SOLOST: THE AURICULAR RACONTEUR
By Dave Anderson
Christopher King is a discoverer of lost worlds. Musical worlds. Nestled in a small room in a medium-sized home in the expansive hills of Virginia, King has been digging through old barns and cellars looking for 78s for his entire adult life. An obsessives' obsessive, he has accumulated one of the most fascinating collections of once-overlooked music anywhere. For a number of years he has curated highly sophisticated—and celebrated—collections of music themed around some of the most elemental questions humanity has forever faced: love, loss, pain and work.
From ultra-early blues to unknown European mountain music, King searches so the rest of us don't have to. From his epic debut: "People Take Warning! (Murder Ballads and Disaster Songs, 1917-1934)" to "Five Days Married & Other Laments: Song and Dance from Northern Greece," King, the owner and sole proprietor of Long Gone Sound Productions, has created a catalogue of thematic albums from his collection of the oldest and rarest of old time recorded music.
From Geeshie Wiley discoveries to the plaintive folks songs of afflicted Albanians, the one constant is the absolute beauty Christopher King unearths again and again. Come explore with us...
SoLost is an original video series by the Oxford American that celebrates getting lost in the American South. SoLost is an off-kilter video journey through the side roads, backrooms, cellars and psyche of the modern South. With subjects prospected by master image-maker and Southern back-roads champ Dave Anderson, we delight in the tastes, sounds and myriad cultural delights of this our glorious landscape. Join us every month as we unveil a new episode of SoLost: artful, online video shorts that explore the complexity and vitality of the American South.