Lydia Fish, folklorist and professor of anthropology, made an essential contribution to the forthcoming CD box set, Next Stop Is Vietnam 1961–2008. From her personal archives, Fish contributed recordings of music made, not by the big-name musicians of the Vietnam era, but by the soldiers and civilians who were actually serving in Southeast Asia.

The long-awaited collection of 14 CDs, plus a 360-page book, is scheduled for release in August by Bear Family Records of Germany, which is a world-renowned reissuer of top-shelf music and multi-artist themed compilations for collectors and archivists.

“The box set will belong not just to collectors, but also to archives around the world,” Fish said. That suits her. Throughout the years, she has worked diligently to make the soldiers’ music available, first, to the original musicians, and then to scholars and to others who want a glimpse of what it was like to be serving in Southeast Asia in the middle of the twentieth century.