Bennie Hess' recording contract with Mercury was abruptly terminated when they found out that he was bootlegging the recordings from Mercury 6147 and releasing them without permission on his own record label as Opera 1012.
Mercury 6147 was included in Billboard's Advance Folk Record Releases on the 8th January 1949. Interestingly Mercury 6148 was in Billboard's Advance Record Releases on 27th November 1948.