You can now own your very own cylinder copy of

‘East Virginia Blues’ and ‘Roll Down the Line’

Peter has pressed a limited edition of twenty copies each on his own boutique cylinder label Wizard Recordings. They come in a custom designed can. They can be purchased directly from Peter Dilg.

You can contact Peter at verticalcut@earthlink.net or via Alexander Graham Bell’s invention at 516 223 0533

On June 4th, 2005, Along with The Roulette Sisters, I was fortunate to get picked for a spot recording my voice and banjo on an authentic 1899 wax cylinder phonograph in Laboratory Building 11 at the Edison National Historic Site.

It was a public demonstration that involved the recording and playback of the newly pressed wax cylinder. I believe we only had two minutes and change to work with! In order to get clarity and volume, I had to get right up and poke my face into the long tapered cone that attached right to a needle cutting away my sonic impressions into the wax. The banjo, of course, was the perfect instrument for the process; it’s timbre being sharp and succinct.

After the wax had cooled, we listened.

It’s a haunting experience to hear yourself sound 140 years old, leaving only a cylinder or two as the only evidence of your time on this mortal coil. The recording engineer was Peter Dilg who is an expert in antique phonographs and, as he writes, “distributor of the New Indestructible Cylinder Record”! Among the luminaries he has recorded are Baby Gramps, Les Paul, Vince Giordano, and They Might Be Giants. If you’re ever in Baldwin, N.Y., look him up at the Baldwin Antique Center.

Here is the fruit of that day’s labors:

East Virginia Blues

Polly Wolly Doodle

Roll Down The Line

East Virginia Blues