For anyone with a “thing” for old records in languages other than English, Jon Ward’s Excavated Shellac blog is the best site on the web, hands down. Every Sunday night, he posts a side of a lovely 78 rpm disc, recorded during the first half of the 20th century from various places across five continents. And it’s made available as free downloads in a spirit of open-hearted sharing. (There’s a fabulous mid-20s Syrian fiddle record featured this week.)

Recently, the dublab site has posted a great two-hour mp3 of Ward himself playing some great stuff, most of which hasn’t been included on ES before and best of all, he chats between tracks about the records and his interest in them. Just wonderful.