By Erica Perdue With the Knight Arts Challenge now accepting applications in Detroit, we caught up with year 1 challenge and People’s Choice Award winner Lo & Behold Records and Books . The store won funding to preserve and make available traditionally-produced recordings of the store’s Folk Blues Night performances. Here, Erica Perdue provides an update.

Since winning the challenge, Lo & Behold Records and Books owner Richard Wohlfeil has been busy getting his project moving.

In recent months, Richard has recorded and mixed several albums at the store’s monthly Folks Blues Night that will be a part of the project’s first run. So far he has finished seven, with three in the pipeline.

“All Folk Blues Night tracks are recorded with two ribbon microphones straight to 2-track. I’m overjoyed at how good the quality and performance of these recordings are turning out! Over half of the tracks on No. 7 weren’t even recorded in my shop; they were recorded in the empty lot next door to the shop. It was a real ‘field’ recording,” Richard said.

The albums, available here, include: Michigan Stomp, Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down, and Well, I’ve Done All I Can DO And I Can’t Get Along with You.

Todd Albright, Dave Morrison and Dooley Wilson at the 14th Folk Blues Night and cassette tape release of Folk Blues Night No. 9

The People’s Choice Award, which provided $20,000 in funds, allowed Richard to tackle some projects he had on the backburner.

For example, he released the first album release in the Locations series, which is a series of ambient and electronic records recorded by Richard and long-time collaborator Adam Pierce. Each record in the Locations series is recorded at a specific location live with the music dictated only by the instruments they bring and their interpretation of the energy of that locale. The Locations series have been recorded in an empty lot in Hamtramck, a small gallery at Cranbrook Art Museum and various other places throughout Michigan and Ohio.

Richard also used part of the People’s Choice Award funds to bring other projects to life including an art book of woodcuts by Michigan artist Ernest Carl Fackler.

Find out more about Lo & Behold Records and Books at http://lo-behold.org/.