I am expanding the offer I made in this thread:

http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=24900

The original offer pertained to a bunch of southern gospel tapes I had. Since our housefire, I have been doing some further organizing, and it's become clear that I have more genres besides southern gospel.

So actually I am glad I never sent them out, because I see a larger project possible. I plan to use this thread to manage it. The balance of this post will contain my thoughts on what to do with all this music if you decide to participate. (Trace this thread if you sign up please.)

People who want to participate can do so by e-mailing me-- requesting the sign-up form. They will go out in batches of six tapes, because I got some free eight-pocket vinyl tape albums. Each set will include various genres and the tape quality will vary.

At a minimum, participants will be expected to listen to and enjoy the tapes, and send them on to the next participant promptly (or be "busted" for procrastination in this thread!).

Be aware up front that the sound quality will be poor to good-- what you will gain is mostly the chance to learn some new songs, for it is the songs that are the point here, not who did them or when or how they arranged them perfectly. Some of these tapes are copies of copies. Others are copies of very old LP's. Some are newer and in good shape, or recent copies off CD's. None of them are in good enough shape to make saleable bootleg copies-- these are, of course, for personal study only. I will appreciate you not running them through filthy equipment or leaving them in your car with carfood crumbs. (Do as I say, not as I do.)

Several of these tapes contain only a few gospel songs. Sure, I could copy these off onto gospel compilation tapes, but you know, I don't have time, and anyway why leave the other stuff out? It's all good! More lyrics to harvest, some of them non-gospel? Sure!

Some participants will feel like they want to do something to help-- to leave the collection in better shape than they found it. Here are some ideas.

There are J-cards for some tapes, but not all. You might be moved to word process a songlist for one or more of the tapes that are missing their J-cards.

Perhaps you have the lyrics to some of these, or are willing to fetch them off other lyric sites or transcribe them. These can be posted at Mudcat-- after checking first to see if they are already posted here. It would make sense to tuck a note into the tape album saying which ones have been researched and posted, for the next user's information. And it would be even nicer to print whatever words are found, to tuck in as well.

Some of the songs will seem very obscure, especially due to sound quality, and you may be moved to post a Mudcat lyric request for help determining what the piece is and how it goes. Again, a note about this tucked into the album will be appreciated.

Maybe you will know some interesting things about the history of a song, or variants. Your notes added to the collection will benefit all. (Of course post these too if you are posting.)

As I indicated, each set will include six tapes in an eight-pocket album. Obviously some people will want to add a tape into the album to pass along-- where do you think I got some of these gems in the first place? *G* In such moments of generosity, it would be great if you also included a xerox of any liner notes, etc. available, and especially if these include lyrics-- oh joy!

How many sets will there be?
Oh God!! Don't ask! I am still sorting, and if in doubt, I am throwing it into the project pile! So there will be sets of sets, going around among different groups-- each set will come back to me at the end of its loop to be sent out to one of the other groupings of participants.

The first ones will go out next week to people who already indicated interest in the past. More signups are definitely encouraged.

Let's make the best possible use of this resource. Wait till you hear these great classics!

~Susan

(Click HERE to e-mail me. Subject line: GOSPEL TAPES)