This addiction thing can become serious! Mine began twelve years ago when I happened to hear Beausoleil play at the Smithsonian Folk Festival, and I've never been the same since.

First it started with wanting to hear more...I began buying CDs. Then, when there did not appear to be many that I did not have, I discovered LPs. I soon learned that there were an awful lot of great LPs of Cajun music that nobody seemed to care about; so I started looking for them (From a financial standpoint, that was a good thing - but no, I began believing that these old LPs should be saved and made available to the public). It wasn't long before I became disillusioned.

Nevertheless, I kept looking for Cajun recordings. Then I discovered Old-Time music...well, the addiction grew until there seems to be no room for more CDs, LPs, etc; but I continue - on-line auctions, private auctions, used record stores, monthly record sales, etc. And very few people even know what I'm talking about; so you try to figure out for yourself where relevant LPs might be placed.

I think the nadir might have been when I met this lady at a pawn shop in Lafayette. She said that she thought that she had some recordings that I might like at home; so I met her at her house late one evening. When I got there, there was a refrigerator in her yard; her husband was sitting on the porch smoking something unusual; and the lady had brought all of her LPs outside of her house on the porch. After looking at a few of the LPs, I realized that there was going to be nothing there; but she had gone to a lot of trouble to let me look at her LPs. I thought that I should buy something anyway; so I did and finally left wondering what I had become.

Well, I got over that and have continued ever since, still going strong.

If you want to know about "collectors" and "collecting," and maybe yourself, I would recommend gettin g a CD put out a couple of years ago by Richard Nevins on his Yazoo label. It is titled "The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of." It is primarily about record collectors (Richard Nevins is one). The two CD set has copies of a lot of rare 78s, but the real gem is the accompanying booklet - it is priceless. I won't say anymore about the booklet; but if you see similarities to yourself, you might be a collector without realizing it. The theme, though, is that collectors play a valuable role by preserving the "old stuff" that would likely disappear if no one else cared. That includes the music...

Jack Bond