The oven didn't work

Comic artist, musician, and record collector Robert Crumb has sometimes been obliged to try getting a warped 78 rpm record back to flatness by heating it in the oven. Recently this technique was unsuccessful, and as a result he is eager to obtain a clean copy of a classic old-time 78 - Doc Hopkins playing 'Old Joe Clark'/ '21 years' (Paramount 577). To help, contact Alex Wood by telephone (+1.608.251.6969) or e-mail. Thanks to Tim Hawkins for drawing our attention to this blog entry.

From Tim we also learned that Strings magazine publishes Fiddle traditions, a solid compilation of text and music (standard notation) on tunes and techniques in several genres of fiddling - especially useful for the old-time and bluegrass fiddler at $12.95.

The current issue of Strings features Mark O'Connor, who is introducing his new American violin method; see also this post on the original Bluegrass Blog.