You should know the background. Moses Asch (1905-1986) founded Folkways, which ultimately developed the largest catalog of records in the American record industry. From Wikipedia: "One principle behind Asch's direction of the Folkways label was that he never deleted a single title from the Folkways catalogue. After his death, the Folkways recordings were acquired by the Smithsonian Institution, and Asch stipulated in his will that no titles were to be deleted, and that unreleased master tapes in the Folkways archive should be explored" In the transfer to the Smithsonian, all of the vinyl LPs in the Folkways warehouse were remaindered and not offered to the Smithsonian. They could be purchased, especially in NYC's Tower Records, which had an entire floor of just Folkways for very low prices (typically $1.99). The vinyl LPs did NOT go to the Smithsonian. The Smithsoniam agreement allowed that anyone could order any title of that enormous catalog, though instead of pressing an acetate or vinyl, the Smithsonian offered it on cassette, and then later on CDR. An immense catalog, permanently in print. At the same time, the Smithsonian created a series of REAL CDs of the most historically important recordings in the Folkways catalog: especially Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and Leadbelly, but many, many others as well. There are numerous real CDs issued on Smithsonian-Folkways., by many artists. The Pete Seeger box will most definitely be real CD. The bulk of the Folkways catalog was from field or remote studio recordings of amateur musicians from many cultures. It is amazing enough that they are technically in print, albeit on CDR. Most similar material is long out of print. I hope people understand this and do not discourage possible sales by such rumors.
Amazon USA has a copy of the new Lefty Box for $152. You can take your chances and return if it is defective. But I would bet there is a better than 50-50 chance that it is as new.
As a happy & proud owner of both the Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly sets that the Seeger set is designed to match, I can assure that they are all real CD’s. Great sets also. Looking forward to the Pete Seeger set.
If you see the Leadbelly video you will see CDrs in the beginning of the video and at the end real CDs.
I said no such thing. You must have misunderstood. These box sets are silver pressed discs. The majority of their discs are CDRs.
I got Texas Moon a few days ago, and I have to say I prefer Beneath A Neon Star. Still good music, and nowhere near as bad as the reviewers have said it is.
If you're interested in the Pete Seeger box you must have Bear Family's "Songs For Political Action" Various - History Box set: Songs For Political Action (10-CD) - Bear Family Records . One of the best collections of New Deal to McCarthy era folk collections ever issued, with a great 200+ page hardcover Bear Family book.
Yeap, in a world that is now storing music 'clouds' aka hard drives. I know from trying to preserve with backups on hard drives, can still be fatal. Being a music guy, i try to make sure i've always had a backup BACKUP. When you lose one and check your backup and that has also failed or inconsistent!! Got an older 3rd copy from many years back, but I've lost of lot. Going through it now.
I'm trying to back up my own personal memories before I forget the name of that girl I fell in love with at a 6th grade beach party. But I don't want to leave a written record. Maybe I should write a novel and people will assume it is all fiction.
More information here:How Can I Keep From Singing: Pete Seeger’s Centennial Celebrated With “The Smithsonian Collection,” 6-CD Box Including Previously Unreleased Music - The Second Disc
