A Treasury of Library of Congress Field Recordings (review)

A Treasury of Library of Congress Field Recordings Rounder, 1997 cd 1 500, $1 5 Stephen Wade compiled this sampler to celebrate the riches in the Library of Congress Folk Archive. While all thirty recordings were previously released on various Library of Congress albums, Wade has stitched them together into a coherent whole by choosing what he believes are particularly remarkable performances . The selections date from 1933 to 1946, and they display the wide range of material the Folk Archive has collected since its founding in 1928. In the liner notes, Wade provides the history of each recording and information about the performers, a few ofwhom he found and interviewed. The cd samples a multitude of styles ranging from a Native American flute to an African American jump-rope song and virtually everything in between. For those reluctant to invest large sums in the multivolume sets of Alan Lomax recordings now coming out, this cd would be a fine place to put your money. Reviews 113 ...