Blues (Archives): Audio Recordings

Open reel audio tapes, film, and photographic negatives & contact sheets of the blues-rock band Canned Heat. These materials were all recorded, filmed, and photographed by Marina Bokelman in 1967 and 1968.

Almost 3,000 blues CDs and LPs donated by Paul Feldbaumer.

This collection consists of oral histories regarding music in north Mississippi, with particular emphasis on gospel music.

This collection of 850 audio reels, mostly recorded by Dr. Kenneth S. Goldstein, primarily documents folk traditions from the United Kingdom and Ireland and their influence on folklore and music in North America. The recordings include interviews with musicians and storytellers, live musical performances, recitations of folktales, folklore lectures, and more. Most recordings were done in Pennsylvania, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Scotland.
Kenneth S. Goldstein was a folklorist, record producer, collector, teacher, folk festival organizer, and chairman of the Department of Folklore and Folklife at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Goldstein produced over 500 records for Riverside, Stinson, Prestige, and other labels.

Collection of 78 rpm discs donated by Emmett H. Goodman.

The collection consists of six audio interviews (on cassette tape) and their transcriptions, along with versions of the interviews that were published as articles in The Aquarian.

Sound recordings, concert programs, and clippings of Mississippi jazz pianist Dardanelle (Marcia Marie Mullen Hadley).

Begun in 1989 by Blues Archive Research Associate Walter Liniger and continued by Research Associate Jonny Miles, the Harmonica Project was an interdisciplinary research effort which attempted to analyze the playing styles, equipment preference, influences, and future of the blues harmonica, or blues harp. The collection consists of correspondence between the Archive and various "blues harpists," several instruments, information sheets on musicians, and cassette tapes of harmonica players. Part of the project consisted of surveying contemporary harmonica players about their playing styles, influences, instruments, etc. The majority of the correspondence in this collection is between Walter Liniger and the various participants in the Harmonica Project.

Collection of recordings, sheet music, photographs and research materials gathered through Sheldon Harris' person collecting and research.

Blues 78-rpm discs collected by David Hinckley.

Forty 78rpm discs collected by Alex Hulett.

Audio interviews, mostly regarding North Mississippi Hill Country blues music.

Approximately 10,000 LPs, 45s, and 78s BB King donated to the archive in 1982 and 1983.

Twenty-eight blues 78s collected by Robert and Nancy Klima.

Fifty-nine blues related 78s collected by Saralyn and Ellen Lackey.

Twelve blues 78s collected by Walter Lewisohn.

Collection composed of materials pertaining to blues-related projects: a film, Maxwell Street Blues (1980), and a book, Mother of the Blues: A Study of Ma Rainey (University of Massachusetts Press, 1981.) Included are photocopies of research materials about classic blues singer Gertrude "Ma" Rainey (1886 1939), four notebooks of research notes, negatives of illustrations used in the hook, transcriptions of song lyrics, and information concerning copyright registrations and renewals. Also included are taped interviews about Ma Rainey with musicians Clyde Bernhardt, Thomas Dorsey, Sam Chatmon, and Sunnyland Slim.

Almost 3,000 blues and blues-related 45-rpm discs obtained from Living Blues co-founders Jim O'Neal and Amy van Singel.

Over 3,000 blues and blues-related 78-rpm discs obtained from Living Blues co-founders Jim O'Neal and Amy van Singel.

The Alan Lomax Recordings documents blues and gospel music recorded by folklorist Alan Lomax between 1945 and 1965. The files were digitized by the Association for Cultural Equity, which deposited digital research copies with the Blues Archive. Folklorist, ethnomusicologist, producer, documentarian, and author Alan Lomax (31 January 1915 – 19 July 2002) was one of America’s most prolific collectors of folk songs. Documenting musical traditions in America, Ireland, the United Kingdom, the Carribean and many other areas, Lomax followed the folksong collecting work of his parents John and Ruby Lomax. Through his radio shows, concert promotions, audio productions, and books, Lomax introduced large audiences to the music of Woody Guthrie, Jelly Roll Morton, Muddy Waters, Leadbelly, and countless others.

Collection of blues, jazz, and country 78 rpm discs from the 1920s through the 1940s.

Collection of 78 rpm audio discs featuring blues, jazz, and popular music from the 1920s through the 1940s.

Over 200 blues 78s collected by William Morris.

Over 50 blues 78s collected by Chris Neuhoff.

Print and audio interviews by music journalist and editor Jas Obrecht with various Blues musicians.

Popular music 78-rpm discs donated by Ann Rayburn.

Open reel audio tape recordings of Sid Selvidge and commercial 78rpm recordings from Selvidge’s collection.

Collection of audio cassettes and research files on blues harmonica created and compiled by Bob Shatkin, a harmonica player, teacher, and researcher from New York.

The DJ "Prince" Charles Smith collection consists of 864 vinyl dance records that provided the soundtrack for queer life in North Mississippi during the last two decades of the 20th century.

Audio reels of performances mostly by faculty and students in the University Of Mississippi Department Of Music primarily in the 1960s and 1970s.

Blues LPs donated by Sam Virden.

This digital collection contains digitized versions of fifty-two audio cassettes of mostly shape note singing in north Mississippi, north Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky recorded by John Quincy Wolf Jr. in the 1960s. John Quincy Wolf, Jr. was an English professor at Southwestern at Memphis (now Rhodes College) and a self-trained folklorist. He began recording regional folk musicians in the 1950s and discovered several important singers, including Jimmy Driftwood. He also recorded a number of Memphis area blues and jug band musicians like Bukka White, Gus Cannon, and Furry Lewis. In the 1960s Wolf recorded many shape-note singers in north Mississippi and Alabama.