Is this for Lou Curtis and the San Diego Folk Arts festivals? I attended many of those. I grew up in San Diego, and since my mother continues to live there I went to most after I moved away until I left for Memphis. Are you sure there was no agreement about recordings? Unless they were under exclusive contract (a rarity for folk and older performers) the artists were free to record. You can get them to agree after the fact for the recordings to be issued. If the performer is no longer alive then you may need to deal with their heirs, who are often more problematic than dealing with performers. I assume that there are also photographs to go with the recordings. Since Virigina Curtis took many. I may even have some photos myself, although I don't generally like stage photos. I know I have a couple of Sam Chapman in San Diego doing a workshop. --- Karl Miller <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > On Wed, 5 Oct 2005, Russ Hamm wrote: > > > I am working with a small group here in San Diego > to digitize and make > > accessible a large tape collection of American > folk music recorded at folk > > festivals and coffee houses in the 1960s and 70s. > The tapes are owned by > > the gentleman who organized the festivals and > performances, and there is no > > formal copyright on any of the material. Our > expectation is that most, if > > not all of the performers will be happy to see > their work of 30 or 40 years > > ago come to light for public enjoyment and > scholarly research. We shall see > > whether any 'cease and desist' orders result. > > Who were some of the performers? > > Karl > Dr. Cheryl Thurber email: [log in to unmask] 410-747-5557