Joe Bussard: The King of Record Collectors

Joe Bussard, an obsessive collector of old and rare records, including jazz, blues, country, and gospel, passed away on 26 September, 2022. He had been battling pancreatic cancer for almost three years. He was 86.

Joseph Edward Bussard Jr was born on 11 July, 1936 in Frederick. Joe was just 7 or 8 when he began collecting records by Gene Autry, the “Singing Cowboy”. After a few years, he heard country singer Jimmie Rodgers and was starstruck. He began searching for all of Rodgers’ records.

Bussard started hosting a local radio show from his parents’ basement when he was just a teenager. After getting his driver’s license, Bussard’s search for old records expanded and became an obsession. He loved the 78s, made of hard resin, preceding the vinyl format.

Through his collection, Bussard developed one of the biggest collections of music that might have been lost forever. He has more than 25,000 records in his collection, with a focus on old music recorded before World War II.
On a visit to Joe Bussard’s legendary basement earlier this year I made this short video of him playing what he considered one of the greatest recordings of all time, Blind Willie Johnson’s “Dark was the night, Cold was the ground.” RIP Joe pic.twitter.com/Gs1CNqzdGw
— Joe Heim (@JoeHeim) September 27, 2022
In 1956, Bussard founded the Fonotone Records label. The label issued new recordings by artists creating old-time music. Bussard often recorded the music himself. The label ended operations in 1969.
In 2003, director Edward Gillan made a documentary on Bussard: “Desperate Man Blues: Discovering the Roots of American Music”. A collection containing 131 of Bussard’s 78s was released in 2005 and nominated for a Grammy Award for best boxed or special limited-edition package.
Also read: The Strange Story Of Soviet X-Ray Records
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