Fonotone Records 1956-1969

Artist	Various Artists
Format	CD
Genre	Folk
Label Name	Dust-To-Digital
Producer	Joe Bussard, David Anderson, Steven Lance Ledbetter
Release Date	2005 11 22
Song List	1: Chinese Breakdown (2:18) 2: Power in the Blood (1:55) 3: Wanda Russell's Blues (3:20) 4: Foggy Bottom Shuffle (3:12) 5: I Love You Mama (2:57) 6: Solider's Joy (2:27) 7: Carry Me Back to the Mountains (1:58) 8: Fox Chase (2:34) 9: Swing Low, Sweet Chariot (2:13) 10: Baker's Breakdown (3:11) 100: Drunk Song No. 2 (2:41) 101: If You Don't Love Me Mama (3:06) 102: Stone Pony (2:49) 103: The Pueblo's Crew (3:11) 104: Confessin' (2:28) 105: Poor Boy Blues (3:35) 106: Cripple Creek (1:33) 107: Put My Little Shoes Away (2:18) 108: Hoppin' the Frets (2:50) 109: John Henry Take 1 (3:23) 11: Alley Strut (3:01) 110: Nine Pound Hammer (2:32) 111: Birmingham Tickle (2:15) 112: Atlanta Rag (3:03) 113: Old Hypocrite (2:46) 114: Sugar in the Gourd (3:28) 115: I Hear Mother Calling (2:47) 116: It's Only the Wind (3:21) 117: Maple Sugar (2:52) 118: Preach the Gospel (2:22) 119: My Savior Died for Me (2:48) 12: Boweavil (2:10) 120: Sunflower Strut (3:15) 121: Hand Me Down My Walking Cane (2:51) 122: Lay My Armor Down (2:43) 123: The Old Folks Started It (3:50) 124: Done Gone (2:39) 125: Got to Get a Little More (3:04) 126: Wild Mountain Ramble (3:09) 127: Money Green No. 2 (3:10) 128: Didn't the Crucify My Lord (3:16) 129: I'm Rollin' On (3:03) 13: Bugle Call Banjo (2:20) 130: Delta Crapation (3:19) 131: Sugar Tree Stomp (2:45) 14: Tator Patch Blues (2:48) 15: We Need More Rattlesnakes (2:45) 16: Jug in the Shade (3:00) 17: Lost Indian (2:48) 18: Love Old Memphis (3:23) 19: Old Country Rock (3:27) 20: The Death of John Kennedy (3:48) 21: Onions (2:54) 22: Paint Brush Blues (3:18) 23: Helter Skelter (2:45) 24: Green Blues (2:47) 25: Hannah Open the Door (2:55) 26: Wildwood Flower (2:24) 27: Down on the Delaware (3:04) 28: Crazy Arms (2:35) 29: Bluegrass (2:15) 30: Rome Georgia Bound (2:39) 31: Blind Blues (2:41) 32: Bluegrass Shuffle (2:00) 33: Cider Time Rag (2:25) 34: Sugar Babe (2:04) 35: Tearing Down the Laurel (3:06) 36: Up Jumped the Devil (2:20) 37: Fox Chase (3:51) 38: Virginia Ramble (2:00) 39: Sow Good Seeds (2:49) 40: Nobody's Darling But Mine (2:44) 41: Everlasting Joy (2:33) 42: Backlander's Hornpipe (2:46) 43: Jokin' Georgia Rag (3:04) 44: Stir It Now (3:16) 45: Kid Future's Blues (2:36) 46: R. G. Chimes (2:48) 47: Back Alley Wiggle (2:31) 48: Pig Tail Fling (1:15) 49: Down Where the River Bends (3:44) 50: The Flight of Astronaut John Glenn (3:21) 51: Hillbilly's Guitar (2:45) 52: Memphis Hambone Blue (3:03) 53: Mandolin Blues (2:44) 54: Cheat Mountain (3:35) 55: Shady Grove (2:03) 56: Cumberland Gap (1:56) 57: Fisher's Hornpipe (2:36) 58: Cackling Hen (2:50) 59: Barefoot Mamlish Blues (3:18) 60: Black Jack Rag (2:55) 61: Hot Corn Cold Corn (1:47) 62: Tear It Down (3:21) 63: Father Put the Cow Away (2:21) 64: Whitacre's Hornpipe (2:37) 65: Banjo Stretch (2:42) 66: Coal Tipple Blues (3:20) 67: Some Summer Day No. 2 (3:22) 68: Hopalong Peter (2:52) 69: The Crowing Rooster (3:33) 70: Little Boy Stole My Jacket (2:50) 71: Black Cat Blues (3:57) 72: Frankie (2:18) 73: Striped Stockings (3:04) 74: Short String Strut (2:34) 75: The Voyage of Apollo 8 (2:49) 76: Black Jack Drag (2:42) 77: Rory Mae (3:10) 78: Silver Bells (2:46) 79: Weissman Blues (3:05) 80: Sara Jane (2:09) 81: What She's Got (3:14) 82: Susie (3:21) 83: Round Town Gals (2:52) 84: Ramblin' Blues (3:13) 85: Pretty Little Girl (2:29) 86: Scattin' Rag (2:20) 87: Please Love Me (2:42) 88: Delta Moodish Blues (3:34) 89: Busted Boiler Blues (2:47) 90: Big Legged Mama (3:09) 91: Leather Breeches (2:32) 92: Dark and Lonely Night Blues (2:47) 93: Borrow Love and Go (2:48) 94: I Don't Love Nobody (2:41) 95: Hen Pecked Man (2:35) 96: Treastle Blues (3:15) 97: Train to Danville (3:13) 98: No Special Rider Blues (3:21) 99: Basement Blues (3:39)
