Finding recordings - Library of Congress

Subject: Finding recordings - Library of Congress
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 Jan 19 - 02:08 PM

Can somebody please enlighten me? I'm looking for recordings of the murder ballad titled "Ellen Flannery" (the victim) or "Floyd Frazier" (the perp). Roud lists several sound recordings at the Library of Congress, but but I can't figure out how to access them.
I found the audio recordings search page at the Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/audio/
...but that's as far as I get. One recording I'm seeking for is #2782 B1 - collected by Herbert Halpert in 1939, a song titled "Ellen Flannery" sung by Mrs. Goldie Hamilton at Hamiltontown, Virginia. I found some of Halpert's recordings, but not this one.
What am I doing wrong?
Thanks.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Finding recordings - Library of Congress
From: Thomas Stern
Date: 11 Jan 19 - 03:23 PM

https://www.loc.gov/item/afc9999005.7773
https://www.loc.gov/resource/afc9999005.7775.0

these recordings do not appear to be available online
iirc purchasing copies gets expensive and requires permission from
performer/estate ???

cheers, Thomas.

Subject: RE: Finding recordings - Library of Congress
From: Thomas Stern
Date: 11 Jan 19 - 03:25 PM

a checklist of recordings through 1940 was published, and is
now available online:
https://archive.org/stream/checklistofrecor01arch/checklistofrecor01arch_djvu.txt

Thomas.

Subject: RE: Finding recordings - Library of Congress
From: Joe Offer
Date: 18 Mar 21 - 05:33 PM

# alerted me to the information that at least some of the John Lomax Library of Congress recordings are available on Apple Podcasts.
Here's Cowboy Songs, Ballads, and Cattle Calls from Texa?s?:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cowboy-songs-ballads-and-cattle-calls-from-texas/id1121386934.

Lots of good stuff to explore, but I haven't found a way to get to a complete menu without downloading iTunes.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Finding recordings - Library of Congress
From: Rex
Date: 20 Mar 21 - 12:47 PM

Joe, this is a great gift. I've heard some of these recordings
before but to hear Harry Stephens singing his own Night Herding
Song is something I had never imagined.
Thank you,

Rex

Subject: RE: Finding recordings - Library of Congress
From: Joe Offer
Date: 15 May 21 - 10:24 PM

Years ago, the Library of Congress published recordings of significant collections of songs. Some have found their way to CD, but not many. I think that all recordings collected by a public agency, should be made widely available to the public. I keep finding Library of Congress recordings here and there, but I want MORE. I want them ALL.

The Library of Congress has an index of significant recordings called the National Recording Registry (click).

There is a Spotify playlist of many of the songs in the National Recording Registry. Let's see if I can make this link work:

Subject: RE: Finding recordings - Library of Congress
From: pattyClink
Date: 15 May 21 - 10:37 PM

Agreed, Joe, these recordings get squirreled away and essentially hidden. And to expect the public to access public recordings through commercial gatekeeper conduits is offensive.

Subject: RE: Finding recordings - Library of Congress
From: GUEST,M Dixon
Date: 16 May 21 - 11:35 AM

Yes the Library of Congress collection has to be freed up. I'm currently accessing Edward Ives' field recordings from the Northeast that were mostly done in the 1950s to 1970s. They've never been made available to the public in any meaningful way and now, 60 years after the fact, there isn't as much of an audience for the material. AND because the content is owned by Universities and "collected" and "held" . . . this stuff didn't end up influencing or entering the vocabulary of later generations like it could have. There's a bit of a missed opportunity in all this.

Subject: RE: Finding recordings - Library of Congress
From: Lighter
Date: 16 May 21 - 02:30 PM

All the recordings are "available to the public.'

The catch is that if you don't want to pay for a CD, you have to show up in Washington in person.

I suspect the Archive of Folk Culture would like nothing better than to put everything in line, but presumably the funds are just not there.

Maybe eventually....

Subject: RE: Finding recordings - Library of Congress
From: Joe Offer
Date: 16 May 21 - 07:39 PM

Abby Sale reserved a tape at the Library of Congress before the Getaway a few years ago. He, Amos, Dani, and I went to the Archive of Folk Culture on our way to camp. We got our library cards and had a nice tour of the joint with a very nice folklorist - and we got to hear the tape. What a memorable day!

Subject: RE: Finding recordings - Library of Congress
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 16 May 21 - 10:11 PM

Joe, it is uncanny how "stuff" I did yesterday pops up in the MC forum.

https://archive.org/details/afc1937001_1389A2font

Search the archive.
It is like browsing the Dewey decimal on old fashioned shelves.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle



I had forgotten the archive. A chance remark was overheard yesterday and I got an amazing story about a free Greatful Dead concert in Seattle and a stage announcement from Garcia for her to locate her husband, in a local hospital.

Probably no other group ever had as many field recordings. Thousands upon thousands. It was a long strange trip.

---

What a treasure trove, Garg!!! Thanks. -Joe-