rfi: germany's Bear Family records

I'd like to. A couple of years back i was on business in Stuttgart and looked in several record shoppes for Bear Boxes -- Never found any, which sucks, back then the US dollar was super strong against the mark and i could've picked at least a couple titles.

Yes, superfast and polite. But I'm in Germany.

I've never ordered directly from them no. But I have quite a few of their sets. The Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers boxes alone are a wealth of wonderful music amongst the greatest of the 20th century.

Quite simply, nobody does box sets better. The attention to detail, beautiful packaging, and valuable anthologizing (of artists both widely known and obscure) work they do is unparalleled. Maybe Mosaic for jazz is closest analogue but they fall pretty short in the packaging department. Bear Family's booklets (actually now they're usually little books are just beautiful). I can't really speak to the sound because with so much of this old stuff I don't have comparison source. It all sounds lovely to me.

I buy them from a fellow on eBay who sells under the name "cdwolf". He seems to have a source with the label or something because he always has them up for sale (don't ever pay more than his opening bid for something). While these things are always going to be a bit expensive, this guy has the 4cd sets for around $66, not too bad.

again, I've never ordered directly from them, but their stuff is great. I have the Ella Mae Morse and the Maddox Brothers and Rose sets, and they are great. Not too much of the "alternate takes" stuff, which can be the case on many of their sets. But the packaging is nice, good detail in the liner notes. Expensive, but worth it for artists you want everything by...