When the Doukhobor Village Museum was first proposed in 1966 and artifacts were accumulated, the first priority was the establishment of the village buildings to house the artifacts in an original setting. After the opening in 1971, the priority became the showing of the artifacts to the public, there were few resources for the appropriate archival classification of the holdings which over the next several years included scholarly records, manuscripts, unusual images and photos, as well as collections of recordings.

Music is an integral part of the Doukhobor lifestyle - socially and spiritually. The Doukhobors possessed an oral culture, and all of the psalms, hymns, sayings, and statements of beliefs were embedded in an oral tradition known as The Living Book. A great deal of this was the melodic and occasional atonal a capella singing which encapsulated these beliefs. However, our Digital Jukebox is a site that hosts all types of Doukhobor music since its recording began.

Both Larry Ewashen and Ron Mahonin, as well as the Directors of Kootenay Doukhobor Historical Society, are proud to unveil this major accomplishment and culmination of the year's work. We are especially grateful to British Columbia Museums Association and the British Columbia Arts Council for making this project possible, and in the same vein, we offer the highest regard and respect to all of those Doukhobor singers, past and present, for their rich cultural contribution.

A note about the content: Some previews offer a complete selection of the album's content while others offer only a few samples although the entire album's contents are listed. In the case of newer titles that are available for sale either at the Museum or from the artist(s) themselves, only a few samples were selected in order to encourage the purchase of that material by preview. In the case of some of the older, now unavailable albums, only the best of those selections were included. The selection of songs was made only by digital-quality-merit and no other criteria.