and graduated from American University with a degree in Audio Technology. In the early 90s he volunteered for the Smithsonian Folkways, assisting on re-issues of Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie. Later in Seattle at Northwest Folklife he worked on archival releases of Irish traditional singer Joe Heaney and a live concert recording of Hawaiian slack key guitar masters. After receiving his MILS from the University of Michigan in 1995, Steve worked for the National Archives' Motion Picture, Sound and Video Branch and for CNN's Washington DC bureau library and archives. Since 1999, Weiss has led the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Southern Folklife Collection, one of the nation's foremost archives of American vernacular music, overseeing the acquisition, preservation, and access of over 250,000 sound recordings. In 2017, Weiss initiated a publication series with Hillsborough, NC-based Yep Roc Records and serves as the series' producer. Notable releases have included Doc Watson, Live at Club 47, and reissues by Dolly Parton, Tia Blake, and artists from Goldband Record label.