Hi, Stephen. If it will make you feel any better... when I cut my album, Handful Of Songs, long, long ago, phonograph records were still the thing. CD players were just becoming available, but I didn't have one and no other folkie I knew did either. No one was going to accept change without putting up a fight. So, I had records and cassettes produced. I had already paid for my records and went over to pick them up because they were ready, only to find a padlock on the door. I called the guy I'd worked with and the company had gone bankrupt. There was a court order that nothing could be removed from the factory. I prevailed on the guy to open up so that I could get my records, as they had already been paid for, and even though he was actually breaking the law, he did it. We furtively snuck in to the factory and "stole" the records I'd already paid for.

Now, twelve years later, I figured maybe I'd put the album out on CD, and called my friend who'd recorded and mixed the master tapes. It was only after he couldn't find the final master tape that was used to cut the records that I realized that I had never gotten it back. I had hoped to have CDs by the time I go down to Washington in mid-September, but now I have to have a master tape re-mixed from the original tapes (which are still in my friend's studio, thank God.) Maybe I'll have them out in time for Christmas. When you're doing a record or CD, take the longest conceivable amount of time you think it will take to produce it, and then multiply by three. At least...

Good luck, though. Sometimes things go right. :-)

Jerry