Style.Categories	Slide Guitar Blues, Songster, Prewar Gospel Blues, Bluegrass-Gospel, Jug Band, Field Recordings, Spirituals, Country Gospel, Folk-Blues, String Bands, Bluegrass, Southern Gospel, Traditional Country, Old-Timey, Traditional Bluegrass, Blues Gospel

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In 1956 teenaged record collector Joe Bussard decided to track some of his guitar-playing National Guard buddies in his parent's basement in Frederick, MD, and Fonotone Records, America's last operating 78 rpm label, was born. Deliberately anachronistic, Bussard sought to emulate the jug band, blues, and early country 78s that he so treasured (and collected) from the 1920s and 1930s, and he and his friends took on pseudonyms that echoed the names of the artists who recorded during that fabled era at the very dawn of the American recording industry, essentially creating a mythical musical landscape that was stubbornly (even defiantly) out of touch with the technology and musical trends of the 1950s. Part hobby, part hoax, and partly a statement on what Bussard saw as the ongoing degradation of pop music, Fonotone released an impressive number of handmade 78s before Bussard finally officially folded the label in 1969. This elaborate five-disc box set -- it comes housed in a cigar box with postcards, an extensive booklet, and even a Fonotone church key bottle opener -- finally brings the work of Bussard's little lost label into the digital light of the 21st century. It has to be viewed as a little ironic, given Bussard's aversion to the technological advancements of the recording industry and his complete disgust at almost anything recorded after 1934, but here you have it, all laid out in zeros and ones, and what emerges is an at times brilliant facsimile of Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music. But where Smith's anthology, which collects actual 78s from the 1920s and 1930s (the 1997 reissue of the anthology on CD actually drew on nearly pristine 78s from Bussard's vast personal collection), shines with the mysterious glow of a half-remembered vernacular past, the Fonotone set, which attempts to re-create that era, replaces the mystery with what amounts to cleverness and creative mischief. That doesn't mean that the music presented here isn't interesting -- it frequently bursts forth with a wonderfully chaotic energy -- but it is a bit like building a scale model of the Grand Coulee Dam out of Popsicle sticks. The end result is fascinating to look at, but being a re-creation, it lacks the intangible presence (and no doubt the utility) of the original. Still, the Fonotone records were a lot of fun, and discovering the real identities behind the pseudonyms is a big part of that fun. Birmingham Bill is actually Mike Seeger. Kid Future is a young Stefan Grossman. B. Sam Firk is Mike Stewart. Blind Robert Ward is Bob Coltman. And the first recordings of iconoclast John Fahey are here, under the name Blind Thomas, in what is a sort of dress rehearsal for his Blind Joe Death persona. Bussard himself appears as part of a whole range of jug and string band groups with names like the Mississippi Swampers, the Tennessee Mess Arounders, the Back Alley Boys, and so on. There are some actual field recordings here, as well, including a pair of tracks from black Appalachian banjo player Clarence Fross that could slip undetected into any Alan Lomax collection. There is also a good deal of bluegrass music, the only postwar musical style ever allowed on a Fonotone record, which is a further irony, since bluegrass probably did more than even rock & roll to kill off the jug and string band tradition that Bussard so admired. Arguably the most effective cuts are a trio of songs that drop the old-time façade long enough to comment directly on contemporary events.