An Ongoing Legacy
Since his early years in the music business, Cather — as a collector, dealer, and passionate preservationist of rare books, sheet music, artifacts, and ephemera — has continued to document his native state’s many diverse cultural legacies. As a writer and publisher, he has produced multiple works on Alabama history, music, literature, and art. In 2002 the Delmark label reissued the first of his Robert McCoy LPs, along with previously unissued outtakes and personal, poignant notes by Cather himself.
Continuing his lifelong devotion to historic preservation, Cather in recent years has donated substantial collections of rare materials not only to the Southern Music Research Center but to the archives of Auburn University and his alma mater, the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Cather was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame in 1991 and into the Birmingham Record Collectors' Hall of Fame in 2023.
For his indispensible efforts to preserve Alabama's, and America's, music history, the Southern Music Research Center expresses deep gratitude to our friend, Patrick Cather.