Desperate Man Blues - BBC4

[The Grand Wazoo]

I don't know if anyone saw this on Friday night - it was part of the American Folk music series.

A programme about a US record collector - Joe Bussard. Brilliant programme sadly it's not available on the iPlayer

From the BBC4 website - Joe Bussard is a cultural scavenger, musician, broadcaster and a pioneer in the preservation of 78rpm records and the roots music produced in pure and undiluted form in the 1920s and 30s.

Bussard has rescued priceless shellac artefacts from attics and basements across the US for more than 50 years, amassing a vast collection of more than 25,000 rare discs. At 65, Bussard has the enthusiasm and energy of a 16-year-old and will happily spin 75-year-old records all day for anyone who will listen, all the while giving a running commentary on the music and performer, reliving the day it was made and relating his tales of how he came to rescue the records.

He spent days on end in the 50's travelling down back roads knocking on doors & paying peanuts for stuff that was junk to the owners & is now priceless. One example of him stumbling across a priceless relic happened when they were filming the programme. But the film crew had got bored & went for coffee or something. He was at an auction to clear a house & there was a box of 78's which he bought for $5. In the box was a mint disc of which only 2 other copies are known to survive - both knackered!!!

He owns his priceless collection to play them, rather than to look at them.
Great programme.

[Beechwoods]

Wish I'd caught it. It sounds a fantastic programme. It will be repeated. I'll have to set my machine to look for it coming on next...

It reminds me of a story I read about a shop in the US that shut down in the late sixties. The place was mothballed, and only opened again 30 or 40 years later...

http://www.austinrecords.com/?gallery/index.htm