My favorite CD of the decade is Stephen Wade's selection of marvelous material from the Library of Congress Folk Music Archive, entitled something like: A Treasury of Folksongs from the Library of Congress (I don't have it right here), released by Rounder. Pushing up close behind that one in my "favorites" are the various Yazoo re-issues of early recordings from the 20s and 30s. These have been released in two-volume sets: Times Ain't Like They Used to Be, Vols. 1 and 2 (now with two more CDs added -- Vols. 3 and 4); Hard Times Come Again No More, Vols. 1 and 2; the superb Gospel song collection: How Can I Keep from Singing, Vols. 1 and 2 (recently extended with two new CDs titled The Half Ain't Never Been Told, Vols 1 and 2; plus several similar collections. These CDs give one a great library of early recordings of mostly traditional material, and the performances are wonderful! They are available from Shanachie, or, better still, get them from our own Mudcat Shop via Camsco Music, which gives a percentage of the profit to help keep the Mudcat going. Gargoyle may not approve, but web sites do cost money, and this is a painless way to help.

Rounder has also released a number of CDs from Alan Lomax's field recordings. There are too many to list them all here, but don't overlook the CDs of worksongs sung by prisoners in the southern prisons recorded by the Lomaxes (John and Alan) back in the 30s. These are very important documents and offer some really splendid music.

And that's just for starters, kids.

Grandpa Sandy