Addition to my earlier post: Joe is not quite unmentioned on Mudcat, after all. A Google search outside Mudcat will turn up a few early Mudcat Joe Bussard threads.

https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=35524   “vintage 78’s on npr”
https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=158444   "Joe Bussard – The Year of Jubilo”

Joe has a page on Wikipedia, which gives some more of the basic facts.

And the web, by the way, has lots of fine photos of Joe in musical connections at various stages of his life.

I should add that Joe for years produced weekly radio shows on tape for stations in West Virginia, eastern Kentucky and elsewhere. They featured records from his collection with Joe’s grand and humorous radio commentary. I know of no source for details about this—maybe some of you can add more on that.

The above post by Stilly River Sage brings back memories in the final three paragraphs. I was lucky enough to be with Joe on that record collecting trip in Tazewell, Virginia the day he discovered Clarence Fross/Frost's house and we turned. up those Black Patti's, rarest of the rare. Joe just about went into a "record collector's coma" that day—dead serious and very persuasive.

Next post: more memories.

Bob