This may be a long shot but... inspired by Janie's thread about great bands you wouldn't have heard, I decided to set up this website:

Lost Folk Tapes

As you'll notice if you visit, there are no lost folk tapes on there yet...which is where hopefully some of you Mudcatters might step in!

I've reproduced the message to musicians page below. I'd be really grateful if you can hav a read of it, and if it appplies to you, think about getting involved. If it doesn't, but you know people who might be interested, please pass the word on. And if you can generally let people know about it, either via other forums you're part of or Facebook or email lists/groups or whatever, that would be fab. On more thing to add - this is completely non-commercial, not-for-profit and so on and it's not yet another bootleg site etc... its simply about giving people a chance to hear forgotten music... and hopefully it will be a lot of fun.

Here goes...

A MESSAGE TO MUSICIANS

e know that there are hundreds, probably thousands, of people out there who sung in folk clubs, played in coffee houses, performed at demonstrations, whooped it up at band dances, entertained in bars, busked in parks and generally made all sorts of folk music in all sorts of circumstances. And we know many of you made recordings of what you did - to sell at gigs, to give away to friends and family, to raise funds for a cause or maybe just because you have the opportunity and wanted to do it. You didn't necessarily make the big time, you may have only played in your local area. Equally you may have trawled across the country week after week, chasing all the bookings you could get. You may be completely unknown, you may be a name plenty of people will remember. You may be from the USA, The UK, Australia or anywhere else in the world. You may have hung up your hat forty years ago, you may still be playing regularly. You may have been a traditional musician, an acoustic singer songwriter, the bass player in a folk-rock band, a psychedelic troubadour, a protest singer or all or none of these.

Whether you made a self-released cassette to sell at the end of your gigs, or a long defunct local record label released an album with you, or you went into a studio to make a demo or you captured a halfway decent recording of a live performance, you are the people this website is about... and we want to hear from you!

We'd like you to send us your music. Ideally, we'd like it digitally (and we don't care about the format - MP3, WAV, AIFF or anything else you prefer to use) but we're also happy to accept stuff burned onto CDs, cassette tapes or even vinyl by post. We also want your stories and memories... and the odd photo would be even better. We'll only do with it want you want us to: we can put it on the site as sound files for visitors to listen to or we can make it available for people as a free download, if that's what you'd like. Simply get in touch with us using the form on the contact page... we're looking forward to hearing from you. The only proviso is that we can only accept stuff you have some sort of ownership of... if the rights to your recordings belong to EMI or Warners or someone, we can't post them on the site, because, um, we don't want to get sued or closed down.

So please get rummaging through the boxes in you attic and get in touch with us - you're the only reason we created this site. And thank you.

Once more: Lost Folk Tapes

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Thanks for any interest, comments, support... or promises of great, lost music!

Best,

Spleen

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This is an edited PermaThread™, to be used to assist Spleen Cringe on this project. Spleen Cringe will moderate the thread. Feel free to post, but be aware that all messages in this thread are subject to deletion or editing.
-Joe Offer, Forum Moderator-