If old or obscure recordings are your thing, I've got a treat for you. The University of California at Santa Barbara partnered with the Institute of Museum and Library Services to digitize over 10,000 cylinder recordings from 1890-1928. The recordings are available to the public at http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/index.php. You can browse by keyword ("Louisiana" brings up some gems), genre, subject, year, and more. There's also an option to listen to cylinder radio, an organized selection of recordings put together by those in charge of the collection before "podcast" was a common term.

Early Dixieland group the Louisiana Five has a few recordings on the site. Formed in New York and active between 1918 and 1920, they were among the first jazz bands to record extensively.

Cylinders were the first commercially produced sound recordings, but the recording industry was truly in its infancy for the majority of this collection's span. There are many recordings that sound unusual today as the recording companies (mainly Edison and Columbia) tried to figure out how to use and monetize the new technology. Simple conversations, a baby crying, and descriptions of everyday activities are included in the collection. The majority of the first phonograph cylinders were instrumentals, groups, or period comedic recordings that truly provide a unqiue "live" snapshot into the musical and popular culture of the time.

Recommended listens:

Al Bernard "Hesitation Blues" (1919)

Cal Stewart "Uncle Josh On A Bicycle" (recorded sometime between 1896 and 1899)

Louisiana Five - "Yelping Hound Blues" (1920)

Premier Quartet - "Down in Dear Old New Orleans" (1913)