Ten years. I think now that we’ve reached ten years of Excavated Shellac, why not experiment with a new look, instead of something that reeks of 2007. I’d like to say something, but I won’t wax rhapsodic, or take some fond look back. I feel guilty enough for the slow posts. Plus, I think I’ve already done enough of that periodically, and really, the most important thing is that it keeps going.
Excavated Shellac speaks for itself. As a 78-related site, it was more or less the first of its kind: focusing solely on global vernacular and traditional music.
There are well over 220 individual transfers to listen to, download, and read about.
Most of the discs here have never been publicly issued before, though a number have since been extensively bootlegged.
The writing is book-length. It’s protected only by a Creative Commons license.
It is not written for collectors, though collectors sometimes read it.
Each chapter is meant to be an entry point for anyone.
The information is often collated here for the first time, drawn from various sources, many of which are unpublished. Plenty of new information on these discs is found here.
It is not representative of my collection, and is only a snapshot.
It is also meant to be an expansion on others’ influential works.
There are no ads on the site, something that I deliberately pay for.
We have no t-shirts.
There are no Kickstarters, and no GoFundMes – only an occasional recommendation.
The site has been quoted as a reference, used as a source in books, and honestly has allowed me to produce individual, hard-copy releases.
I think you know what I’m getting at – Excavated Shellac is meant as an alternative to the disproportionate amount of worldwide scholarship, reverence, and proselytism surrounding early recordings of jazz, blues, country, Western classical and popular music. Not because that music isn’t amazing – it often is. But, the world’s recorded music is absurdly bigger than those stories, fascinating as they are. Each country on earth had its own Robert Johnson or Charley Patton – some might have had two dozen of them. Companies in Europe were recording tanbur-playing Uzbeks almost 20 years before the United States had the notion to record a country record. How would you know otherwise unless you did some exploring? You could say that’s a “political” stance, and that would be pretentious. But it wouldn’t be wrong.
So, thank you for continuing to stop by. I’ve made many friends through this endeavor. I’ll breeze into year 11 with something I love – South African concertina music. This disc was recorded ca. 1954, during what I would consider the golden age of Sub-Saharan African 78 recording, roughly from 1947-1965. I’ve mentioned this before, but prior to World War II, recording in Sub-Saharan Africa was a bit erratic, mostly in fits and starts, not getting started until the late 20s, and interrupted by the Depression. But after World War II, all hell broke loose. Well over 100 individual labels were active in Sub-Saharan Africa recording all manner of artists, and the quality as well as the variety of talent that appeared was just incredible. People have sometimes asked me if there’s an African 78 discography. Er, not yet. We’re talking something like 25,000 78s in West Africa alone, never mind Congo, East Africa, and Southern Africa, all preposterously rife with popular indy labels and cheap shellac.
The concertina in South Africa has always been associated historically with itinerant miners, or itinerant entertainers, as they traveled from town to town. There are more traditional concertina performances, like this one, but the instrument is also used in more “modern” sounding music, too. Several scholars have called it “transport music,” meaning the instrument was supposed to help you as you walked long distances. Even the rhythm feels like walking….marching forward…
Mbuyiseni Mtshali’s Concertina – Dumazile
Label: HMV
Issue Number: JP 549
Matrix Number: 0AS.1262
Excavated Shellac 