North Country Music Project

The North Country Music Project (NCMP) is a multimedia tribute to the many talented musicians who warmed our long winters and cooled our short summers. We are documenting and archiving the history of rock and roll in Northern New York by capturing the firsthand recollections of these musicians as well as their fans and other witnesses as it developed in garage bands, bowling alleys, high schools, sundry music halls, and bars across the region. This movement profoundly organized the social life of an entire generation and others to follow and is part of our history.

One of our intentions is to engender local pride by remembering how good we had it during a time that, in retrospect was a "golden age" of pop culture in our corner of the world. We have already completed over 50 oral history interviews documenting the popular music scene in Northern NY, centered mainly around Watertown and the Thousand Islands region. Our initial focus is on the decades of the 1960s and 1970s because we feel some urgency to capture and preserve the story of this era while we still can - although we recognize that this story doesn't end in 1980. After we complete this first phase, we plan to extend our efforts forward towards the present.