The Madison Record Club Tours Mills Music Library and the Cuca Collection

One of my favorite things to do is giving tours of Mills Music Library and the Wisconsin Music Archives, sharing our musical mission while also getting to talk about our amazing collections. This week Jody Berndt of the Madison Record Club asked me to give her club members a tour of Mills and to specifically focus on the Cuca Records Collection–among my favorite collections I’ve helped guide to the WMA and one I have continued to grow over the last decade. Last year, our music technical services librarian Matt Appleby completed the online collection guide (https://cuca.library.wisc.edu/) and we currently have two exhibit cases full of Cuca gems on display in our reading room.

In addition to the online and cased materials, this tour was a rare chance to get up close and personal with many of the Cuca 45s and LPs as well as the publishing contracts, pressing orders, artist photographs, newspaper clippings, release index cards, processing metadata, as well as unique artist puppets and various ephemera from Jim Kirchstein’s collection. We even had a few minutes to listen to some of the rarer recordings in the collection.

Not only did the Record Club bring a record turnout (get it?) to the event, we also had TWO Cuca recording artists and their wives present–Marcus Sullivan of the King’s Men Five AND Jon Stanbridge of both the Changing Tydes Revue and Bill Allen & the Fugitives. And if that weren’t exciting enough, we were also joined by Cuca Records founder Jim Kirchstein’s daughter, Vicki Widdecombe and her husband, and we were treated to several fun stories of having sleepovers in the Sara Sound Studio and working on the LP assembly line at Cuca!

Many thanks to everyone who came out to take the tour and spend a few after-hours with us in the library! It was particularly great to see fellow Stardazer Jamie McCloskey, who says he is onboard with working up a new Cuca Records tribute show with me, and Bob Koch, who has contributed several 45s to the Cuca Collection over the years! It was a special event, indeed! [for more info on the Madison Record Club, check out https://madison.citycast.fm/best/madison-record-club]

Post-tour Photo-op with the Madison Record Club [photo by Tom Caw]

Jim Kirchstein, Raylene Bartel, and myself 

Cuca Records founder, Jim Kirchstein, and his collection of Ken Vogel puppets

Some of my favorite Cuca Records

ARSC2026 in Memphis Was A Great One!

I just returned from a week in Memphis, TN and as one might expect, a wonderful time was had. I figure now is as good a time as any to share some pics and gratitudes.

My primary reason for going was the annual Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) conference–a unique gathering of a-v archivists, audio preservation engineers, meticulous record collectors, and some of the world’s best music researchers–and spent my week studying up on the latest copyright and fair use legalese, enjoying Robert Gordon’s thoughtful plenary on Memphis music, listening to Frank Bruno and Trey Brown’s Memphis small-label history, Craig Maki’s deep dive into Vic Gallon (w/ Starday connections!), David Evan’s and Kip Lornell’s insightful presentations on university-based record labels, Richard and Meaghan’s Archeophone collaboration with the Library of Congress, Patrick Feaster’s hilarious and fascinating research on the earliest phonographs, the history and scope of the National Recording Preservation Act with Matthew Barton, Patrick Midtlyng, David Seubert, and others, as well as papers and advice on moving archival collections, advocating for audio preservation to university admin, exploring audio survey and assessment tools, the roles of AI within some archives, and so much more. I also particularly enjoyed the collector’s roundtable on Friday night with Mark Atnip and Martin Fisher’s brilliant cylinder recording demonstration on Saturday afternoon. It was an honor to get to sing and play Don Gibson's “Sea of Heartbreak” along with my pals Craig Maki and Frank Youngwerth as Martin cut a 2-minute wax cylinder of our performance. It was also a blast to hear and clap along to Filip Sir’s Czech-language, anti-Nazi protest version of “Deep In the Heart of Texas”--Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!

As with every good academic conference, there was a lot of great discussion and camaraderie, a lot of communal meals, as well as the usual sharing of pet and recently-found record photos between presentations. There were far too many friends present to mention everyone by name, but it was truly great to see so many colleagues and pals in Memphis and to meet so many new folks as well. I loved chatting about record label obsessions with Jay Bruder, Cary Ginnell, Christian Stanfield, Lance and April of Dust-to-Digital, and so many others. I particularly enjoyed rooming with my old pal Patrick Feaster, former ARSC president, brilliant scholar, and all-around good dude. It was also a thrill to spend so much time exploring local barbeque haunts and talking music with my musical pals Craig Maki and Deke Dickerson. I will forever remember this conference as the one where Deke zipped away one night and came back the next morning to ask, ‘Hey, wanna play Grady Martin’s six-string bass?’ What?!?! The one that was played on the first ever fuzz record (Marty Robbins), and Johnny Horton’s best rockers, and just about every Patsy Cline recording? Of course, I do!! Many thanks again, Deke!

