My guest this week is Scott Billington.
Scott is a Grammy winning record producer, an author, a record company exec and a musician. But what we're chatting about in this episode is a fascinating story about a pivotal string band album and it's journey to being reissued with extra tracks that went missing for decades.
The record in question is Boone Creek's debut album Boone Creek, from the band Jerry Douglas and Ricky Skaggs formed after they left J.D. Crowe and the New South.
Scott talks about how the album was recorded and how, at the time, Rounder felt it was too progressive, and asked the band to go back into the studio and record some additional tracks. After the album was released, the original tapes went missing and Rounder were keen not to reissue it on CD or streaming services until they'd been found. As a result, the record disappeared from circulation for years.
We talk about how the tapes were finally unearthed, what state they were in, the process used to retrieve what was on them and how Boone Creek was finally reissued by Craft Recordings.
We also chat about Scott's long career with Rounder Records and his current role with Craft Recordings, working on several key projects, including the Doc Watson A Life's Work box set.
This was a fascinating conversation about a fascinating project, as well as Scott's long association with outstanding American roots music.
Next week's episode will feature an interview with Jerry Douglas about Boone Creek, his memories of that band and what it was like hearing the reissued tracks everyone thought had been lost for good.
You can buy Boone Creek from Craft Recordings on vinyl, CD or digital download
Follow Craft on Instagram or Facebook to keep up to date with new reissues of classic roots music.
For more info on Scott, including links to buy his book Making Tracks: A Record Producer’s Southern Roots Music Journey, check out http://www.scottbillington.com
Matt
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Thanks to Bryan Sutton for his wonderful theme tune to Bluegrass Jam Along (and to Justin Moses for playing the fiddle!)
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