Second Volume of American Primitive guitar explorations from both the old and new schools, showcasing the diverse styles of its strongest players. While the patron saint of this movement is still John Fahey, the resonant strains between generations exemplify how far the movement has grown while allowing each artist to retain their own voice. Representing the old school this time around are Billy Faier, Michael Chapman, Peter Lang (re-doing a piece from the early '70s), Fred Gerlach and a rare live recording of Robbie Basho from the Venus in Capricorn era. The New school is represented by James Blackshaw, Jose Gonzalez. local Berkeley muscian Sean Smith, Christina Carter from Charalambides, Jack Rose (also featured on Vol. 1), Jesse Spearhawk, and British Banjo player Sharron Kraus. From traditional Americana, to eastern inflected ragas, shimmering 12 string washes to minimalist banjo odes, this is a fine set of excursionary guitar.
There is such a rich history of prison music in this country, with the roots of blues easily traced to the incarceration and slavery of African American, and with so much hurt, pain and suffering comes some of the most gripping, raw, and honest music ever made. This compilation collects all sorts of sounds created behind bars from old blues, R+B, soul and modern sounding hip-hop. From the direct and hard hitting blues of Fred McDowell to the righteous empowerment of Nina Simone, the thoughtful anger of 2 Pac to a surprisingly political and subversive soul number from The Temptations. Brand Nubian, James Russell, Dead Prez, Curtis Mayfield and The Last Poets are just a few others featured on this amazing compilation. As is the case with all Trikont releases there is an extensive and informative booklet with great essays including one on how the U.S. continues to be a prison state to this day. We can imagine this being in heavy rotation on the stereos of Spike Lee, Angela Davis and Noam Chomsky, and we can't stop listening to this ourselves. So smart, relevant and powerful!
**MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** **MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** **MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT**
One of two new fantastic compilations released on Portland's seemingly infallible Mississippi records, one is a collection of pre-war country blues and gospel called The Rain Don't Fall On Me, reviewed elsewhere on this week's list, and there's this one, In The Storm So Long, a selection of raw gospel music from Georgia in the sixties and the seventies, all originally released on Savannah Georgia's Pitch / Gusman label, which began life as a record store, before expanding into a recording studio and a full fledged label, documenting the various gospel quartets and singers in the area.
The sound and songs are incredible, rough and raw, soulful and passionate, alternately rocking and reverby, joyous and exultant, the guitars fuzzy, the pianos pounding, but it's gospel after all so it's the vocals that steal the show, heartfelt and emotional, from solo crooning to full congregation sing alongs, fervent testifyin' to sweet sweet serenades. So good.
Includes lengthy liner notes, discussing the life of Jones and the history of the label and the store, here presented as a faux issue of the Gospel Observer, a free bi-monthly newsletter Jones self published in the seventies. Housed in a heavy old style tip-on jacket.
This comp was recorded by a variety of artists from 1950 to the present. The music ranges from traditional blues to mid 60's soul pop to the rad blues rock that made bands like The Gories, The White Stripes, Demolition Doll Rods, and Black Top what they are.
It's a Mint Records family gathering of holiday sorts! This disc includes the five songs by Carolyn Mark, Duotang, David Carswell (who along with New Pornographer John Collins co-runs JC/DC Recording Studios) & Megan Barnes, the Evaporators and their offshoot Thee Snowglobe-lins originally released on the Team Mint Xmas Vol. 1 compilation that came out four years ago on 7" vinyl only. Adding to the festivities are eight more songs by country folks, diverse popsters and instrumental combos galore -- Ms Carolyn Mark (yes, she appears again!), Tennessee Twin, John Guliak (covering a Commander Cody song), the positively dreamy Young And Sexy, garage rawk party kings the Smugglers, the newwave-twangin' Buttless Chaps (covering a Johnny Cash song), the Ramblin' Ambassadors (members formerly of Huevos Rancheros), and Atomic 7 (ex-Shadowy Man From A Shadowy Planet Brian Connelly).
Plus a bunch of the Vancouver based members of the abovementioned groups got together with members of Beans, Maow, The Gay and The Organ and beat the Brits to the punch with their new rendition of "Do They Know It's Christmas?" There's even a video clip included on the cd. But we wonder... being Canadian and all, why didn't they remake the Canadian counterpart from back then "Tears Are Not Enough"? Y'know the one with Bryan Adams, Anne Murray, Joni Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot and Burton Cummings! Note: Keeping with the spirit of the original project, $3 from each cd sold will go to the Stephen Lewis Foundation, which was established by the U.N. Secretary-General's Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa.
Here's a refreshing collection of blues recordings produced by legendary keyboardist Jim Dickinson. It often seems that the best recordings of the blues and country come to us from crusty, decaying 78's lovingly cared for by obsessive collectors. Partly it's because the performers in the infancy of these genres had a certain amount of genuine inspiration, in contrast to the 1000th time someone plays the same blues progression with the now time worn cliche about being wronged by one's significant other. Another part of the equation is the circumstance under which the recordings were made. What someone plays, in one take, in their home or at their local bar than when surrounded by engineers and studio musicians and rehearsing a take 20 times before committing it to tape. Enter the Delta Experimental Project. For the first time, in what seems ages, a collection of recordings of great blues musicians recorded on the fly with -- in most cases -- minimal recording equipment and no second chances. Performers stop in mid refrain to talk about something that crossed their minds, or break out laughing (in earnest). In many tracks you can hear kids playing in the background, traffic rumbling and sundry other ambient noises usually aeseptically removed from studio recordings. Twelve great tracks ranging from barrel-house piano, gospel, fife and drum and more from the likes of Sleepy John Estes, Otha Turner, Mose Vinson, Johnnny Woods, Alec Teal & Butter Biscuit.
