Record yourself when you're good enough for posterity. It can be a self-judgment if (and only if) you have good self-critical skills; too many people don't. But when lots of other people with no investment in your ego think you ought to have a recording of yourself and/or of your material, and they tell you so, it's time to consider it seriously. Even if it's a craft-gift for friends rather than a commercial venture... We have all the wonderful traditional songs we do, and know about the singing styles of wonderful traditional singers, because at some point, someone recorded them. Lomaxes, Paton, Lloyd, Warner... dudes with tape recorders finding people who sang interesting things and sang them well.

In the old days, a recording was a serious financial drain; it HAD to be professional, because of the scarcity and expense of the equipment involved in its production.. Nowadays, you need good microphones and a DAT recorder, but that's still within the pocketbook of an amateur (and more so if you can share with others.) Record in one or two takes in someone's living room with a couple of mikes. There are lots of professional musicians do "Live at the [venue]" recordings, and someone's living room isn't that different, except for the lack of cost to rent. Invite talented friends in for choruses. A good home-made recording can be good enough.

With CD burners, you can make as small a run of CDs as you wish, and produce them on demand. While there may be intital production costs to recoup, no great investment is required in inventory, which again keeps the process affordable.

Enough of generalizations address to nobody in particular. lamarca--it's time for you and George to record your stuff!

--Charlie Baum