Accordion Noir radio playlist 2024-01-03: Public Domain Day 1928–2024!

Happy New Year! Last night’s episode of our weekly, hour-long Accordion Noir broadcast took a look at some of the latest accordion music to enter the Public Domain in the United States, hot squeezebox tunes from nearly a hundred years ago — which was a good era for accordions! If your Apple or Android (or plain old RSS) podcast subscriptions (strongly recommended!) haven’t alerted you to the episode’s availability yet, you can enjoy listening to it as digital audio courtesy of the Internet Archive. Here’s its playlist:

AccNoir–2024–01–03, Public Domain Day 1928–2024!

All tunes recorded in 1928 except The Texas Blues Destroyers because I started collecting songs for the show thinking I needed ones from 1924 because copyright is confusing. But that Texas Blues Destroyers number is so great I included it to celebrate the centennial or whatever.

Anyways. Read up on the convolutions that bring us Public Domain Day!

“Public Domain Day 2024 is Coming [Jan 1, 2024] : Here’s What to Know”
https://copyrightlately.com/public-domain-day-2024/

The rough rule seems to be that these recordings are probably in the public domain in the US now? (Who knows? As I say in the show, consult a lawyer, or become one.)

We can play them on the radio though because our little Canadian community station pays a sliding scale of royalties via SOCAN regardless, unlike some countries where even commercial radio shirks its duty to pay artists for radio airplay.

So, copyright hasn’t done a very good job of paying a lot of artists for their work over the years. Lots of room for improvement. Etc. Let’s talk about that some other time. Listen to these nice tunes now!

* ‟The Many Voices of Accordion Noir, PRA 100.5 FM” – tune “Boyd’s Cove Singles” – The Dardanelles (2009) – Newfoundland, Canada – http://thedardanelles.com/ – https://thedards.bandcamp.com/releases

* Artist – “Song” – Album (Date) – Where they’re from – Artist Links – Comments

* The Texas Blues Destroyers – ‟Lenox Avenue Shuffle” –  (1924) – Bubber Miley (trumpet), Arthur Ray (reed organ)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWZQCf2zgeA
* Marazza, accordéon – ‟Airs Canadiens : 2ème partie” – Digital Gramophone, Library and Archives Canada (1928) – Montréal, Québec, Canada – © www.nlc-bnc.ca
* Bruno Rudzinski – ‟Pawel Walc (Paul’s Waltz)” – Squeeze Play-World Accordion (1928) – Chicago, USA, Poland/Polish – www.rounderstore.com/  Concertina with singing
* Albert La Madeleine, violon av – ‟Quadrille des seigneurs : 5ème” – Digital Gramophone, Library and Archives Canada (1929) – Montréal, Québec, Canada – © www.nlc-bnc.ca
* Alfred Montmarquette – ‟Reel de Sorel” – Digital Gramophone, Library and Archives Canada (1928) – Montréal, Québec, Canada – © www.nlc-bnc.ca
* Joseph Plante, accordéon – ‟Valse des poupées” – Digital Gramophone, Library and Archives Canada (1928) – Montréal, Québec, Canada – © www.nlc-bnc.ca
* Joe Falcon – ‟Fe Fe Ponchaux” – Cajun – Rare & Authentic: 1928-1934 (1928) – New York, NY, 27th August
* Peter Conlon – ‟The Flax In Bloom-The Bag Of Potatoes-Reels” – Past Masters Of Irish Dance Music (1928) – Ireland – http://www.topicrecords.co.uk/
* Hanafins – ‟Rodney’s Glory” – Squeeze Play-World Accordion (1928) – New York, USA, Irish, Ireland – www.rounderstore.com/
* Vagabonds De Montreal – ‟Reel De Berthier” – Squeeze Play-World Accordion (1928) – Plattsburgh, NY, USA, French Canadian – www.rounderstore.com/ product.asp?P=1166110902 – Jawharp!
* Pietro Frosini – ‟Luna D’Argento” – Pietro Frosini – Jolly Caballero (1928) – http://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/matrix/detail/800018094/BVE-43921-Silver_moon
* Orquesta Típica Víctor – ‟Esta noche me emborracho” – El Tango: pasión y emoción Vol. 4 (1928) – Argentina – https://www.milonga.co.uk/tango/pasion_y_emocion.shtml
* Blind Joe Mangrum; Fred Shriver – ‟Bill Cheatam” – Kentucky Mountain Music – CD6 (1928) – Nashville, Tennessee, USA – http://victor.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/talent/detail/2124/Mangrum_Blind_Joe_instrumentalist_violin
* Wladyslaw Polak – ‟Ostatnia Wola Pijaka (The Drunkard’S Last Will)” – Squeeze Play-World Accordion (1928) – Chicago, USA, Polish/Poland – www.rounderstore.com/ product.asp?P=1166110902 – July 10, 1928
* Eugène Daignault, avec accordé – ‟La jeune timire” – Digital Gramophone, Library and Archives Canada (1928) – Montréal, Québec, Canada – © www.nlc-bnc.ca
* Django Reinhardt – ‟Ma Régulière” – Accordeon 1913-1941 (Disc 2) (1928) – France – http://www.fremeaux.com/
* Joe Falcon – ‟La Marche De La Noce” – Cajun – Rare & Authentic: 1928-1934 (1928) – New York, NY, 27th August

For more in a similar vein, check out our Public Domain New Year’s special from last year, Accordion Noir radio playlist 2023-01-04: 1927 Public Domain Celebration!
https://accordionuprising.wordpress.com/2023/01/05/accordion-noir-radio-playlist-2023-01-04-1927-public-domain-celebration/

Late added comment:

Ironic that my copy-pasted notes for the playlist include the ©️copyright sign from the Library and Archives Canada source of some of the recordings. Their Virtual Gramophone is hard to access from their current site (I see generic Archive links don’t get you there) and I fear that access to this music will become harder. So get on there while you can!

The Canadian Library might claim the rights to reproduce the recent digital transfer of their individual copy of these rare 78 rpm records. So in effect, we’d be sharing recently copywrited copies of now public domain records. See how complicated this is? Apparently this may be a legal grey area? See the article linked above (and below).

Nevertheless, a risk I’m willing to take for no profit and with no large production beyond an hour’s worth of gathering tunes. I liked this episode a lot. Very last minute, but that didn’t hurt the quality. Thanks to Aaron Moss, author of the Public Domain Day article above for inspiring our theme!

Thanks for reading us here (and hopefully listening to us, there), but if you find you want more, you can always keep up with us on … well, we’re putting our Twitter on the back burner indefinitely in pursuit of sunnier pastures, such as Mastodon at @accordionnoir@zirk.us and @AccordionBruce@mastodon.social (we’re even trying out BlueSky to limited effect at accordionnoir.bsky.social) , Instagram (@AccordionNoirFest), and Facebook at Accordion Noir fans, the Accordion Noir Festival, and the Vancouver Squeezebox Circle.  Cheers & squeeze on!