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phonozoic
cd catalog
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Acoustic Recordings
of the Banjo, 1898-1924
Two
CDs with over two hours of acoustic-era recordings
featuring banjo performances by Fred Van Eps, Vess Ossman,
Harry C. Browne, "Black Face" Eddie Ross, Shirley
Spaulding, and others.
This is the most recent Phonozoic CD, prepared using some
different equipment, techniques, and software. It
contains no traditional "noise
reduction" in the upper frequencies and no arbitrary
midrange reequalization -- no need to guess what these
records really sounded like before the computers
got to them! (Well, except for all those annoying pops
and clicks and thumps, that is.) A traditional "CD
booklet" lists the discographical basics, but
notes are inserted on a sheet
in the back and may be periodically updated.
51 tracks
Track Listing
Total playing time: 154:13
(77:34 and 76:39)
$20.00 + shipping
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Crazy
as a Loon:
"Coon Songs" and "Darky
Specialties," 1897-1910
During
the 1890s and 1900s, the heyday of instrumental
ragtime, America also experienced a craze for a
similarly syncopated vocal music, the legacy of
which is more troublesome. The coon song
coupled the catchiest tunes of the age with words marking
a low point in crude racial stereotyping and
insensitivity. This genre of popular song shaped and
reinforced racist assumptions to a degree that should not
be underestimated.
The
coon song craze coincided with the introduction of sound
recording, and so, although it has (thankfully) died out
as a performance tradition, its style can be rediscovered
through early commercial cylinder and disc recordings.
29 tracks plus
detailed notes in 12-page booklet
Track Listing
Total playing time: 72:56
$16.00 + shipping
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How'd
You Like to
Spoon With Me?
Songs of Love, Lust,
and Courtship,
1902-1923
Love may be
timeless, but the customs and expectations of courtship
have changed dramatically over the course of the twentieth
century. The songs on this compact disc reflect the ways
of the first quarter of the century -- an era which might
at first nostalgic glance appear simpler or at times even
naïve: an age when popular songs celebrated playful
excursions to the beach, nighttime walks in the park, and
fond reminiscences by older people of their own youthful
courting. The term spooning, whatever connotations it may
have today, was then roughly equivalent to the
contemporary expression petting. But many of the
selections in this program show that the period covered
was not an age without its own troubles, fears, and
complexes, and close attention to the lyrics will
sometimes reveal a biting cynicism about relationships to
rival anything found today.
A wide
spectrum of pioneer recording artists is represented on
How'd You Like to Spoon With Me?, including Arthur
Collins, George Gaskin, Will Halley, Ada Jones, Harry
Macdonough, Eddie Morton, Billy Murray, Dan W. Quinn, and
Clarice Vance. Selections range from the sentimental
("When the Harvest Days Are Over," "If a Girl Like You
Loved a Boy Like Me") to the playful ("Pretty Baby," "I
Love Her, Oh! Oh! Oh!") to the cynical ("Where Can I Meet
You Tonight?," "Somebody Else Is Gettin' It") to the
absurd ("All He Does Is Follow Them Around," "I Love Me").
27 tracks plus
detailed notes in 12-page booklet
Track Listing
Total playing time: 73:01
$16.00 + shipping
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Under
the Double Eagle:
Recordings from Habsburg
Austria-Hungary
We have
all seen albums promising a musical introduction to a
given country, boasting titles such as "All the Best from
Portugal" or "Passport to Luxembourg." This compilation
is intended in the same spirit, except that the "country"
it represents passed out of existence at the end of the
First World War.
Update: we thought all recordings on this
disc were from Austria-Hungary when we put this together
back in 2000, but a couple turned out to be from Berlin
(contrary to the labels!).
The Dual Monarchy of
Austria-Hungary was a state -- or rather, beginning in
1867, two states -- bound together by allegiance
to the member of the Habsburg dynasty who happened to be
both Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary. On the other
hand, this state complex was also a multicultural
maelstrom of Germans, Magyars, Czechs, Croats, Italians,
Slovaks, Serbs, Poles, Romanians, and Ukrainians. With
the awakening of nationalist aspirations from 1848 on it
was arguably only a matter of time until the Habsburg
territories were doomed to disintegration.
Whatever
the peoples of the Dual Monarchy may have had in common,
and whatever may have divided them, the selections
presented on this disc provide a broad overview of their
musical traditions in the last years before the Great
War. Not every group is included -- that would be
well-nigh impossible -- but an effort has been made to
produce a diverse and representative sampling. Some
selections are taken from gramophone discs sold in Europe,
while others are from discs recorded abroad and marketed
to immigrant communities in the United States. We hope
you will enjoy listening to these recordings made in
Vienna, Budapest, and Prague before 1918... under the
Double Eagle.
26 tracks
Track Listing
Total playing time: 72:07
$16.00 + shipping
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I'm Making You a Record!
Home and Amateur Recordings
on Wax Cylinder, 1902-1920
The
history of early sound recording has usually been told
from the standpoint of the commercial industry giants:
Edison, Victor, Columbia, and their rivals. But in the
era of the wax cylinder phonograph ordinary people also
made their own recordings at home under informal
circumstances for the amusement of themselves, their
family, and their friends.
Providing a glimpse into this almost forgotten segment of
phonographic history, I'm Making You a Record
presents twenty-five unique amateur recordings from the
first two decades of the twentieth century. Startlingly
unlike the commercial recordings of the same period, these
cylinders offer us the opportunity to eavesdrop on the
informal life of an age long past. The sound quality of
these recordings varies widely due both to original
recording conditions and to the ravages of time. Wax
cylinders are susceptible to "mold" damage which can
sometimes obliterate the original sound. But keep in mind
that there are no other, better copies of the recordings
included here: each home-recorded cylinder is unique.
25 tracks
Total playing time: 55:24
Track Listing
$16.00 + shipping
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The
Wrecked Record
Home and Amateur Disc
Recordings, 1939-1957
From homemade interviews with Santa Claus to flubbed
nursery rhymes, from New Year's Eve celebrations to
schoolchildren speculating about space travel,
these are definitely recordings you were
never meant to hear!
Home disc recordings from
the 1940s and 1950s are fairly common, turning up
regularly at antique shops, thrift stores, and library
book sales. Nevertheless, each of these recordings is
also unique; taken individually, there are no records
rarer than these.
The discs themselves vary
from 6 1/2 to 12 inches in diameter and consist of a core
of either stiff paper or metal coated with a thin layer of
lacquer or acetate.
The performances may
often seem "amateurish," but labeling them that way misses
the point: in most cases who made the recordings --
or even the enjoyment of recording itself -- was
considered more important than the technical expertise
shown in the finished product.
Long neglected and often
stored under adverse conditions, early home recordings are
now beginning to capture attention as a major (if
informal) part of America's heritage of recorded sound.
26 tracks
Total playing
time 72:31
Track Listing
$16.00 + shipping
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