Joe Bussard
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Joseph Edward Bussard Jr. (July 11, 1936 – September 26, 2022) was an American collector of 78-rpm records. He was noted for owning more than 15,000 records, primarily from the 1920s and 1930s, at the time of his death.


Early life

Bussard was born in
Frederick, Maryland Frederick is a city in, and the county seat of, Frederick County, Maryland, United States. Frederick's population was 78,171 people as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Maryland, second-largest ...
, on July 11, 1936. His father managed the family's farm supply business, and his mother, Viola (Culler), was a housewife. Bussard began
collecting The hobby of collecting includes seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining items that are of interest to an individual ''collector''. Collections differ in a wide variety of respects, most obvi ...
when he was seven or eight, starting with
Gene Autry Orvon Grover "Gene" Autry (September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998), nicknamed the Singing Cowboy, was an American actor, musician, singer, composer, rodeo performer, and baseball team owner, who largely gained fame by singing in a Crooner ...
records. During his teenage years, he and his cousin collected everything from rare coins to beehives to birds' nests. He attended Frederick High School, but left in eleventh grade without graduating. He initially worked at his family's business and in a supermarket, but he was unemployed from the late 1950s onwards.


Career

Over his lifetime, Bussard amassed a collection of between 15,000 and 25,000 records, primarily of American folk, gospel, jazz, and blues from the 1920s and 1930s. From 1956 until 1970, Bussard ran the last 78 rpm record label, Fonotone, which was dedicated to the release of new recordings of old-time music. Among these were recordings by hundreds of performers, including the first recordings by the guitarist John Fahey. A five-CD anthology of Fonotone releases was issued in 2005 by
Dust-to-Digital Dust-to-Digital started as a record company that specialized in documenting the history of American popular music, including historical recordings of blues, gospel, and country music. They've since expanded their catalogue to include a breadth ...
. It was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package in 2006. Bussard was the subject of a documentary film, ''Desperate Man Blues'' (2003), and his collection was mined for a compilation CD, ''Down in the Basement''. He also authored his own entry in ''The Encyclopedia of Collectibles'', which was published in 1978. He shared his collection, which included many only-known-copies of records, best-known copies, and numerous reissue labels, as well as work with individuals for whom he taped recordings from his collection for a nominal sum for decades. His daughter reckoned that a minimum of 150 individuals visited their home annually to hear him play songs and recount how he obtained his records. Bussard produced a weekly music program, ''Country Classics'', for Georgia Tech's radio station, WREK Atlanta. He had radio programs on other stations: including WPAQ-AM 740 in Mount Airy, North Carolina, and WDVX in Knoxville, Tennessee. He disliked the city of
Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...
, sometimes called "Music City", calling it "Trashville". His dislike for modern music, especially hip hop and rock and roll, was well documented. In a 2022 interview, Bussard cited the recording, "
Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground"Because documentation is scarce in early recordings, the title of the song appears differently in many sources. It is often called "Dark Was the Night" or punctuated as "Dark Was the Night (Cold Was the Gr ...
" by
Blind Willie Johnson Willie Johnson (January 25, 1897 – September 18, 1945), commonly known as Blind Willie Johnson, was an American gospel blues singer and guitarist. His landmark recordings completed between 1927 and 1930, thirty songs in all, display a combinat ...
, as one of the greatest recordings of all time. He visited a flea market in
Emmitsburg, Maryland Emmitsburg is a town in Frederick County, Maryland, United States, south of the Mason-Dixon line separating Maryland from Pennsylvania. Founded in 1785, Emmitsburg is the home of Mount St. Mary's University. The town has two Catholic pilgrim ...
a month before his death to look for more 78s, but left empty-handed.


Personal life

Bussard married Esther Mae Keith in 1965."Miss Esther Keith Weds Joseph E. Bussard Jr. ", ''The News, Frederick, Maryland'', June 18, 1965, p.14
/ref> She worked as a hairdresser and cosmetologist to support her family. They remained married for 34 years until her death in 1999. Together, they had a daughter. Bussard died on September 26, 2022, at his home in Frederick while in hospice care. He was 86, and was diagnosed with
pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of ...
two years prior to his death.


Notes


References

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External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bussard, Joe 1936 births 2022 deaths American folk-song collectors Deaths from pancreatic cancer in Maryland People from Frederick, Maryland Record collectors