Mandolin in America Documentary Looking For Information

By SoundArt Recording
October 27, 2003 - 6:00 am

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Documentary film maker David Currey of Nashville's Travelers Rest historical site and Middle Tennessee University at Murfreesboro, has taken an interest in Butch Baldassari's project on the history of American mandolin 1880-1930. The original project was to be a book with companion music CD. Baldassari and Currey are exploring the possibility of turning the project into a film/DVD project with a companion book and music CD.

This era of American Mandolin was originally researched in 1996-1997 by Baldassari and author Walter Carter. "At that time archival music searches were implemented and a good bit of information was collected. Over the last five or six years, I have collected and seen and heard about some great materials that need to put in one place. We are getting ready to do an archival film search and I finally got my hands on the microfilm of Cadenza and Crescendo magazines from the Library of Congress," Baldassari said.

Anyone with mandolin related materials from the period 1880-1930 such as cylinder recordings, 78's, method books, sheet music, photographs, instruments, magazines, memorabilia and other items that may be of interest to this project are asked to contact:

Butch Baldassari 615-292-0324
e-mail: info@soundartrecordings.com