In an effort to preserve history and art, the Daviess County Public Library created the Owensboro Music Scene Archive.
Wesley Johnson, DCPL associate and information technology (IT) assistant, said the staff at the library felt it was their mission to preserve some of the great music that was born in the region and burned to CDRs.
“CDRs are incredibly fragile so without something like this, a lot of that music – local history, in my opinion – will be lost to the ages,” Johnson said.
The music archive is streaming-only and accessible through a website or mobile app. Johnson said they also have videos and pictures on it and all genres and eras are accepted.
Johnson grew up in Greenville, Ky., and said he often made the trek to Owensboro and surrounding areas for concerts as he made his way to adulthood.
“That time of my life, the music I listened to, and the friends I made are all a big reason why I am who I am today,” Johnson said. “I know there are lots of people out there who feel the same about their time in the scene.”
Johnson added that a lot of the music released by the bands he followed growing up was burned to CD-Rs. That format, while affordable, can be incredibly fragile and easy to lose.
“We at the library realized this bit of local history desperately needed to be preserved,” he said. “This was something other libraries realized as well; Lexington and Louisville both have extensive digital archives of local music. This ultimately led to us launching the Owensboro Music Scene Archive.”
The archive accepts all genres of music from any year. Johnson said they love to get videos and photographs, too. Anything that’s already digitized may be uploaded at this link: https://bit.ly/2HZfXoC. Johnson requests people only upload music if they are the creator or acquire permission to do so from the band.
Email [email protected] if you would like to add your music and videos but are unable to digitize them.
The current archive may be accessed here: https://bit.ly/2YLH4sv
