I haven't posted a record

I haven't posted a record review in a while. Here is a capsule one that ran last week in the ANG papers. Unfortunately I have limited space to discuss a recording in a capsule review, but you will do yourself a good service if you rush out and buy this record:

Various Artists
Down in the Basement
Old Hat Records
**** (four stars)

Subtitled "Joe Bussard’s Treasure Trove of Vintage 78s 1926 – 1937," this disc, with its accompanying 72 page booklet is as much a look at outstanding American roots music as it is a portrait of "the King of Record Collectors." Bussard is one of the great 78-rpm record collecting fanatics, and the booklet is full of stories of his collecting. No stodgy academic, Bussard collects music he loves, music that is as exciting and moving today as it was when it was recorded. The transfers have some surface noise, but not enough to really interfere with the music. The 24 tracks on this disc are the best of the best and feature everything from early jazz to a 1931 cut of Gene Autry yodeling a blues, a la Jimmie Rodgers.