In the late 1950s and 60s, Americans intrigued by their vernacular music began to venture into the places where it was typically made, taking tape recorders with them. For some this was purely a private quest, while others secured tiny budgets from folk music record companies to tape their discoveries at length. Out of this ferment of field recording emerged artists such as the bluesmen Fred McDowell and Robert Pete Williams, and the old-time singer, banjo and guitar player Roscoe Holcomb, as well as “rediscovered” figures from the record catalogues of the 20s including Dock Boggs, Clarence Ashley and Furry Lewis.
Among the rambling recorders who retrieved these musicians from obscurity and enabled them to reach a new audience were John Cohen, Mike Seeger, Sam Charters, Chris Strachwitz, George Mitchell, David Evans and – perhaps the most variously talented of all of them – the song collector, musician, writer, painter and teacher Art Rosenbaum.
