Various Artists – Fonotone Records (5-CD box)
As a teenager in Frederick, Maryland, in the 1950s, Joe Bussard fell in love with old 78s. Country, blues, some jazz, and musics from distant shores all found their way onto his turntables. He developed a keen ear for separating the wheat from the chaff, and over the course of a couple decades amassed what is widely heralded as the premier collection of American music released on 78s between the two world wars.
Not merely a hobbyist, but also a fledgling musician and businessman, Bussard set up shop as a recording service, cranking out hundreds of different records, many of which he played on. He used his own cutting machine, handling every aspect of a record company himself, from gluing labels on to the individually produced platters to airing them on his own radio program. Most of it was recorded in his basement; some required field trips. All of it uses a single microphone.
Running from 1956 to 1969, Fonotone Records was this country’s last label devoted exclusively to 78s.
Dust-to-Digital, which made its public debut a couple years ago with the monumental Goodbye, Babylon set, has created a resilient and entertaining five-disc set from the Fonotone archives. Accompanied by a 160-page book and assorted ephemera, they’re all inside a custom-made cigar box. With 131 songs clocking in at over six hours, this stands as both a document of the music that continued to find favor in the hills around Bussard’s home and as a portrait of the man himself.
Most famous among those who came knocking at Bussard’s door was a teenage John Fahey. Sharing a love of vintage blues performers, they concocted the moniker of Blind Thomas, hoping the record would be assumed to be a rarity from several decades prior. Seeing what Bussard was able to do out of his home, Fahey started his own Takoma label.
Bussard was firmly against the rock ‘n’ roll that was exploding around him; his opposition has the ring of an obstinate Luddite. His sweeping assertions of the worthlessness of contemporary music do not bear the mark of examination, but rather, of listening with fingers in ears and mind already made up. That said, he’s an entertaining curmudgeon with an ear for honesty in music. Perhaps it was necessary for him to steel himself against the onslaught of the new to give shape and momentum to his passions.