Stacks of Wax
When I was in kindergarten back in the early 1950's, I remember bringing in some old 78's one day. We put them in a big bowl of hot water, and they became pliable enough to fashion into candy dishes that we brought home for our parents to admire.
Joe Bussard had a better idea, and starting collecting 78's when he was in his early teens. Today he has over 25,000 of them – a virtually inexhaustible library of American commercial music from the 20's and 30's. For those born too late to remember them, 78 rpm platters were the dominant medium for recorded music until they were replaced by 45's for discrete singles (longer pieces were still sold in multi-record 78 editions) and finally, LP's which killed 78's once and for all. They were heavy, scratchy, and shattered when dropped. My very first record purchase on my own was a 78 of Buddy Knox's hit recording, "Party Doll", but soon thereafter it was all 45's with the big holes.
Joe Bussard's collection is focused on roots music – old time and early country, blues, bluegrass, jazz, and gospel. You can go to his website, www.vintage78.com, put together your own mix from his catalog, and have it burned to a cassette(!) for a reasonable fee. You can also listen to some of his radio broadcasts on the same site, and you can search out the documentary about him, Desperate Man Blues (which I've got TIVO'd, but haven't had a chance to watch yet).
Or you can do what I did last week and pick up the first compilation of tracks from his collection, Down in the Basement: Joe Bussard's Treasure Trove of Vintage 78s 1926-1937. This is a great overview of the richness of Bussard's collection. It includes numbers by such important figures as Uncle Dave Macon, Blind Gary Davis, and Big Bill Broonzy along with more obscure musicians like James Cole's Washboard Four and the Stripling Brothers. My favorite cuts so far are a transitional syncopation-to-swing big band piece by Luis Russell & His Orchestra – "The (New) Call of the Freaks" – and an upbeat white gospel song, "Give The World A Smile", by the Corley Family. That song, which talks about serving Jesus with a smile as if you were a middle-aged waitress slinging hash in some celestial truckstop, has a sophisticated vocal arrangement featuring a male baritone harmonizing with what I'd guess is a 5 year old kid (can't tell whether it's a boy or a girl), singing about 4 octaves apart over additional family members singing back-up.
The collection is matched by excellent production – the music is clear and clean – and the thick accompanying booklet tells Joe's story and provides commentary on each track. The whole project is clearly a labor of love. So thank you, Joe, and the Old Hat label, for what I hope is the first of many volumes to come.
Joe Bussard had a better idea, and starting collecting 78's when he was in his early teens. Today he has over 25,000 of them – a virtually inexhaustible library of American commercial music from the 20's and 30's. For those born too late to remember them, 78 rpm platters were the dominant medium for recorded music until they were replaced by 45's for discrete singles (longer pieces were still sold in multi-record 78 editions) and finally, LP's which killed 78's once and for all. They were heavy, scratchy, and shattered when dropped. My very first record purchase on my own was a 78 of Buddy Knox's hit recording, "Party Doll", but soon thereafter it was all 45's with the big holes.
Joe Bussard's collection is focused on roots music – old time and early country, blues, bluegrass, jazz, and gospel. You can go to his website, www.vintage78.com, put together your own mix from his catalog, and have it burned to a cassette(!) for a reasonable fee. You can also listen to some of his radio broadcasts on the same site, and you can search out the documentary about him, Desperate Man Blues (which I've got TIVO'd, but haven't had a chance to watch yet).
Or you can do what I did last week and pick up the first compilation of tracks from his collection, Down in the Basement: Joe Bussard's Treasure Trove of Vintage 78s 1926-1937. This is a great overview of the richness of Bussard's collection. It includes numbers by such important figures as Uncle Dave Macon, Blind Gary Davis, and Big Bill Broonzy along with more obscure musicians like James Cole's Washboard Four and the Stripling Brothers. My favorite cuts so far are a transitional syncopation-to-swing big band piece by Luis Russell & His Orchestra – "The (New) Call of the Freaks" – and an upbeat white gospel song, "Give The World A Smile", by the Corley Family. That song, which talks about serving Jesus with a smile as if you were a middle-aged waitress slinging hash in some celestial truckstop, has a sophisticated vocal arrangement featuring a male baritone harmonizing with what I'd guess is a 5 year old kid (can't tell whether it's a boy or a girl), singing about 4 octaves apart over additional family members singing back-up.
The collection is matched by excellent production – the music is clear and clean – and the thick accompanying booklet tells Joe's story and provides commentary on each track. The whole project is clearly a labor of love. So thank you, Joe, and the Old Hat label, for what I hope is the first of many volumes to come.
posted by DJStan at 12:30 PM
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