It’s a tale of serendipity and improbable Internet magic and it all began when Glendale, California (Los Angeles area) resident Richard L. Hess and his Canadian wife were given a CD of Nancy White’s Momnipotent…Songs for Weary Parents by his wife’s brother, John McIntyre from Aurora, Ontario. Already a fan of female performers such as Judy Collins and Joan Baez, for whom he had set up “fan” Web sites, Hess, a sound engineer and vice-president of a company that designs television facilities, decided that White was so good he would design Web pages for her too.

An avid Net surfer, Hess began looking for more material by White. Through rec.music.folk (a Usenet News Group), he located a Toronto-based folkie, Howard Kaplan, willing to part with some out-of-print Nancy White recordings. Kaplan, a friend of Marie-Lynn Hammond’s, persuaded her to throw in a vinyl copy of Vignettes, her 1983 second solo album, sensing that Hess might also appreciate her work.

Hammond’s name was already familiar to Hess because it turns up in a humorous reference on a Momnipotent… song called “Leonard Cohen’s Never Gonna Bring My Groceries In,” which White penned for an appearance on a CBC radio show hosted by Hammond called Musical Friends.

“But that was the first time I’d heard of Marie-Lynn Hammond,” says Hess. “I didn’t know who she was or what she did till Vignettes arrived. I listened, and became entranced. I thought, ‘How can this person I’ve never heard of be so good?’” Hess promptly phoned Hammond from L.A. and offered to do Web pages for her too.

At first she demurred, saying she was getting out of the music business. Then Hess persuaded her to part with one of her eight remaining copies of her eponymous first solo album, recorded over 20 years ago. “I was amazed again,” Hess enthuses, “by both the musical and technical quality of the work. I couldn’t believe it wasn’t out on CD.”

Eventually Hess did set up a Web site for Hammond and decided to form a label, Vignettes Media, to release her music on CD. Because his wife is from Aurora, Ontario, he used family visits to the Toronto area to retrieve master tapes from both Hammond and White, after learning, to his horror, that the tapes were collecting dust and mould in basements, attics, and various storage facilities. Using his engineering expertise, he has transferred the aging tapes to CD-Rs thereby preserving, “for at least another 20 years anyway,” says Hammond, “a bit more of Canadian culture. Ironic that it took an American to do it.”

Not surprisingly, the ever-thorough Hess then contacted Bob Bossin, Hammond’s partner in Stringband, the seminal Canadian folk group, and began collecting the band’s tapes – even mouldier than the Toronto masters, thanks to Bossin’s West Coast environment, and transferred the entire Stringband catalogue onto CD-Rs as well. “I seem to be back in the music business,” says Hess, who had his own label, Hessound, in New York City in the ’70s. “But I’m thrilled to be working with these Canadian legends.”

The CD features some of the bicultural Hammond’s best work, including songs in both French and English from her successful musical play, Beautiful Deeds/De beaux gestes, about her two grandmothers; “Distant Early Warning Line,” possibly the only tune ever penned about that subject; “Black Cat, Stephen and the Popcorn Man,” a song that immortalizes a Toronto institution, the popcorn and chestnut sellers; as well as both playful and haunting ballads such as “Houdini and You and Me,” and “Lights in the Windows.”

Beautifully recorded at Toronto’s Inception Sound by Chad Irschick, who has also worked with such names as Rita MacNeill, Susan Aglukark, and the Rankin Family, Hammond’s CD features a number of musicians who have made their mark on the Canadian music scene – people like Ben Mink, Aaron Davis, Marilyn Lerner, and even Geddy Lee of Rush fame.

Meanwhile, Hess has been surfing the Net uncovering various news groups and mailing lists related to the sale and promotion of folk music. “Most people who hear Marie-Lynn’s music are touched by it,” exclaims Hess. “She is unique and gifted – truly a Canadian national treasure. I want to see to it that Canada shares this gem with the world!”

Both Marie-Lynn Hammond and Richard L. Hess are available by phone for interviews. Hammond can do live interviews in the Toronto area, Hess in the Los Angeles area.