Brezhnev mentioned Martin Carthy's 1972 album Shearwater. I don't know anything about the circumstances surrounding that release, but I'll pass on another comment from the Rounder founders. Ken Irwin, another co-founder, noted that the situation can be vastly different if an artist is touring. Carthy was a working pro, appearing before audiences and, I assume, paying some attention to press and marketing. So he'd have greater opportunities to sell than someone in Rounder's NAT series. My casual understanding is that today, in the US at least, touring for niche artists is much tougher than in the 1970s. It's a victim of so many things I guess--the present economy, disappearing brick and mortar retail, tougher times for little music magazines, and the constant narrowing of radio. Can the world wide web be the savior of everything?

Michael Scully