Art Rosenbaum’s Art of Field Recording

Image Gallery image by Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia

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If you were strolling through an unfamiliar neighborhood and heard someone playing an old-fashioned song on a porch—maybe sawing on a fiddle or plunking out the blues on a guitar—would you pause for a while and listen? If so, you’ll take a shine to the 217 tracks that make up Art of Field Recording, a pair of four-disc box sets that capture this kind of off-the-cuff performance up close and personal.

 If you’d walk right up to that porch, chat with the musician for a couple of hours, and then whip out a recorder and ask if you could document their music, well, you’re a lot like Art Rosenbaum, the guy who put together Art of Field Recording.

Even if you’re not either of those types, you still might find yourself drawn in by Rosenbaum’s work. He says the collections have been attracting fans who don’t usually listen to this kind of raw, unadorned music.

 “There are people who say ‘This is really cool stuff’ who have not previously focused on this type of music or sound,” he says. “And that’s very gratifying.”

It’s a good guess that one reason Rosenbaum has managed to reach beyond an audience of grizzled folkies is the volumes’ beautiful packaging, featuring extensive notes about the musicians and songs; vibrant paintings of the musicians by Rosenbaum, an accomplished visual artist; and gripping black-and-white photographs of them by his wife, Margo Newmark Rosenbaum. Unlike some archival music releases, which can feel like a lesson, Art of Field Recording is more like a visit to the musicians’ homes.

You’ll hear the Eller family of Georgia sweetly harmonize on “Going to Georgia”; Kentucky banjo player Buell Kazee play and sing the Elizabethan-era British ballad “Barbara Allen”; and New Hampshire’s Riendeau brothers peel off the sprightly “Fred Rogers’ Reel” on fiddle and guitar. A few tracks even include snippets of banter and song introductions.

“It seemed totally natural to include a little bit of the conversation, with my sometimes naive or kind of dumb questions, and get some interesting answers,” Rosenbaum explains. “And it also effectively sets up the situation for listeners that they’re in a home or a back-porch environment rather than the studio environment.”

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