There's really nothing 'freak folky' going on in this British folk compilation. The music here is all pretty traditional. And thus pretty fantastic. Think Incredible String Band, Steeleye Span, Comus, Richard Thompson (and Fairport Convention), Trees, C.O.B., Shirley Collins, or the Wickerman Soundtrack (there's actually a song called 'Wicker Man' by The Story). As much as we love us some freak folk, none of that stuff would exist it it weren't for the above mentioned bands.
And the groups included on this comp, whose focus here is the fairly abstract 'dark folk', do a pretty amazing job of sifting through the various strains of classic British folk, and offering up their own subtle interpretations. And again, nothing shocking or even that experimental, just a new generation of musicians, paying tribute to the music that they grew up on, and that informed the music they make now. A handful of AQ faves are present, the Story, Far Black Furlong, Alphane Moon, Sharron Kraus, Martyn Bates, as are the A Lords, the Kitchen Cynics, Sol Invictus, and tons and tons of bands we had never heard of: The Horses Of The Gods, The Triple Tree, Pumajaw, English Heretic, The Anvil, Electronic Voice Phenomenon, The Purple Minds Of Lazeron, Quickthorn, Sand Snowman, Stormcrow, While Angels Watch, Xenis Emputae Traveling Band, Drohne and we could go on and on.
Two discs of glorious, classic sounding 'dark folk.' From lilting shanties, to tense ominous dirges, to brooding apocalyptic folk, to buzzing ragas, to dreamy lullabyes, fluttering flutes, fiddles and bongos, steel string guitars and an incredible array of vocal styles, male and female, raspy and weathered, wispy and dreamlike, mournful and melancholy, soft and breathy, dark doleful melodies, rich harmonies, weaving a gorgeous landscape of a lost sonic Britannica.
Amazing liner notes too, text on the source of the title, an introduction and explanation to the compilation, various short pieces on folk music and the history of folk music from a handful of the artists on the comp, concerning their songs, their groups and their musical journeys, lyrics, reproductions of old woodcuts and more. So fantastic. And absolutely essential listening for fans of freak folk, dark folk and seventies British folkmusic.
One of the things that made Johnny Cash such an amazing musician was his rich knowledge, appreciation and endless curiosity about music. This compilation traces his roots and in many ways it kind of feels like a mix tape Johnny would have made you if you were one of his friends. There is a common thread of strong story telling that Cash was always attracted to. Simplicity with soul. This collection brings together country legends like Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers and Ernest Tubb. The sounds of a young and so totally charismatic Roy Orbison, the powerful gospel singing of Sister Rosetta Tharpe, his would-be sister-in-law Anita Carter, Kris Kristofferson (who was a janitor at Columbia's Nashville studio's when he first met Johnny). The liner notes do a nice job of explaining the connection and influence of each track on Cash and his music. A really solid collection of old time songs that still sound totally fresh and raw.
Yazoo finally gets around to releasing boxsets with this lulu of a collection of classic tracks from Kentucky. This is pretty much as definitive as it gets, totaling 167 recordings from the 1920's and 30's and all from the humble bluegrass state. Banjo picking, fiddle playing, church choruses and more. This is essentially the two cd "Mountain Music of Kentucky" set on Smithsonian Folkways blown up to epic proportions. Includes a 32 page booklet with historical photos.
This barely even needs a review at this point, which at AQ customarily means a long and very extensive review will follow, but we're serious this time. We can barely keep anything on Mississippi Records in stock. This small Portland store turned reissue label has been releasing an amazing bunch of old timey gospel and blues comps, African comps, as well as some killer jazz. I Don't Feel At Home In This World Anymore, Life Is A Problem, Lipa Kodi Ya City Council. All sold out in the blink of an eye. Mississippi have been gradually repressing those, as well as readying a whole 'nother batch of musical goodness. Elsewhere on this list you'll find the Washington Phillips lp, and then there's this here beauty of a comp, Last Kind Words, an amazing collection of old timey blues, gospel, rhythm and blues, a ton of rarities, not the usual blues suspects at all: Edward Clayborn, Isiah Nettles, The Anglin Brothers, Kid Prince Moore, Lulu Jackson, Louis McDaniels & Gid Smith, Sister O.M. Terrell, Robert Wilkins and a bunch more.
A couple of our favorite tracks are the title track by Geechie Wiley, her voice so lovely and raw, a gorgeous mournful melody, and a hook that is so catchy, all it takes is one play in the store, and we're all humming it all day, and "Catfish Blues" by Robert Petway, some raw stomping stripped down blues, with some amazing guitar playing, but it's the voice that does it, a raspy soulful croon, that sounds like it was crafted using whiskey, cigarettes and sandpaper, occasionally soaring to an almost falsetto, but just as smoothly slipping into super low growl.
As if the music weren't enough, and believe us IT IS, Last Kind Words also features original artwork, by aQ pal and bad ass artist Chris Johanson. Also includes a printed cardstock insert with the track info and very little else. As always SO RECOMMENDED. And as always, be prepared for us to sell out of these right quick. We'll do our best to restock as quickly as possible, assuming the label doesn't sell out too...
**MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** **MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** **MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT**
Yep, Mississippi Records strikes again with another perfectly assembled compilation. Or more appropriately, they strike with a perfect cherry picked compilation of yet ANOTHER perfectly assembled compilation, as the eleven songs here represent highlights taken from Tompkins Square's massive 3cd set Fire In My Bones released back in 2007. So, in the event that you own that album already, you might not need this too, unless the vinyl format compells... But everyone else is advised to jump on board and embrace the gospel. Particularily if you'd rather have the 4 hours of that Fire In My Bones comp distilled down to two essential sides of vinyl.
The tracks here are of the variety that will make non-believers feel like they are missing out. It is important to note that Fire In My Bones was subtitled "Raw + Rare + Other-Worldly African-American Gospel". Raw and other-worldly being perhaps the best descriptions for the sounds within. Naturally, the enormity of Fire In My Bones might be too much for some folks to handle, so Last Time Around gets a warm welcome here at aQuarius. These songs cover pretty wide sonic ground. You have tracks like opener "Get Back Satan" by Rev. Roger L. Worthy & His Sister Bonnie, where the siblings accompany each other vocally with a beautiful tremeloed electric guitar, reminding us of some of the material on Sonic Boom's recent Spacelines compilation. Isaiah Owens' "You Without Sin Cast The First Stone" offers up a nice contrast with slashing electric guitar that sounds slightly (not too much) and awesomely out of tune, while the vocals go from Son House styled growls to a wailing falsetto. Elsewhere we have Bishop McDaniel, whose "Rock Daniels" is a stomping rocker with a sound that manages to outsleaze many of today's garage rock hopefuls. The gang gospel vocals, of course, take things to levels of heavenly bliss that you just can't reach unless you BELIEVE. Awesome. Kicking off side B, Isaac Haney & The Ebenezer Baptist Church Choir's "At A Time Like This (Part One) is a slow organ led number that serves a beautiful comedown to Bishop Daniel's fire and brimstone. The legendary Precious Bryant makes an appearance here with "The Saints", her amazing clear vocals and cool country strummed guitar making this a standout among the standouts. The album closes with Theotis Taylor's rendition of "Swing Low", where plinky pianos and awesome crooned vocals appear to overpower and distort the microphones for that in-the-red sound that we all LOVE.
Mississippi-heads have no doubt already hit the "add to cart" button, and while this pristine collection is great for anyone even slightly interested in gospel music, the performances here are so passionate, energetic, and cool that they will likely win over people who had no idea what real gospel music sounds like. As always, this one gets our highest recommendation.
We're pretty smitten with Mississippi Records. Not only are they a cool little record store in Portland Oregon, like AQ and OM and a handful of others, helping the neighborhood record store stay alive, they are also an amazing label, releasing remarkable vinyl only compilations, as well as a handful of limited release from underground musicians. In the past we listed the I Don't Feel At Home In This World Anymore 1927-1948 comp. Packed with lost old time blues (now sadly out of print), and the equally amazing Lipa Kodi Ya City Council collection that featured tons of rare African music, from high life to ju ju to pop to choral music...
And now we have the latest release from Mississippi, Life Is A Problem, which collects some totally mindblowing gospel rarities. A few we had heard of, like Utah Smith and Bishop Perry Tillis, but so many we had never heard or heard of before, and it's all fantastic. And so varied. Some tracks are classic gospel, all voices and handclaps, others are wild psychedelic freakouts, with slippery slide guitars and rambunctious percussion, still others are super soulful, some are sermons set to music, testifying over groovy guitars and warbly organs. The sound quality varies wildly too, from the crackly hiss of old 78s, the fiery and furious sound of blown out analog tapes, some are washed out and ethereal, others immediate and intense. But again, they're all fantastic, and wild and varied enough that even folks who aren't always into gospel, might dig this stuff for what it is, super creative, original, out there, personal and super inspired music, that transcends genre for sure.
Like all Mississippi releases, super nice handmade packaging. This one includes a printed insert featuring liner notes on each of the performers on the comp from Yeti Magazine's Mike McGonigal, as well as a bonus 7" featuring Bongo Joe Coleman doing "This Old World Is In Terrible Condition.
Obviously VERY recommended.
Another Sutro Park vinyl release of some authentic down home blues, a set recorded in 1971 at a moonshine shack in rural Tennessee, apparently never before released. Featured artists include Lattie "The Wolf" Murrell and William Floyd Davis, along with their host, the anonymous bootlegger!! And a bunch of other unknown folks, customers who came for the bootlegger's illegal liquor and stayed to add their voices to the night's impromptu festivities, fortunately recorded for posterity by interested 'white folks' (young Swedish blues documentarian Bengt Olsson). Tracks include such blues standards as "Spoonful" and "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl", with a few also specifically alluding to drinkin' and booze. So grab a can, bottle or jug of whatever's yer poison and kick back with this archival time capsule of a damn good time being had on a Saturday night in '71.
Includes entertaining liner notes on the sleeve that also help to bring the scene to life, as does Cameron Forsley's cover drawing, though the music sez it all anyway.
