During the summer of 1999, Jerre began researching the Internet and other sources to locate the original master tape of the RIC New York recordings. He had obtained ownership of the RCA session master tape in 1968. He further began to attempt to find the films of the ABC-TV Hootenanny episodes.

Meanwhile Jerre’s wife Barbara conceived the idea of making the popular Cumberland Trio song, "A Lion Named Sam," written by Jerre in 1963, into an illustrated children’s book. She presented the proofs, with illustrations by New York artist Patricia Mayes, to Jerre on their 37^th wedding anniversary, April 6, 2000. Jerre then had the Trio’s RCA Session digitally remastered, by Steve Wallace of DigitalVoiceWorks.com of Chattanooga, TN, including an individual CD production of "Sam".

This published book/CD combo brought the music of The Cumberland Trio back to life, and it has been a smash hit with children of all ages. It is currently being made into an enhanced CD-ROM. In April, 2001 the Trio will release a 23 song digitally remastered CD, 14 taken from the 1964 RCA Session as well as nine from a session they recorded themselves in a Knoxville nightclub in late 1963 and in other recording sessions.

Meanwhile, while Tom was recently going through old family possessions, he discovered a tape that his late father, Joe Kilpatrick, had recorded off of the August 8, 1964 TV rebroadcast of the Trio’s January debut performance on ABC’s Hootenanny. This recording is believed to be the only existing live audio sound from that show, as most of the original Hootenanny films have been either lost or donated to the UCLA Cinema and Television Library and are unavailable for reproduction. It is being digitally remastered to be put on the Trio website.