It was also the ARSC where I got to reconnect with my former high school bandmate, Matt Timberlake. What a joy to eat bbq and jam with the legend who invited me to join my first ever rock band–the Fuzzbuckets. Not only did we get to jam through several of the Fuzz’s greatest hits, I particularly enjoyed hearing him sing some Merle Haggard! I also appreciated him setting up a gig for me on Saturday night at The Cove with Big Barton, a 5-piece Memphis honky-tonk treasure! A grand time was had by all! There were several dogs in the audience. I was asked to play a 2nd solo set after my first one. I sold out of merch. And a kind couple at the bar even bought me a pizza.

And of course, Memphis was a great host city! I arrived early to check out Goner and Shangri-La–both awesome record stores (I even found an undocumented Starday custom 45 at Shangri-La)! I went to a Memphis Redbirds game and the first baseman of the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (AAA of the Florida Marlins) even pointed me out and threw me an inning-ending baseball! I randomly ran into some rockabilly lookin’ musicians outside the Sun Records studio and they invited me to their show at the HiTone Cafe that night–turns out, the Hotrod Hillbillies r-o-c-k and are coming to WI for Symco soon! Thanks again, Xavier and Angel! I toured the Sun Records studio again and appreciated seeing Dewey Phillips’ recreated radio studio, went to the Stax Museum for the first time and dug Isaac Hayes’ Cadillac and the Hall of Records, went to Beale Street with Patrick and Craig and drank a milkshake, ate some incredible BBQ on Deke’s recommendations (Payne's Bar-B-Q, The Bar-B-Q-Shop, Cozy Corner BBQ, Bain Barbeque, and more), and explored some of the historic sites including the Lorraine Motel (now home to the Civil Rights Museum), the Arcade (oldest diner in Memphis), and the site of Johnny Cash’s first gig to name a few. I also went to a garage sale and scored some great and local rock’n’roll records from Theo Dasbach!

Not quite sure how to top that for a conference, but Matthew Barton, ARSC and Memphis, y’all done well! #arscAnd many thanks to Memphis pals Matt Timberlake, Jeremy Shrader, Jesse Williams, Zac Ives, Christian Stanfield, Rockey the Rockin’ Redbird, and everyone else for the warm welcome and southern hospitality! #ARSC2026

Upcoming Solo Set at The Cove w/ Big Barton in Memphis, TN Saturday 5/16

Howdy Memphis Friends--I'm excited to share that I'll be doing a rare solo set at The Cove's Honky-Tonk Night along with Big Barton next Saturday, 5/16. 7:30 showtime. It's where rock and roll began!

Specifically, Memphis is where my friend Matt Timberlake now lives and he's the dude who first taught me about how to rock and roll. While we were in high school, Matt invited me to join his band, The Fuzzbuckets. It was my first time in a band and we had some pretty memorable gigs. We even won a HS Battle of the Bands. Matt introduced me to the Flaming Lips. And to Man Or Astro-Man? And to the New York Dolls. He also wrote some killer originals, rocked a sweet Gibson Les Paul, and even though I was just playing trumpet and keys and occasionally shouting along, it forever changed my life goals and trajectory.

Next Saturday he'll join me and we'll sing some Merle Haggard tunes for you! It will be epic. Hope to see y'all there!

Rock'n'Roll Banjo on Back to the Country (WORT 89.9FM) on 5/5

There are lots of different things you can do with a banjo. You could frail or clawhammer a banjo. You could put some picks on your fingers and pluck it in the ol’ three-fingered Scruggs-style. You could flatpick some big band and dixieland chords on it. You could strum it in a folk circle. You could write a dissertation about jazz banjo players or even use one as firewood. You could also play Elvis Presley songs on one for your friends’ wedding in the Old City Cemetery in Lynchburg, VA (though I’m still ashamed that NOT ONE PERSON told me that I wasn’t supposed to wear all-white to a wedding! Live and learn, I suppose.).

But if I’m being honest, my favorite use for the banjo is that flatpicking banjo twang heard on early '50s honky-tonk and rockabilly music. Before rock and roll was a fully-defined thing separate from country music, lots of western swing, honky-tonk, and rockin-adjacent bands featured the banjo. It’s a great compliment to thumb-picked electric guitar and even steel guitar. A few years later, lots of bluegrass groups began covering rock’n’roll songs–I’m thinking here of Jim & Jesse, the Stanley Brothers, Jim Eanes, Flatt & Scruggs, and many more, and that's always fun to hear.

And in the 1950s and early ‘60s, flatpickers like Joe Maphis, Arthur ‘Guitar Boogie’ Smith, Grandpa Jones, Grady Martin, Cousin Arnold, Frank Evans, Ronnie Dawson, and so many more were setting their five banjo strings ablaze with a pick. In recent years, the flatpicking rockabilly banjo torch has been passed on to players like Brian Setzer, Mitch Polzak , and Carter Logan to name a few. It’s a beautiful thing and worth celebrating. So that’s what we’ll do tomorrow (5/5) on Back to the Country. Rock’n’Roll Banjo! Tune in via 89.9FM in southern Wisconsin or stream via wortfm.org from 9am-noon (cst).