[Harp-L] Licensing old time jug band tunes

[Ross Macdonald]

Are there any folks out there who have navigated the licensing of cover tunes from the 1920s that are not yet in the public domain?

Here’s my dilemma:

My band is releasing an album of country blues tunes from the likes of Memphis Jug band, Canon Jug Stompers etc. 

We are going through LANDR, and they have an exclusive deal with the Harry Fox Agency. All of the songs are in the HFA dB with a HFA code associated. 

One of the tunes is a Blind Blake tune “That Will Never Happen No More - it’s been covered by many artists. 

LANDR says HFA can’t secure a license for the tune even though others obviously have. Neither HFA or LANDR have a phone support so I can’t get the real answer beyond the one they say.

Does anyone have an idea on how to get somewhere with either LANDR or HFA?  It’s only one song and we can easily delete it from the record but it’s really annoying that we can’t secure a license for a tune that many have covered. 

Thanks in advance for any guidance.

Ross Macdonald 

Sent from my iPhone