Good people, I grew up with these thaumatergic recordings which Sandy is now making available on CD for the first time. This was the only company whose issued records, over the many years, I never had to hear before purchasing. I knew that they would always blow me away. Amazingly, I was ALWAYS drawn into the music to the point where I would often become a fanatical fan of the various artists. (If that's redundant, so be it. I really do mean this, folks!) So many people on the Paton's roster of singers became good friends of ours over the years---and none were better friends than Sandy and Caroline...

George and Gerry Armstrong and everyone on that first GOLDEN RING album created something so utterly beautiful that it will always be a standard to be shot at when folk albums are put together---then, now and in the future. Win Stracke's huge bass voice was there on many tracks. And the sound of George's bagpipe practice-chanter (without the bag and drones) added a quality of nostalgia and beauty to to "Lizzy Lindsay" that produces shivers down my back and goose bumps on my arms whenever I think about that track. Gerry Armstrong's voice will always be a standard of crystal clarity and purity in my mind. Both of the Armstrongs were terribly important to me---and I really cannot believe that they are both gone now...

Jim Ringer's one album for Sandy is definitely my absolute favorite record that Jim ever made. "California Joe" is a highpoint of that record as well as being the absolute apex of far west Mountain Man era narrative ballad composition and performance --- but every track is superlative. John Prine's song "Paradise" that was recorded by so many people, was done better than all the rest put together on this record by Jim Ringer. "Every Bush And Tree" is beautiful as well. ------ This CD is just the best.

People, what can I say-----if you love Jean Richie, be certain to hear the album her sister, Edna, did for Folk Legacy. Just the one album was all she made I think, and it was a dulcimer-filled gem...

There was an album of jokes by some grizzzled young fart from Maine that was even pretty funny. (Actually hilarious.) But why was he in Florida so much for a while there if he likes Fundy's odiferous low tide mud flats and barnacles so darn much???   ;-) When he sings, on his other album for Sandy, the results are even better---thankfully. But it was from Kendall Morse that I learned once and for all why I should maybe name my next puppy "Biscuit".

I don't want to give you all reader's cramp, but I did want to tell Sandy and Caroline, both David and Robin too, and Lee in absentia just how proud I was to be included in their dream. You all did it the right way-----and you are continuing to do that as we speak.

I'm thinking of the end scene of the film Hans Christian Anderson right now. All of the personages from Mr. Anderson's collected tales parade before the old and ill man. Sandy, I know that right now you are healthier than you have been in a long time, and have many, many more years ahead. ---- But if you ever have doubts, as we all do on occasion, especially when this brave new folkworld rears it's different head, know that all the people on the covers of all those black and white LP covers----Joe Hickerson, Gordon Bok, Annie Muir, Ed Trickett, Skip Gorman, Edna Ritchie, Kendall Morse, Larry Older, Hedy West, Michael Cooney, Arnold Storm, Lee Monroe Presnell, Hattie Presnell, Frank Proffitt, Lucy Simpson, Jonathan, Ian, Margaret, me, and------even the one album on Folk Legacy I wasn't in love with ----- that Kimball guy from Utah whose LP I could never listen to---hell, everyone really. You have made us a part of your folk legacy---a part of your tradition.

I just want to say THANK YOU for all of it----and thanks for bringing us all into the twenty-first century with you by figuring out a way to put our sounds on Compact Discs.

Love to you all----and thank you all for the music !!

Art Thieme