Burt Nagra

Yeah.

Are you familiar with the Internet?

A little bit.

I had some grad students helping me build a dot-com for my work when I was retiring.

You never know what you'll wish you had preserved.

That's why it's good you're recording this.

Why is that, if you don't mind my asking?

I don't mind being on tape.

I'm just curious.

Well, I'm glad you're doing it either way.

I'm a bit envious, to be honest, though it is a nice change being on the other side of the mic for once.

Yep.

My dad was an engineer, worked for the TVA for 40 years.

That was after they eminent-domained the family property, of course, but you can't beat them, join them, right?

Anyway, he was a part-time tinkerer outside of work, always had a project going, ham radio and the like.

He managed to get his hands on an early Edison recorder through a work connection.

Thing weighed half a ton.

I had to help him haul it around.

And we had a family that worked the coal mines growing up, always heard stories from that time.

That's where he got interested in the songs.