The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Does anyone know how scarce and how expensive records are by Blind Willie McTell?, he is my favorite blues musician, and probably the best 12 string guitarist to have existed so i'd love to find some of his 78s.

Hundreds and even thousands of dollars apiece, barring an (unlikely) lucky find somewhere.

This here was 1600.00 from Popsike.http://www.popsike.com/Blind-Willie-McT ... 16763.html

Wolfe wrote:Hundreds and even thousands of dollars apiece, barring an (unlikely) lucky find somewhere.

This here was 1600.00 from Popsike.http://www.popsike.com/Blind-Willie-McT ... 16763.html

well I was kind of expecting that really, I guess you get what you pay for, and Willie is damn good!:D

I wish someone had the capability's to re-press modern, cheaper, shellac copies of these records, all the people like Blind Willie McTell, Blind Blake etc, are so good but there records so expensive, desirable and rare, it would seem like a good idea.
I guess for now I will focus on playing the music, rather than collecting it .

They could be repressed ala the Historic Masters repressings of operatic 78's. It's not a huge deal to repress a 78. Trouble is the metal masters and pressing parts for records such as McTell's are probably long gone.

There are many fine CD anthologies of the original 78's such as those on Yazoo.

These records weren't terribly big sellers in their day, so there weren't a ton of them pressed and of course 80+ years later, few have survived intact. I've heard tales of people finding these and other high demand blues artists for next to nothing during the 1960s and 1970s. I've had the good fortune of finding a few blues records of this era cheap, but it's rare.

Records from guys like Blind Willie, Tommy Johnson, Robert Johnson, etc., aren't cheap. They start at a few hundred for rough examples and go up (often WAY up) as condition improves.

As has gotten a lot of press attention of late, a huge Paramount collection has recently been issued in a snazzy presentation box, with 800 remastered releases. It has been lovingly review in the New York Times, Time magazine, etc. It is not cheap though, at $400.

http://thirdmanstore.com/featured/the-r ... 2-volume-1

You can find some much smaller CD collection on Amazon for not much.

As has been mentioned, some of the original Paramount 78s in decent condition go through the roof in price. For example http://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwmusic/a ... yhAwk1OXb0.

Clay