Wow, such a superb treat for any longtime Kath Bloom fan! This will surely win her many new ones too! Loving Takes This Course not only features a tribute cd packed with sixteen amazing artists covering her tunes, but also a second disc with the fifteen originals by the lady herself! Wondering why there's a discrepancy in track count? It's because there are two fine covers of "Come Here" - one that opens the tribute proceedings and one that closes it. So with these two discs, you can swiftly hear just how faithfully close the artists stuck to Bloom's delicately lilting and deeply intimate blueprint or how far they ventured away from it. Unlike some other tribute albums where you sorta end up having to step gingerly around the well-meaning, but not quite successful renditions, this collection is terrific and absolutely heartfelt from start to finish. Really, everyone shows their love and respect to this wonderful folk artist soooo beautifully in song!
Here's the who's who: Bill Callahan, Josephine Foster, Devendra Banhart, Meg Baird, Mark Kozelek, Marianne Dissard & Joey Burns (of Calexico), The Concretes, Tom Hanford, Peggy Frew & Mick Turner (of Dirty 3), Scout Niblett, Amy Rude, Marble Sounds, Laura Jean, Mia Doi Todd, Corrina Repp, and The Dodos! Wow.
Have to say, Monsieur Banhart's take on Forget About Him", Dissard & Burns' darker hued "It's So Hard To Come Home" and The Concretes' dreamy "Come Here" are particularly tickling our fancy this week! Don't miss!
To commemorate their 100th release, Bloodshot Records put out this release which is loaded with out of print or hard to find singles. There's plenty of lively covers (of Funkadelic, Loretta Lynn, Poison, and Madonna to name a few) and a handful of previously unreleased treasures too. Tracks include: Waco Brothers "Harder They Come", Kelly Hogan "1,000,001" (previously unreleased), Ryan Adams "Goodbye Honey" (previously unreleased from the "Heartbreaker" sessions), Andre Williams & 2 Star Tabernacle "Lilly White Mama/Jet Black Daddy", Moonshine Willy "Complicated Games, The Meat Purveyors "The Madonna Trilogy", Neko Case & the Sadies "Rated X", Rex Hobart & the Misery Boys "Every Rose Has Its Thorn", The Sadies "Little Sadie", Moonshine Willy "George Set Me Strait", The Volebeats "Maggot Brain, Parts 1 & 2", Kelly Hogan & the Mellocremes "Hanky Panky Woman", Ryan Adams "To Be Young" (previously unreleased acoustic version), Rex Hobart & the Misery Boys "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights", Kelly Hogan & John Wesley Harding "It's Only Make Believe" (previously unreleased), Andre Williams & 2 Star Tabernacle "Ramblin' Man", Moonshine Willy "Alone", and Jonboy Langford "Nashville Radio".
Arrrrggggggghhhhhh!!! When will it end?! Okay, so at least there's no mention of O' Brother Where Art Thou in this collection, but there can be no doubt as to what goose Yazoo is pulling their eggs from this time round. To their credit, Yazoo has an excellent catalog of early rural American music in their possession. Unfortunately, that catalog is not getting any bigger as time goes by. So those of you who have picked up previous concept anthologies on Yazoo such as: 'Times Ain't What They Used To Be', 'Before The Blues', 'Rose Grew Around The Briar', 'Music of Kentucky', and 'My Rough & Rowdy Ways' have probably noticed a lot of overlap in the songs included on them. The end result is that the average person interested in the wares offered by Yazoo picks up a few titles until the redundancy gets to be too great and they stop. Of the 20 tracks on 'Man of Constant Sorrow' half of them have been included on one of these other collections, so you can play your chips on this one if you've got a few of the others or pass. However, if your eye was caught by this title because of its connection to the platinum selling soundtrack to that particular Coen Brothers film and you have not previously delved into the anthology world of Yazoo, this collection may be the thing for you. And I think that's what the intent is anyhoo. 'Man of Constant Sorrow: And other Timeless Mountain Ballads' is the compiler's attempt to demonstrate the rich heritage of brutally straightforward ballads in rural American music from the 30's and 40's. From well known classics such as the album's namesake "John Henry", "John Hardy", "Darling Cora" and a heap of lesser known tiles as well.
This is not *really* a new item here at Aquarius, but we realised that even though we sell tons of these on a regular basis, we have never listed it. So we thought we'd mention its existence to those of you who might not have the oppurtunity to stumble across it in our bins. Mountain Music of Kentucky is a collection originally compiled by photographer John Cohen and released as a single LP in 1960. The CD reissue comes expanded to two discs, expanding the project a full 60 minutes. The recordings, all made in 1959, document the music of rural Kentucky -- specifically, the Appalachian mountains. Whether it's solo voice accompanied by guitar or a banjo or a full blown church choir, the tracks collected here are all fucking great and guaranteed to raise the hairs on your arms to rigid spikes. And if you don't have hair on your arms, you'll think you did. Among the most well represented (track wise) of the 14 artists on these two discs is AQ fave and kick ass banjo picker Roscoe Holcomb, who gets a healthy 22 cuts. But probably the most eerie and heart stopping tracks on this disc are the two tracks (a mere 12 minutes) of the Old Baptist Church which are powerful enough to put the fear of god into the most straight laced athiest. Includes a fat 36 page booklet with notes and gorgeous photos by John Cohen. This one comes very highly recommended.
