"FolkLib Index: Wisconsin Discography"
    - Book Selection Criteria
      (Recordings by Wisconsin resident musicians 1948-2005)

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      This is a working draft of the "Book Selection Criteria" chapter in my forthcoming book, (ca. 2028), FolkLib Index: Wisconsin Discography. Each artist/group will be listed alphabetically, plus they will be listed in the book's Name Index - by city chapter.

Selection Criteria:
      To be included in the book, each recording artist/group should qualify under one or more of the following criteria. These are not hard and fast rules, so they may be fudged a bit here and there if I feel it is appropriate in a special case.
      Formats listed: LP, Cassette (CS), CD, VHS, DVD, EP, 8 track (Release Dates: 1948 - 12-31-2005)
      Formats not listed - Individuals - Groups
      Musical Genres to be included
      Musical Genres which will NOT be included

Individuals:

  1. Born in Wisconsin.
  2. Was a full-time resident at one time. Although there may be an exception from time to time, generally, an artist must have lived in Wisconsin continuously for at least 30 days, at least once in their life.
  3. Attended at least one full semester of a Wisconsin college, university or technical school and lived on campus or in off-campus housing, and did not just commute daily from another state.
  4. Lived in Wisconsin during the summer while working at a music related place like the American Folklore Theatre in Fish Creek, even if they lived out of state the rest of the year. Out of state resident recording artists who only stayed here and taught at the UW-Milwaukee Folk Center's Stringalong Weekends, in most cases, have not resided here long enough to qualify as Wisconsin residents, at least as far as the criteria for being included in the book is concerned.
  5. Recording artists/groups who have never lived in Wisconsin, but who have current or former Wisconsin resident musicians on one or more of their albums. Only the albums with Wisconsin musicians will be listed for these artists/groups.

Groups:

  1. Based in a Wisconsin city at one time in their existence.
  2. Out of state bands will be included if they at one time or another had a Wisconsin resident member who commuted out of state to play with them regularly, AND, who appeared on at least one of their recordings.
  3. Bluegrass bands which were based out of state, but which had a band web page on either the MABMA or the SWBMAI Web sites at one time, even if none of their members ever lived in Wisconsin.
        12-31-2005 Criteria modification: To be listed in the book, a non-Wisconsin MABMA or SWBMAI member band must either, 1) have at least one regular member who has lived in Wisconsin, or 2) have at least one recording which includes one or more musicians who have lived in Wisconsin. Band members who have never lived in Wisconsin will not be mentioned in the book.
          Milwaukee Area Bluegrass Music Association (MABMA)
          Southern Wisconsin Bluegrass Music Association, Inc. (SWBMAI)
Individuals and groups that will not be listed:
  1. Non-Performers: Songwriters who have never recorded anything, composers, choir, band or orchestra directors/conductors, and recording studio technicians who have never appeared on any physical recording as a performing musician, either as a singer or as an instrumentalist. If a recorded artist is also a studio technician, their known studio work (e.g. "recorded, mixed and mastered by") may be listed on the Web site, but not in the book. (See the MP3, etc. exclusion criteria below)
  2. Producers, liner notes authors, photographers and any other non-performers listed in liner notes, even if they perform on one or more recordings. As above, if a studio technician is also a recorded artist, their studio work will be listed on the Web site, but not in the book.
  3. Wisconsin based bands that perform(ed) regularly, but have never recorded a solo album or had at least one track on a various artists collection. Unless a recording by them can be found, those artists/groups noted with "Discog (no known recordings)" on the Wisconsin Artists page, will not be listed.
Recordings which will not be listed:
  1. Recordings released after 12-31-2005, the book project's end-of-research cutoff date.
  2. Cylinders, 78's and 45's.
  3. MP3 and Real Player files and other similar songs or albums that exist only in electronic form, and have never been officially released for sale as a physical product in identically formatted quantities (100 or more). This is due to the fact that this book will be in printed format for a very long time (I hope). At least in this author's opinion, a discography is a list of physical recordings that fifty or a hundred years from now will be available in a library or other archival storage building, or for purchase somewhere, either new or used, in the same condition and identical format as they are described in the book.
  4. Bootlegs, unless officially authorized by the performing artist, and the sale proceeds of which go mostly, or completely to the artist.
  5. Private recordings: those which can (or could) only be purchased by a certain group or members of an organization, and were never released for sale to the general public.
  6. Finally, although detailed bibliographic discography references will be noted where applicable, except in special cases, no individual recordings that have been already fully documented in another previously published book will be listed in this book.
Musical Genre recordings which will NOT be listed: (Pop/Rock Genres) Why Not?
    Exceptions:
  1. A recording by a Pop/Rock artist/group will be listed if a musician in one of the genres below appears on it.
  2. Recordings by some multiple genre artists will be listed, if the primary genre is from the list below, like Christian Rap and Native American Rock.
  3. (#2a) Recordings will be listed if I know that musicians above have performed at one of the annual genre-specific music festivals like Milwaukee Irish Fest or Indian Summer. Everyone else in that particular genre will have their recordings listed, so they will too.
Musical Genre recordings which WILL be listed: (non-Pop/Rock Genres)

URL: http://www.folklib.net/book/wi_book08.shtml
Please send additions and/or corrections to Doug Henkle: henkle@pobox.com
P.O. Box 331, Ripon, WI 54971-0331

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