Washington City Paper: Contents for Feb. 12

Desperate Man Blues
Record collector Joe Bussard parties like it's 1929.

Cover Story

Somewhere deep in the heart of the boonies, Joe Bussard, the self-proclaimed king of record collectors, was lost. A few miles back, he had made a wrong turn, and now he didn't know where in the hell he was. All he knew for sure was that he was in 78 rpm country.

A native Marylander, Bussard was not a complete stranger to these parts. He had traveled many times to southwest Virginia to hunt for old records. It was the late '60s, and once again he was canvassing the coal region, a long, bumpy, gizzard-neck stretch that belongs more to Appalachia than to the rest of the Old Dominion. The cradle of country music, this area was then the best place in the world to find the 78 rpm records made in the '20s and '30s, the golden age of early American recorded music. Even during the Depression, the people here—whether white miners earning steady wages or blacks who owned farms—had money for records, and they bought plenty of them, from local string-band music to blues from the Mississippi Delta.

In a little town called Tazewell, Bussard had launched the day's search as he always did, asking around about where he could find old records. He'd gone door to door holding a 78 so folks could see that he meant music discs and not dog-eared heating bills. He hadn't had much luck until somebody told him about a flea market out on the edge of town. In no time, Bussard had managed to lose his way—not a difficult thing to do in these mountains, where, as the late West Virginia writer Breece D'J Pancake once wrote, "road maps resembled a barrel of worms with St. Vitus Dance."... Continued

Issue of Feb. 12 - 18, 1999

News and Features

Desperate Man Blues
Record collector Joe Bussard parties like it's 1929.
Cover Story By Eddie Dean
In the Line of Ire
If you're a D.C. cop and you're in trouble, you could mortgage your house and hire some fancy lawyer. Or you could enlist fellow officer Frank Hill.
Feature By Jake Tapper
Anacostia Is Burning
Fourteen arsons have hit Martin Luther King Avenue in two years. None have been solved.
The City By Alexandra Phanor
Home of the Rave
The kids head back to Buzz for peace, love, unity, and a little disrespect.
The City By Holly Bass
Ice Storm: The Horror-Filled Sequel
The City By David Carr
Mugging for the Camera
For the low, low price of $3 a minute, new technology lets distant inmates talk face to face with loved ones in D.C.
The City By Jake Tapper
Follow That Story Locked and Unloaded
A high-tech barricade may finally shut the Perkins Brothers out of Ives Place.
The City By Jason Cherkis
Pro-Wife
The Mail By Anonymous
A Very Short Story
The Mail By Anthony Berry
They Know Where You Live
The Mail By Jim McGrath
Lofty Hopes
The Mail By Ray Milefsky
Independent Jones and the Lost Crusade
The Mail By Linda Keenan
DCRAnt
The Mail By Lloyd J. Jordan

Columns

Sweethearts of the Rodeo
Cheap Seats By Dave McKenna
Soy Bomb
City Desk By Colin BaneLaura LangNefretiti Makenta, Amanda Ripley and Elissa Silverman
OFF SCHEDULE, ON MESSAGE
Loose Lips By Erik Wemple
One Last Hitch
Paper Trail By David Carr