Description

The North American Traditions group (NAT) was a small set of friends who recorded a large amount of traditional music between 1972 and 2008, encompassing significant parts of the Appalachians, the Canadian Maritimes, the Ozarks and the American West. Most of the original recordings were intended for release by Rounder Records. Loosely organized by myself, the other central members of this group were Lou Curtiss, John Harrod, Morgan MacQuarrie, Gordon McCann, and Gus Meade, although many others contributed to specific projects. None of us were employed by Rounder Records but mailed our materials to the company, where the releases were overseen by Bill Nowlin. All in all, about 85 projects were published by the group. When Rounder was sold in 2010, I retained the ownership rights, with the intention of rendering the entire archive publicly accessible (see fieldrecorder.org/nat). Norm Cohen and I then envisioned a large, annotated survey of the collection’s contents, and we were pleased when the Field Recorders’ Collective agreed to publish (and improve upon!) the 15 volumes we had contemplated. This preview CD consists of 30 additional selections, chosen to illustrate the 15 categories into which the survey itself is divided. We hope that modern audiences will enjoy hearing these songs, tunes and stories as they were actually performed, unfiltered through the ears, fingers, and voices of later generations. Doing so strikes us as the best way of remembering the wonderful people who were kind enough to allow us to make these recordings.—Mark Wilson