14 Comments

Loved your tribute to Joe Bussard. Fantastic, and important work that you digitized his collection. You may be interested to know, I knew Harry Smith very well. He played for me (in room 714 at the Breslin Hotel; 1980-84) the Anthology of American Folk Music some dozens of times. He never said much about it, letting the music speak for itself. Moreover we listened together to many hundreds of records from his collection of music from around the world. [I won't go into the books he spoke about with me- as I go into all that in my forthcoming book on HS due out on the 100th anniversary of his birth.] [John Szwed's book about HS- I believe- is due out soon as well]

It brought a smile to my face when I learned of your 'B-Sides' which I own.

Harry Smith truly embodied Sun Ra's statement. “...to present beauty to the world until I ignite that spark in people's hearts.” Keep up the good work. -Scott

Expand full comment

This is wonderful — Thank you! RIP Joe Bussard, an American treasure.

Expand full comment

May his memory be a blessing...

Expand full comment

Thank you for this beautiful memorial of Joe. Such dedication to the music, and so many have been enriched by his collection. LOVELY WRITE-UP!

Expand full comment

Beautifully written tribute. RIP Joe - thank you for sharing your love of music with all of us and for helping preserve it for future listeners.

Expand full comment

RIP to a great man. Thanks for this wonderful piece.

Expand full comment

I lived in Frederick for 22 years and didn't know I could just call him up lol. A lost opportunity to get to meet a great man.

Expand full comment

I met him once about six years ago and ended up talking for about an hour. Fascinating to talk to but whatever I asked he ended up talking about what he wanted to.

Expand full comment

Thanks!

Expand full comment

Thank you. It’s always a pleasure to hear early recordings of ANY type of music.

Expand full comment

Beautifully written and the connection to Sun Ra's sentiments is perfect. Thanks for sharing this.

Expand full comment

Very sad to hear of his passing. Thank you for the wonderful tribute. I remember reading that he did not want his collection donated to the Library of Congress because he thought it would just be squirreled away and no one would hear it. Think ending of Raiders Of The Lost Ark. He was adamant that this music be heard and for that we should all be grateful.

Expand full comment

thank you neko case for recommending dust to digital

one post and I am hooked

Expand full comment

Great tribute to Joe, his work, and your relationship

Expand full comment