The Finest

Unboxing hidden music history: Lou Curtiss' Whimsical Collection and vinyl's survival

March 5
23 mins

Episode Description

Lou Curtiss dedicated his life to preserving forgotten music — and now his extraordinary personal collection is being shared with the community he nurtured for decades. At Folk Arts Rare Records, thousands of vinyl records, CDs, tapes and rare recordings are being unboxed, cataloged and placed on shelves for music lovers to explore and purchase. In this episode, we meet Brendan Boyle, who began shopping at Folk Arts as a teenager and now owns and runs the store. We dive into Lou's legacy, including his role in founding the San Diego Folk Festival, supporting local artists like Thomas Shaw and preserving recordings that might otherwise have vanished. Along the way, we explore how vinyl survived the '90s and 2000s and why physical media still matters in an age of streaming and digital fatigue. From obscure blues and folk records to legendary mixtapes, Lou's Whimsical Collection lives on, offering a tactile, personal and deeply human connection to the music that shapes culture. 


Guests:

  • Brendan Boyle, Folk Arts Rare Records owner
  • Andrew Mall, Associate Professor of Music at Northeastern University in Boston, Mass.


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