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Greetings List.
I find myself helping in the preparation and
research of a radio segment about the American railroad legend, Casey Jones, who
died in a train wreck at Vaughn, Mississippi 100 years ago this
month. The piece will be airing on NPR's Weekend Edition at the very end
of this month. Producers are Hal Cannon and Taki Telonidis.
I wonder if there are any ARSCers who would be
interested in turning to their private or institutional collections and
supplying dubs of some early (acoustic or electrical) recordings of songs about
Casey Jones. I've been in touch with the folks at the Southern Folklife
Collection at UNC-Chapel Hill for help with various hillbilly, country and
bluegrass type versions. What is needed from list members are some good
pre-1930 popular recordings. An exhaustive search is not necessary since
what is more desirable for the program is a small but diverse mix of versions
from various genres of American music. Right now, I am anxious to find
sources for any recordings of "Casey Jones" (and variant titles) by such
recording artists as Billy Murray, Billy Jones, Arthur Collins, Byron Harlan,
Vernon Dalhart, Peerless Quartet, etc. Also any instrumental versions by
early jazz and ragtime bands, banjoists or concert bands would be most
welcome. I have a few specific label numbers if that would be
helpful. If you happen to be a blues expert and have any nice rare race
records, that would be great!
If you have anything along this line in good
playable condition and would be willing to provide a dub on DAT, cassette, or
CD-R, the producers would be most appreciative. Since the program is just
now going into production, and the deadline is a few short weeks away, time is
of the essence. Anyone interested in participating can email me directly
and we can figure out where to go from here.
I have approached a few other audio archives and
would like to avoid having them spend valuable time tracking down recordings
that might be more readily available through private sources. So, if you think
you have something, if you could advise me by email, I can tell the archives not
to bother spending hours searching.
The piece will be short (ten minutes or under) so
the likelihood of any one song getting played all the way through is almost
nil. Mostly the musical threads will be interwoven with spoken narrative
and interviews to give the piece continuity, interest, and textural
changes.
Anyone interested in helping out? I'm not in
the radio world but I imagine that contributors will be credited on air.
If that's of concern, I'll double check and confirm that part.
Thanks all.
Steve Green
Western Folklife Center
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