Fifty-year-old recordings of live performances by Canadian icons Joni Mitchell and Neil Young have been found by the Michigan History Project.
The concerts were recorded at Canterbury House, a venue on the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor, on reel-to-reel audio tapes.
Alan Glenn, president of the Michigan History Project, explained in a release that the non-profit organization has known about the tapes for about six years ago. “They were in the possession of a private collector. Then they disappeared, and we were afraid they were gone for good,” he said.
“But a few weeks ago they resurfaced, much to our surprise and relief.”
The recordings were professionally made with the consent of the artists, so the Michigan History Project is looking for a record label that wants to release them.
“Our first priority will be to get them transferred to a digital format,” Glenn said, “then make sure that the original analog tapes are safely archived.”
Mitchell and Young were among than 150 acts performed at Canterbury House between 1965 and 1971. The Michigan History Project is currently trying to locate more missing recordings, including one by Canadian singer Gordon Lightfoot.