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 78's 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...
Read more about Chris King in our archives: Eddie Dean's profile of the collector from issue 45 and Amanda Petrusich on Amédé Ardoin from issue 79.