Folks,

A question for the brains trust. We have discovered a stash of square
dance records on 33rpm 7" microgroove acetates. They all have two songs
per side, most well known songs turned into square dance calls. The labels
are very simply printed white labels with 'Acetate Recording' at the top
and 'Use Lightweight Pickup' at the bottom and 'Speed...' and 'Needle...'
printed across the middle with room to write or type more information,
which is little more than the original song titles. Some have a visible
gap between the two songs, other don't, just a couple of seconds of silent
groove. The musical accompaniment is pretty simple, just a bajo, organ or
in at least one case, vibes.There is no other information other than the
name(?) Earnshaw written on most of them in a different pen than the title
info.

Might these discs be from a small scale production house who would custom
cut them for square dance clubs or enthusiasts from existing records or
tapes. The voices would seem to be American (rather than Australians doing
it in an American accent) and we are wondering what they might be and
where they might have come from. Square dancing had a few years of fairly
wide popularity in Australia in the mid 50s and of course there are still
numerous square dance clubs around the country, but these days it is a
minority interest.

Thanks

graham

Graham McDonald
Recorded Sound Archivist
National Film and Sound Archive of Australia,
McCoy Circuit, Acton, Canberra ACT 2601
Tel: 02 6248 2192
www.nfsa.gov.au