I'm not sure when I last told the tale of the founding of this group, but if we have 183 folks now, it should be new to quite a few of you:
Back in --Geez, when was it? -- 94 or so -- I was browsing through rec.music.folk (anybody here still read newsgroups? I haven't for a couple of years), and someone had posted something about the Du-Tels, Peter Stampfel and Gary Lucas, playing at Mercury with a band called the Dysfunctionells. A few other postings ensued, and I traded some e-mail with the guy who'd posted, Rich Krueger. I saved the e-mail addresses of the few people who had anything to say about the Rounders. The show with the Dysfunctionells was amazing...I know I was sitting with Greg, and we had only very recently met. Toward the end of the show, one of the guitarists in the Dysfunctionells mentioned my name from the stage, and I went up to him afterward and asked, "Who are you?" And it was that Rich Krueger guy from Chicago.
Much e-mail ensued, and postings to rec.music.folk. In fact, I posted my thoughts about the show to rec.music.folk, and got an e-mail from Ian Anderson, the editor of Folk Roots in the UK, asking if I would revise my posting for publication in FR? I said sure, and would he like an interview with Stampfel as well? He said sure. (I had met Stampfel in the late 70s and spent some time with him back then, but I'd only seen him at a handful of gigs since. Doing the Folk Roots interview was the beginning of picking up a long-ago friendship.) (On another personal note, the FR interview was the beginning of my so-called career in music journalism, which has kind of tapered to a trickle...still and all, since FR, I've written about music for a good half-dozen national and international magazines, and contributed to two books. This is just another example of the pervasive life-changing powers of the HMR.)
So, Rich and I decided to start an e-mail list. I e-mailed the people whose addresses I'd saved when they posted about the Rounders, and invited them to participate...it was maybe four or five people to start. We posted notice about the list on rec.music.folk pretty often, got ourselves on the Usenet List of Mailing Lists (this used to be an important resource before so many e-mail lists got their own websites), and more folks joined. We did not have a listserv then (the automated service that remails list postings to every member). People sent postings to my e-mail address at work, and I remailed them to the members. (If I went on vacation, I had to solicit another member to be the Human Listserv for a week!) (As Peter would say, Yay for Tim Hilliard who hooked us up with out first -- and second -- listserv provider!)
Greg didn't have e-mail initially and so wasn't on the list at the beginning, but he was my show partner for a long time, and his _extraordinary_ tapes, plus a couple I'd traded some for, got the CaveMan Archives off to a roaring start. So Greg Grady, along with Rich and Tim, was very involved from the start. (I've mentioned what wonderful people they all are? everyone I've mentioned so far is a wonderful person.)
And so it went and so it grew and so we met and so we knew...there other very wonderful people who deserve a mention for their contribution to the life of this list. Brendan Foreman, the creator of the Hurley 'zine Blue Navigator, has enhanced everyone's experience of Our Heroes. Nick Hill, who has been of tremendous assistance to both the musicians and the fans. The first few people who joined from outside the US (a special mention to Henryk Danckwardt...it's early in the morning and forgive me if my spelling is off...a Hurley stalwart in Denmark). It was a such a thrill to be talking about Hurley and the Rounders worldwide!
I also believe that we've played our little part, this list, to the revival of interest in the HMR and the great success of Hurley in recent years. We spread the word, and we encourage Our Heroes by our very existence. (As you-know-who would say, Yay for us!)]
I've made many friends through this list and through my involvement with All Things Rounder...this is a good thing.
Jennifer Zogott, January 2000