So named in the late 18th century, "The Lost Provinces" consisted of Ashe, Watuaga and Alleghany counties in the Northwestern corner of North Carolina. Geographically isolated by the steep passes of the Blue Ridge Mountains, all but roadless until well into the 20th century, the area became home to rugged indivualists; settlers who made do with what they could eke out of the land and brave brutal winters on such meager fruits. As such the region produced some amazing musicians -- fiddlers especially, considering that dances were the primary social and entertainment function. Stringbands grew organically out of the fiddle-centric dance music and by the 1930's, with record scouts searching far and wee for new country music entertainment, the local musicians found themselves being wooed near and far to record tracks for Okeh, Victor and Columbia. This collection brings together great tracks by some of the most influential musicans of the area, including Grayson & Whitter, Frank Blevins & His Tar Heel Rattlers, The North Carolina Ridge Runners and much more. Included is a 28 page booklet with historical notes and photos.
**MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT**
This compilation ain't no fun-in-the-sun style calypso music, it's more like APOCALYPSO music. Song titles include "Death", "The Horrors Of War", "When Me Body Lay Down In The Grave", "Inequality Of Life", "Exploiting", "African War Call" and the title track, among others! A reminder that calypso originated in part as sociopolitical protest music, and could certainly reflect the darker side of life. Artists, some famed, all classic, include Lord Invader, The (Roaring) Lion, Lord Executor, Atilla The Hun, Lionel Belasco, and more. Sweet, sad stuff, the only Calypso comp we know of to mention double murder and suicide on the back cover...
As the title indicates, this is the 2nd installment in Pet's Mystic Males series of comps, itself a subset of their Soft Sounds For Gentle People series, devoted to mellow, mystical '60s men doing flower power pop psych and folk tunes.
Lovely stuff, all about girls and flowers and daydreaming and suchlike. Sample song titles: "Lady Of The Burning Green Jade", "I'm A Deeper Blue", and "Four Robins Singing". The songs live up to the titles!
13 tracks in all, circa 1966-69, featuring the following obscure "tripped-out troubadours" we hadn't heard of before: Tyree Forest, Darrius, John Dunn, Gerry Pond, Shalynn, Ed Power, Dick St. John, Paul Stoop, Richard Coronado, Stephen Hartley, Malcolm Mitchell, Art Gee, and Jeff Monn.
Jim Blanchard and Misty Morgan were two of country music strangest creatures. Not only releasing some far-out sides as a duo, they helped produce many of Nashville's more left-field acts. Nashville Sputnick, the latest compilation from the Omni Recording Corporation (who also released Porter Wagoner's The Rubber Room, and Bruce Haack's Electric Lucifer) features many of Blanchard and Morgan's production highlights from the fifties to the present. Like the space-age sounds of Joe Meek meeting the down-home (and often cornball) wit of Hee-Haw, this compilation covers obscure and little heard sides of country-pop gold.
Hailing from Buffalo, but meeting in Hollywood, Florida where they both played lounge piano in neighboring clubs, the duo seemed psychically connected to meet (especially after finding out they were born in the same hospital, and their parents and siblings shared the same names, amongst other strange synchronicities). Releasing a string of 45's under different names and independent labels, Blanchard found his way into Nashville as an independent producer after producing surprise hit "Gemini" which ended up being covered by The Ventures. Influenced by The Tornadoes, "Telstar", Blanchard and Morgan saw a way for country music to be taken out of the "earthly moorings" that had reigned supreme in Nashville. Years before mavericks like Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson had wrangled creative control for themselves from the grip of the Nashville machine in the seventies, Blanchard and Morgan, consummate outsiders, managed to shake up the establishment by penning tons of tunes with a novelty flair and studio gimmickry that became increasing popular. Mostly because they weren't about the usual country music themes. Songs about the space age, time travel, dancing skeletons, and living dead chickens along with more common themes about travelin, cowards, and sensitive love songs, gave the duo enough credibility by taking country music out of its more provincial themes and actually relating to current events and style trends emerging in the sixties. Although most of the acts they produced early on like Joel Mathis, Rusty Diamond, Donel Austin, and Brad Wolfe never broke big, they were paving the way to break out themselves, charting a string of hits in the seventies such as "Tennessee Bird Walk" and "Somewhere In Virginia In The Rain" (of which a disco version is included here). Nashville Sputnick contains a rare glimpse into a spacey sound that is so little heard or remembered in country music, but one that should be played as often as possible.
There will probably never be that one good comprehensive collection of British Folk Rock that will please both stalwart fans and those new to the genre, though this one comes close solely by not attempting to be all-encompassing. Mining the vaults of Island Records, who licensed recordings from so many bands that recorded for Joe Boyd's Witchseason Productions, Rev-Ola has been able to put together a genealogy of sorts mainly through Boyd's and Island's biggest folk rock act, Fairport Convention. Through them we see threads to other seminal Boyd acts, Nick Drake, and Incredible String Band (though, the Island holdings of the String Band discography is from their later Scientology years); other Island Records folk-rock successes such as Traffic, John Martyn and Amazing Blondel; as well as many of Fairport's spin-off acts: Fotheringay, Albion Country Band, Richard and Linda Thompson, solo Sandy Denny, and many of Ashley Hutchings' one-off super-group projects. This is a good entry place for beginners as, apart from The Incredible String Band track, you get a good mix of classic and rarely heard tracks such as Sandy Denny's "Man of Iron" which was only previously released on a rare soundtrack, and other little heard tracks from Dr. Strangely Strange, and John Locke, whose early twentieth century recording provides the scene's founding roots . For such a seemingly small cluster of bands, this compilation covers a lot of ground.
Artists such as Grandaddy, The Handsome Family, Sparklehorse, Evan Dando and Mark Eitzel doing some covers of classic country tunes by the likes of Hank Williams and Kris Kristofferson, along with some old 'n dusty sounding originals.
