"Wisconsin Discography" - Discography Sources

"FolkLib Index: Wisconsin Discography"
- Discography Sources
(Recordings by Wisconsin resident musicians 1948-2005)

Table of Contents
This a working draft of the "Discography Sources" chapter in my forthcoming book, (ca. 2028), FolkLib Index: Wisconsin Discography.

[Note: when the book is published, the links in the text below will appear as text at the bottom of the page.]

Most of the discographic information in this book comes from my personal collection of over 2,000 Wisconsin recordings. In other cases, recordings were Inter-Library Loaned (ILL) from numerous Wisconsin libraries using the on-line WISCAT database (see the link below).

I started creating the Web site in January 1995 and it went public on 11-25-1995. The site was named "FolkBook Index" until March 1998, when it was renamed "FolkLib Index: A Library of Folk Music Links". It was installed on its current domain in July 2000. Before I started the Web site, in the period 1991-94, when I created over 60 on-line discographies for various Wisconsin and national artists and labels listed at "henkle.shtml" (see the link below), many recordings were obtained via ILL. The information for every entry in one of my on-line discographies that has a letter in braces "{}" by the catalog number, came from physical examination of an actual recording, its label and liner notes. "{A}" indicates my own collection. The key to all the other "{}" unique "owner codes" assigned for each library source is listed at the "library.shtml" link below. These "owner codes" will not appear in the published book, only on the Web site. Be advised that LPs obtained via ILL in the 1991-94 period are more than likely no longer there. As was the case for the Oshkosh and Appleton Public Libraries, except for those specifically saved for their "local" History sections, all LP's have been sold or discarded to free up room for CDs and DVDs. No attempt has been made to verify (via WISCAT) that the publically held recordings I viewed and documented are still at the location from which they were borrowed.

Including all these "owner codes" was considered for this book, but it was concluded that they would be useful only to the most diligent researcher who can easily follow up on my sources by accessing the Web site. The Web site discographies include more information about each recording than was deemed appropriate for this book: links to label Web sites as well as other details mentioned in the liner notes, such as recording dates, recording studio names and locations, the names of the technicians who recorded, engineered, mixed and/or mastered each recording, and in some cases, complete track lists. Except in rare cases, record producers are not documented in my discographies, generally because most of them are not recording artists. Additional information and links for every Wisconsin artist listed in Chapter 1 of this book is listed on one of the following pages (see the links below), "wisconsin.shtml", "wi_bg_members.shtml" or "wis_session.shtml".

The Web site and its Wisconsin and other discographic information will continue to be maintained for the foreseeable future. As I will be 65 in late 2006, it is very unlikely there will ever be a second edition to this book. All post-publication updates I find and those graciously submitted by the reader will be used to update the artist and group discographies on the Web site. I am in the process of finding some way that at least the informational parts of the Web site, individual discographies, Wisconsin Discographies, Book Bibliographies, Periodical Bibliographies, lists of musician's birthdays and Wisconsin Bluegrass Band database will remain on-line at its current domain after my death. As an August 2002 retiree from the computer department at UW Oshkosh, who will be 65 in 2006, long-term preservation of the Web site and its various resources is a priority pre-publication task for this author.

Another source of titles and catalog numbers for recordings I have never seen in person was the periodicals variously called, "Schwann", "Schwann Spectrum", "Schwann Opus", "inSide" and "inMusic". I am a past subscriber of all except "Opus". Many libraries also subscribed to this "Books in Print" equivalent for the recording industry. Unfortunately, with the company being recently sold to Alliance Entertainment Group, the future of these extremely useful discographical resources is in doubt.

Other major sources:
The Wisconsin Music Archives in the Charles H. Mills Music Library at UW-Madison
The Jean Cuje Milwaukee Music Collection in the Marquette University Memorial Library

URL: http://www.folklib.net/book/wi_book12.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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