Elektra ‘Master’ Discography—Album listing

12-inch album with the company credited as Elektra Records, 54 Maryland Avenue, Annapolis, Maryland

The songs are grouped on the sleeve and labels.

The recording was done in the New York studio of Peter Bartók (son of composer Béla) and the Jac supervised the second, satisfactory, mastering at RCA himself.

A note on the sleeve says: New Songs marks the first release of Elektra Records which shall continue to offer disks of unusual and worthy musical fare.

This disc has also been listed (eg in Schwann June 1953) with the title 'Gruen: Poetry set to Music' but that was almost certainly an invention of the catalogue in the absence of real information.

10-inch LP. Credited to the Elektra-Stratford Record Corp at 361 Bleeker Street, New York City. In the sleeve notes to the Rhino compilation CD ("Mountain Hearth and Home" - Rhino Handmade RHM2 7867) Jac Holzman writes that the recordings on this LP had been made by Edward Tatnall Candy over a period of time and that different recordings were at slightly different speeds.

At the time of the Jean Ritchie LP, Jac Holzman was so young that her contract was signed by Jac as 'a minor' represented by his father, Dr Jacob Holzman.

This is where the story really starts after the 'diversion' of EKLP 1. There were a few Jac Holzman 78s of folk music including sides by Jean Ritchie ("Old Virginny" c/w Jubillee" with number JH 502), Frank Warner ("Battle of Bull Run"/"Unreconstructed Rebel" c/w "Got the Whole World in His Hand"/"Hold My Hand Lord Jesus" starting the series with number JH 501 and "Gilgarry Mountain" c/w "Blue Mountain Lake" with number JH 503) and Glenn Yarbrough ("Follow the Drinking Gourd" c/w "The Reapers Ghost" with catalogue number ST-3 and matrix number JH 506 A/B) . Incidentally it was spelled Yarborough on this last disc. Some of these 78s were badged 'Stratford' (eg the Yarbrough) and some 'New York State Historical Association' (the Ritchie certainly) and I assume that the recordings on the 78s were those used on the relevant LPs, but I don't know for sure until I hear the discs. (Thanks to Joel Bresler and Cary Ginell for the track info.)

This leaves us with a gap in the JH series at 507 and also suggests that the Yarbrough record was released after Elektra started its 10-inch folk series.

10-inch album. Frank was a musicologist and collector and he was responsible for the popularisation of 'Tom Dooley', one of those songs that was eventually done to death during the folk revival.

As mentioned in my note for EKLP 2, some of the songs on this Frank Warner LP were released on 78s: "Battle of Bull Run"/"Unreconstructed Rebel" c/w "Got the Whole World in His Hand"/"Hold My Hand Lord Jesus" on JH 501 and "Gilgarry Mountain" c/w "Blue Mountain Lake" on JH 503. As I don't have copies of the 78s I don't know whether they are the same recordings.

10-inch album. Two cover variations: the earlier with a stark black and white drawing with a black stripe angled down the left-hand side with two stringed guiter-like instruments ... and the latter with a colour wash over a line drawing of a 'minstrel' looking over towards a castle. There was no second volume of this disc and only the label mentions the 'Vol 1'.

10-inch LP with a cover illustration by Teijo Ito. The recordings were made using a wire recorder during ceremonials near Criox-Des-Missions and Pationville in Haiti by Maya Deren. Deren was an avant-garde film maker who had received the first Guggenheim grant for experimental film. With this money she bought the wire recorder used for these recordings, amongst others. The recordings are now held in the Boston University Library's special collections of Maya Deren. Her definitive book on Voudoun, 'Divine Horseman: The Living Gods of Haiti' was also published in 1953.