Compilation celebrating the big apple's cornucopia of ethnic populations and the various musical traditions they uphold amidst mainstream media and culture's hegemonic tendencies. 31 tracks, representing a wide variety of groups are collected here: Puerto Rican, Dominican, Albanian, Chinese, Korean, West African, Afro-Cuban, Trinidadian, Bulgarian-Gypsy, Irish, Greek, Eastern European Jewish, Haitian, Colombian, Lebanese, Ukrainian, Italian and more. Includes Smithsonian-Folkways standard heavy booklet of liner notes -- 40 pages to be exact -- and lots of photos as well.
Let's not forget the blues. New buget-priced label sampler from badass blues champions Fat Possum (now distributed by big punkcorporation Epitaph and set to conquer the world). Features some wild and wooly tracks from R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough (R.I.P.), Hasil Adkins, T-Model Ford...i.e. lots of old fellers who'll put a boot up your backside. Plus some young 'uns, including Jon Spencer Blues Explosion side-project 20 Miles. So don't just get the blues and sit there depressed, get the blues, put this on, and break things! An excellent introduction to the many somewhat sensationalistic but genuinely non-crap artists on Fat Possum.
Another budget comp of raw and gritty blues by old (sometimes dead) Delta denziens like R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, Scott Dunbar, T-Model Ford, Paul Jones, and others.
Let's face it, most tribute albums suck. I can count on one hand the number of tribute albums I have *loved*. (Well, actually on one finger, namely the Roky Erickson trib.) Now along comes this FANTASTIC collection of songs performed by a perfectly-chosen array of alt country musicmakers, all paying their respects to Kris Kristofferson with achingly gorgeous renditions of his songs. I'm hard pressed to even name highlight tracks, because *all* of them are lovely. The mood is consistently downer, the performances retain the flavor of the individual contributing bands, but let the brilliance of Kristofferson's songwriting show thru. And who doesn't love "Me and Bobby McGee", "Help Me Make it Thru the Night", and my personal fave "Sunday Mornin' Coming Down"? If you're not a Kristofferson fan (yet), get this anyway -- it serves as a wonderful intro to the perpetual outsider with the progressive politics who mopped floors at a Columbia's Nashville studios just so he could slip Johnny Cash tapes of his songs! (The liner notes go into his life story a bit -- quite fascinating -- he was involved in the Central American conflicts, visited the Sandanistas, is working to free Leonard Peltier, etc.)
Participants include Souled American, Calexico, Radar Brothers, Zmrzlina, Virgil Shaw (Dieselhed), Richard Buckner, Howe Gelb (Giant Sand), Grandaddy, Deanna Varagone (Lambchop), Court and Spark, Califone, Handsome Family -- all artists already established as wonderful. Hear them pay tribute. Take it from me, the picky tribute listener -- this one is GREAT. It will make you love Kristofferson while also providing a stunning snapshot of the current alt.country scene. Highly recommended!
The soundtrack to the Coen Brothers film "O Brother Where Art Thou" was recorded before even a single frame of film was shot, so it really is a film that exists as (as Joel Coen puts it), "a valentine to the music." The brothers enlisted the help of T Bone Burnett and Gillian Welch to compile old recordings and also lots of new material recorded specially for the film. Includes the talents of bluegrass sweetheart Alison Kraus, Emmylou Harris, the Stanley Bros, the Fairfield Four, the Cox Family, etc. Yes, the songs that the band in the film (George Clooney, etc) performs are also here, and they ain't half bad. If you want a fine collection of old timey, bluegrass, and country music, go for it. (Also do get this if, like me, you're an Alison Kraus fan, as her rendition of "Down to the River to Pray" is sublime.)
A wonderful compilation of the -- until recently -- under-exposed world of female bluegrass music featuring the lovely, familiar voices of such artists as Hazel Dickens, Alice Gerrard and Alison Krauss. Nineteen rich, rootsy numbers in all (18 taken from the
***MISSISSIPPI RECORDS!!!***MISSISSIPPI RECORDS!!!***MISSISSIPPI RECORDS!!!***MISSISSIPPI RECORDS!!!***
Like a Pavlovian bell, just the mere utterance of this vinyl-only Portland label gets everyone aflutter, ready to eagerly acquire no matter what the sounds contained inside. We suppose if they put out a record solely of sounds made by cement mixers, back-hoes or traffic noises and packaged it in a sweet homemade album cover with nostalgic photos of antique construction equipment, and called it something like "My Heart Belongs To The Public Works", we'd sell out of them just as fast as their awesome compilations of pre-war blues or their reissues of obscure post-punk groups. As cool as that actually sounds, the not one, but TWO Mississippi releases we have this week are both super stellar and we know everyone is going to want at least one if not both of them.
