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Various Artists - Victrola Favorites: Artifacts From Bygone Days (1950)

Track listing:
Volume 1
  1. Bololo O Kolilo Groupo De Totoko Francois 2:51
  2. The Crow Flies Back To The Forest Guangzhou Cantonese Opera Troupe 2:55
  3. Mes Tis Polis Ta Stena Stella Haskil 3:11
  4. Balada Do Encantamento Dr. Edmundo Bettencourt 2:54
  5. Shenai Bismillah Khan And Party 3:10
  6. The Basement Blues Noble Sissle And His Orchestra 3:12
  7. Step It Up And Go Blind Boy Fuller 2:51
  8. Shin Shin Tankoubushi Yukie Kubo 3:13
  9. O! Molly Dear Go Ask Your Mother Kelly Harrell 2:46
  10. Big Idiot Buys A Pig He Zemin Huang Peiying 3:07
  11. Laughing Rag Roy Smeck 3:00
  12. Wipe Em Off Seven Gallon Jug Band 2:36
  13. Raks Baladi Hag Ibrahim Mozmar Caire Orchestra 2:53
  14. Tora To Vrady Vrady Yiorgos Papasideris Yiorgos Anestopoulos 3:15
  15. Fireworks Music Zapotec-Teotitlan Indians 1:10
  16. The Cowboy's Dizzy Sweetheart Goebel Reeves 2:49
  17. Watching The Knife And Fork Spoon Don Redman And His Orchestra 2:53
  18. Courting The Woman From Chiang Mai Sri Ma Keow Chai Wat 3:06
  19. Badia's Dance Badia Massabni And Her Orchestra 2:46
  20. The Preacher Got Drunk And Laid Down His Bible The Tennessee Ramblers 2:46
  21. Karciar Taksim Zeki Duygulu 2:55
  22. Daegeum Solo Kim Seong-Jin 3:15
Volume 2
  1. Impressions Of London Stanley Roper 0:53
  2. The Crucifixion Of Christ Jessie May Hill 2:52
  3. Torre De Belem Carlos Ramos 2:54
  4. The Farmer's Dream Frank Ferera 3:04
  5. Shiokumi Kasatsukashi Kachikuri Mimasuya 1:48
  6. Mahawin Maita Zad Po Sein Maung Sein Maita 3:04
  7. Shan Village St. Gun Khin May 3:22
  8. Mahour Gazel-Adjir Idin Beni Haffouz Jachar Bey 3:28
  9. Little Mo-Hee The Hall Brothers 3:07
  10. Two Liquorice Drops In Jail Cook And Flemming 0:06
  11. Cockeyed Jenny Barton Brothers 1:35
  12. Darktown Court Room Shelton Brooks And Co. 0:07
  13. Story Of Tang On Sa Ma Nang Noi Ut Sa Win 3:03
  14. Memphis Kick Up Slim Lamar's Orchestra 2:52
  15. My Wireless Set John Henry And Blossom 0:10
  16. Yield Not To Temptation Ernest Thompson 3:07
  17. Chanting The Ten Vows Chinese Buddhist Nuns 2:56
  18. Mokihana Kane's Hawaiians 2:44
  19. The Grass Widow Maria Smyrnea 3:28
  20. Persian Popular Song 3:34
  21. Willie Willie Don't Go From Me Harold Boyce And The Harlem Indians 2:20
  22. The Insect Powder Agent Golden And Marlowe 0:39
  23. The Thingamajig Johnnie Lee Wills And His Boys 2:08
  24. Yasukibushi Komachiyo Okada 2:44
  25. Hamba Na Lo Isoko La Yo Mameyigudi And His Dancers 3:06
  26. Tabla-Taranga Vishnudass Shirali 4:14

Notes

The Dust-to-Digital label has compiled several exquisitely packaged anthologies of rare early- to mid-20th century roots and ethnic music, the two-CD Victrola Favorites being no exception. What exactly the theme of this compilation is, however, is a little hard to ascertain, other than having been drawn from the collections of Robert Millis and Jeffery Taylor. The 48 songs could hardly be more geographically and stylistically widespread, ranging from early American jazz, blues, and folk to indigenous and ritual music from China, India, Turkey, Korea, Japan, Egypt, and the Republic of Congo. There's chanting from Chinese Buddhist nuns, spoken word, oud and bamboo flute solos, West Indian jazz-calypso, a Thai costume drama, and even an "actual recording of Big Ben and traffic noises" from London. Though the images of Victrolas and ancient recording labels and ads in the liner notes might prep you for tracks originating from the 1920s and 1930s, actually the chronological span it covers is wider than that, running from about 1910 to the early '50s (with some of the dates being estimated). There are occasional cuts of U.S. origin that are clearly ancestors of strains of American pop, and even one fairly well-known performer, Blind Boy Fuller, whose rhythmic 1938 blues "Step It Up and Go" isn't far removed from R&B and rock & roll. But these are considerably outnumbered by less conventionally accessible world music recordings. So you'll need to have wide tastes to get the most out of this, though that's something that can be said of several other Dust-to-Digital releases. If you are an adventurous listener with a general liking for world music and vintage folk/ethnic sounds, it's a thoughtfully assembled banquet of material that provides windows into cultures now vanished or nearly vanished, or at least rarely exposed to most 21st century Western listeners. The handsome book within which the CDs are packaged is actually rather light on traditional liner notes, but the vintage illustrations of record-related memorabilia will entertain many collectors of this sort of music.