Middle Tennessee State University has been given the chance to preserve musical history in a very unique way by digitizing decades-old tapes.
The family of music lover Marvin Hedrick recently donated 167 open reels and cassettes to the school's Center of Popular Music. Never-before-heard bluegrass tracks.
The tapes date back to the 1950's. MTSU was granted almost $20,000 from the Grammy Association to preserve, digitize, and catalog the music.
Most of the tapes are filled with jam sessions and Indiana's biggest festivals.
"The Brown County Jamboree in Indiana and the Bill Monroe Bluegrass Festival were very, very, important stops on the circuit, on the performing circuit. And so the list of performers is quite impressive starting with Bill Monroe himself, the father of bluegrass,” said Dr. Gregory Reish.
The Center for Popular Music will start releasing material slowly through their website and hope to have the project finished by next summer.