Oh Graveyard, You Can't Hold Me Always is Mississippi Record's third (and arguably best) compilation of obscure gospel recordings. But instead of focusing on church revival songs featured on Life is a Problem, or the personal redemptive blues of Fight On, Your Time Ain't Long, here we have a compilation of joyous private pressing recordings from the sixties and seventies featuring mostly small family vocal groups and band ensembles, like the Mosby Family singers, Straight Street Holiness Group, Laura Rivers, Rev. Lonnie Farris, Radio Four, Joe Townsend, White Family, Silver Quintette, James Carter & The Mighty Stars, Farris and Williams, Traveling Echoes, Brother Willie Eason, Happy Travelers and an anonymous final track that sounds like either small children or munchkins singing "We Shall Overcome". Often sounding like they were recorded on street corners or in small community halls or city shelters, we can imagine that like the picture on the cover, these songs were recorded with the whole group surrounding one microphone. Although there are a few old school blues moments, there is a greater emphasis here on R&B and soul motifs than on previous gospel comps. Many of the songs feature mostly just guitar and bass, with the guitars playing out chiming circular riffs in an almost Afro-Caribbean vein, suggesting that many of the tracks were recorded far outside American urban centers (there's no liner notes, so we're guessing). One sweet instrumental track features some very nice Hawaiian-style slide guitar. This is a stunning collection of gospel tunes, amazing for its atypicality, showcasing an innocent simplicity and a transcendent independent spirit.
Two new compilations of gospel music from Trikont. Most of the tracks on these two discs are not the standard gospel quartets and choruses that are more likely to be what comes to mind when one thinks of gospel, but gospel music that comes out of popular
Two new compilations of gospel music from Trikont. Most of the tracks on these two discs are not the standard gospel quartets and choruses that are more likely to be what comes to mind when one thinks of gospel, but gospel music that comes out of popular
Awesome collection of 40's and 50's big band novelty songs. The sound ranges from the torch song vocals of Dorothy Shay, to the cheesy big band Lawrence Welk Orchestra sound of the Four Lads to the twangy redneck hick humor of Arthur Godfrey. We just threw it on, but we (Allan and Andee) ended up listening to the whole thing and cracking up more than once. A great listen and a perfect party record. Some names you might recognize, Doris Day, Dinah Shore, The Hoosier Hotshots, but most of the artists are unknown (at least to us) especially Dorothy Shay, who seems to be the 'star' of this record, and who is responsible for the best song on this compilation, 'Feudin' And Fightin', a hilarious (and catchy) tale of feudin' neighbors, featuring lyrics like: "Grandma, poor old Grandma, why'd they have to shoot poor Grandma" and "Daughter, baby daughter, poisoned all the neighbors chickens, daughter shouldn't ought'er, at least til she can run like the dickens, they hit her with a shovel" and "Let's give our daughter a pistol, now that she's four." Weird and fun. (But be warned, some of the material is a bit rough and doesn't seem as funny as we're supposed to assume it was in the '40s; check out the sound sample for 'Slap 'Er Down Again, Paw').
Sometimes it seems there's so much old music to be rediscovered, what's the point in even making more? Well, maybe so folks 100 years from now can put out an amazing archival boxset of black metal, or doom, or freak folk. But we digress.
Murder ballads, true life tales of sorrow and sadness, tragedy and death, loss and misery, set to music, songs designed to help mourn, to pass on tales of lives lived and lost, a way to celebrate life, and fight off our fear of death.
For over a hundred years, these songs have existed, probably longer, the music and lyrics like tabloid newspapers, sensationalistic, bold and explicit, never designed to be popular, or mainstream, instead they existed for the people, who were hungry to hear about disaster and mayhem, just like slowing down to look at a car wreck, these songs would hold the listeners in thrall, not only designed to tell a tale, but maybe teach a lesson as well.
This collection is massive, gorgeously presented, extensively researched, and beyond all that, just an amazing collection of fantastic songs, most culled from old 78's, dusty and scratchy, hissy, pops and crackle, adding an appropriately old timey patina, country, rhythm and blues, the subject matter appropriately dark, and sinister, as if those musics weren't already primarily focused on death and dying, broken hearts and murdered sweethearts.
The sounds range from campfire country to stripped down blues, to bouncy rhythm and blues, to mournful ballads, to twangy honky tonk and every variation in between. Men, women, young, and old, all recorded between 1913 and 1938, spinning their tales, around the campfire, behind a bottle of whiskey, on a street corner, anyway there were folks in need of a good, and tragic story.
The packaging is amazing, a clothbound hardcover book the cds in little pockets on the inside of both the front and back covers, a huge book, a introduction by Tom Waits, a brief history of the genre, and then super in depth notes on each artist and each track, tons of photos, and not just the performers, but the various accidents, wrecks, mishaps and tragedies that inspired these songs (not least among them, the sinking of the Titanic!).
On first look, and even first listen, Plantation Gold will probably seem quite familiar to a lot of folks, the faded cover image, the list of performers beneath the album title in big gold letters, inside, lots of twanging guitars, foot stompin' rhythms, slippery lap steel, booming stentorian male crooners, rich dulcet female vocalists, tales of love and loss, heartbreak and tragedy, all the sort of stuff you would expect from country music in the sixties and seventies. But look, or listen, even a tiny bit closer, and Plantation Gold reveals itself as just about the furthest thing from traditional country you can imagine.
The Plantation label (later SSS) was the brainchild of a man named Shelby Singleton, who over close to a decade, gathered up some of the most idiosyncratic, unique, and plain crazy country music artists EVER. The closest to gold that Shelby and Plantation got, and probably the only name / song here that will be truly familiar, is the country classic "Harper Valley P.T.A." written by Tom T. Hall and performed by Ms. Jeannie C. Riley, which was in fact a bona fide hit record, the single went on to sell hundreds of thousands, the album millions, and even convinced Singleton to put together a singing group actually called the Harper Valley P.T.A. to cash in on the hype, as well as inspiring a handful of homages, the weirdest one included here, more on that shortly. The rest of the tracks on these two discs range from full on over the top whatthefuck, to slightly skewed, sometimes incorporating strange sound effects, bizarre instrumentation, but sometimes playing it straight, letting the song subject and the lyrics take what on the surface sounds like regular old country music, turning it into something way more freaked out and gleefully goofy (and on occasion borderline offensive to today's more PC sensiblities).
