Hello all,  Just a couple of months ago, I borrowed a fantastic CD from
the local ragtime club's lending library.  It is titled: "Ragtime: The
Way It Was 1896-1958", and is a 2-CD set, encompassing ragtime as first
recorded on cylinders by banjoists and military bands, to the LPs made
by honky-tonk piano players Joe "Fingers" Carr and Bill Krenz.  Halfway
down the track list on each CD is a selection of rags and novelties as
recorded on piano rolls.  Tracks 13-16 on CD #1 are:

  Knice and Knifty (Straight), played by Charley Straight,
  Piping Rock (Coots), played by J. Fred Coots,
  Knockout Drops (Klickmann), played by Zema Randale,
  Pianoflage (Bargy), played by Roy Bargy.

Tracks 11-13 on CD #2 are:

  Rackety Rag (Delcamp), played by J. Milton Delcamp,
  Blooie-Blooie (Baker), played by Edythe Baker,
  Melrose Rag (Bauersachs), played by Sybil Court.

I need to know whether any of the piano roll collectors out there
happen to have "Rackety Rag" in their collection (it is a Republic roll
listed in "Rags and Ragtime", can't remember the number), and, most
importantly:

Does anyone have any clue as to the identity of "Piping Rock"?  This
number is not listed in "Rags and Ragtime", and everyone I mentioned
this roll to was surprised and said they never even knew that J. Fred
Coots, (a prolific songwriter and composer of such standards as "You Go
To My Head" and "Santa Claus is Coming to Town"), made piano rolls!
It is a great, hot rag, featuring a walking bass and many filigrees in
the treble.

I tried contacting the people who made the CD, Archive Productions
(http://www,archiveproductions.com/), but got no response.  I have
almost given up trying to find out the brand, roll number, etc., since
those things are not listed in the liner notes.  So I am transcribing
this piece from the rather low-fidelity recording of the piano roll(!),
and am about two-thirds through.  If anyone can tell me anything about
this roll, or at least about when Coots made piano rolls, it would be
greatly appreciated.  Also, what does the "J" stand for in J. Fred Coots,
and in J. Milton Delcamp?

Andrew Barrett

 [ In "Hot Recut Piano-Rollography" by Richard L. Riley:
 [   Rackety Rag (J. M. Delcamp), pb composer, REP 47708
 [   Piping Rock (Chris Smith), arranged, UN 23563
 [   Piping Rock (J. Fred Coots), pb composer, UN 203495
 [ -- Robbie