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By Nicole Saylor

Like so many of us, Robert Andresen (1937-1995) disliked the sameness of popular radio. He longed for the variety found on old-time radio shows such as National Barn Dance and the Grand Ole Opry.

It was that drive for the eclectic that led Andresen to start his own traditional music radio show in Duluth during the '80s, collect thousands of records and song folios, and record several old-time musicians of Minnesota and northern Wisconsin.

Now his vast collection is available for public use as part of Mills Music Library's Wisconsin Music Archives, a special collection housed at Mills that contains more than 25,000 items representing all Wisconsin musical traditions. A new web site offers details about the collection, photos of Andresen and the old-time musicians he documented, and a sampling of sound clips from his radio show, "Northland Hoedown."

The Andresen Collection consists of thousands of records, about eighty reel tapes of the radio show, and more than six cubic feet of papers that focus primarily on old-time music of the Upper Midwest. Included are subject files, song folios, photos, and new clippings on Andresen's preservation efforts. Musicians Walter Eriksson, Leonard Finseth, Sulo Hackman, the Plehal Brothers, and Otto Rindlisbacher are among the featured musicians in his collection. Fiddle folios and fiddle contest information are also abundant.

Andresen was a self-proclaimed hobbyist when it came to his love of Upper Midwestern music. Today his is considered a leading force in documenting the old-time music of eastern Minnesota and northern Wisconsin and a role model for folklorists working in the region. He was also a skilled rhythm-guitar player who drew upon his love of bluegrass and Scandinavian music to become an innovator, adopting Scandinavian accordion and fiddle tunes for the guitar.

Andresen's commitment to preserving and sharing old-time music were apparent up until he succumbed to cancer in 1995. During a period of about six months, when treatment was keeping the disease at bay, Andresen used the time to organize his records, papers, and research. As a result, his vast collection of primary materials related to Upper Midwest traditional music is available to the rest of us.