I have been debating with myself about posting this, but in light of ther recent discussion under the topic "The Next Time You're in Lafayette," I decided to do it.

Last Thursday evening on NPR' "All Things Considered," David Gura did a program titled "Saving Folk History, One Recording at a Time." It is about Ray Alden and his "Field Recorders' Collective." They also interview Judy Hyman and Peter Hoover, who are two of the field recorders who have provided field recordings to Ray.

During the interview, Ray had some interesting things to say about learning music from field recordings that are stored in libraries. The main theme, however, is about what Ray is doing to make field recordings available to the public for many of the reasons discussed earlier on this board. During the past five years, he has released 55 wonderful CDs of field recordings of (mostly) Old-Time fiddle, banjo, and string band music. He has also released three recordings of Cajun musicians.

Anyway, the whole thing is directly related to the discussion earlier today. I have no idea whether the links posted above will work. If they don't, just go to npr.org and do a search for Ray Alden or Peter Hoover. You can read the interview or listen to it,and also listen to some samples from his recordings. I learned that these posted programs move down the list pretty quickly.

It would really be nice if someone did something with Cajun field recordings equivalent to what Ray is doing. The interesting thing is that Ray is not doing this to make money, but he is making enough to continue doing it.

Jack Bond

Thanks for the "heads up"

on my way to NPR

I've got some of the Old Time collections, and the sound quality is excellent. No doubt it's the same with the Cajan stuff. Ray does this for the love of music, and it shows in the stuff he releases. Ray is a great guy not to mention an outrageous banjo player. Don't know when he sleeps, but he's doing it right.
-Steve