MTSU is playing a key role in bringing the old-time fiddle music enjoyed by Charles “Pa” Ingalls alive. Recording the early American music is the specialty of Dr. Dale Cockrell, director of MTSU’s Center for Popular Music. Cockrell is a scholar of the songs embedded in the Little House on the Prairie” books written by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Some of the more popular songs were featured in a recorded PBS pledge-drive special that will begin a two-year broadcast run in June. MTSU professors and students worked behind the scenes to capture video for a documentary, “Inside Pa’s Fiddle.” Some of the biggest names in country music gathered Jan. 6 to record the music at Nashville’s Loveless Barn. To learn more about the project, visit mtsunews.com/pas-fiddle-pbs-special/.