Dee Mullins' "I Am The Grass" seems pretty straight ahead, minus the lyrics about Bigfoot and the freaky metallic effects laden hissy psychedelic refrain in the chorus. Neil Ray's "Big Fanny" is one of those Johnny Cash style talking country songs, the subject of the song a metaphorical 300 pound ugly woman in Vietnam. Weird. "Sold To The Highest Bidder" by Johnny Moore And Col. Tex Herring, is the story of all the happy memories and the family home being sold at auction, featuring an actual auctioneer reeling off the list of everything that must go. Becki Bluefield offers up the surprisingly saucy "Somebody's Gonna Plow Your Field". And then there's "Happy Valley C.I.A.", the aforementioned problematic version of Plantation's big hit, here laced with groovy sixties sitar, the vocals delivered in a very politically incorrect faux Chinese accent.
Johnny Credit offers up his theme song, featuring the clever refrain "I ain't never had no cash", and sounding, as you might guess, just like the Man In Black himself. Best country song title award would have to go to "I'm The Mail She's Waiting For" a innuendo laced love song by Chuck Wood. Then there's The Harper Valley P.T.A.'s "I Dig Dangling Participles", a clever bit of country wordplay. The other star attraction here is Tokyo Matsu, who sounds like an Asian Patsy Cline, all woozy reverb soaked twang, barrelhouse piano, slippery slide guitar, and Matsu's thickly accented croon.
And that's barely getting into the FIRST disc. There's LOTS more on disc one, and 30 MORE weird and wonderful twangy jams on disc two. Every song is a gem, whether it's laugh out loud funny, clever or subtly racy, or heartfelt and dramatic. We could pretty much go track by track, "Four On The Floor (And A Fifth Under The Seat)" is a dark brooding morality play sung by an actual police trooper, "Groovy Grubworm" is a countrified funky hoedown by Harlow Wilcox & The Oakies, and then there's Rod Hart's "C.B. Savage", the tale of a gay trucker, and his suggestive transmissions, another politically incorrect gem, the kind of song that makes you laugh, but also makes you a bit uncomfortable, and is most definitely the sort of song no one could get away with anymore.
Every time we play this in the store, people stop what they're doing to listen, to laugh, most of the time they come up to see what the heck it is we're listening to, and more often than not, leave with their own copy. The booklet is massive, with a history of Singleton, Plantation and SSS, and a fairly in depth description of each artist and all the songs, as well as tons of photos and reproductions of some of the jackets and record labels.
Some seriously twisted outsider country genius, WAY recommended, even if you're not necessarily that into country music, and all you folks into 'incredibly strange music' kind of stuff and those song-poem compilations we love so much, should definitely check this out!
Tribute to The Knitters, the country offshoot of L.A. punk greats X. Featuring tracks by: Whiskeytown, Robbie Fulks, The Old 97's (with John Doe), Handsome Family, The Rock*A*Teens, and even an unreleased track by The Knitters themselves. Me thinks it funny (much as I like the Knitters) that this could be considered to be a tribute to The Knitters when over half the songs on the album were not even written by The Knitters. Oh well, what'r ya gonna do?
So stoked to have this awesome collection back in print!
Here's an interesting collection. Put together by Robert Crumb, at the behest of his wife Aline, from his personal collection of 78's. The collection moves across the globe by continent, starting in Louisiana, USA moving south through Mexico, the Caribbean and Latin America; then touching down in Europe (Spain, Sicily, Greece and Turkey), moving south through Africa, on to India and South East Asia (Burma & Vietnam), and finally resting in the South Pacific. Most of the recordings come from the 30's (with a few from as early as 1927 and as recent as 1950) and are quite likely to be tracks you've never heard before in your life. Some artists, like Greek singer Rita Abadzi, first lady of Cajun Cleoma Falcon and Norteno musician Lidya Mendoza are well known, and have plenty of recordings assuring their place in history. But of much of the others on this disc, very little is known. In a typically erudite, but self deprecating and witty form that is unique to himself, Robert Crumb leads us through his recordings armed with what little knowledge he's been able to glean about each performer (mostly from the internet and, Crumb insists, with the help of others who understand such modern technology).
Here's an interesting collection. Put together by Robert Crumb, at the behest of his wife Aline, from his personal collection of 78's. The collection moves across the globe by continent, starting in Louisiana, USA moving south through Mexico, the Caribbean and Latin America; then touching down in Europe (Spain, Sicily, Greece and Turkey), moving south through Africa, on to India and South East Asia (Burma & Vietnam), and finally resting in the South Pacific. Most of the recordings come from the 30's (with a few from as early as 1927 and as recent as 1950) and are quite likely to be tracks you've never heard before in your life. Some artists, like Greek singer Rita Abadzi, first lady of Cajun Cleoma Falcon and Norteno musician Lidya Mendoza are well known, and have plenty of recordings assuring their place in history. But of much of the others on this disc, very little is known. In a typically erudite, but self deprecating and witty form that is unique to himself, Robert Crumb leads us through his recordings armed with what little knowledge he's been able to glean about each performer (mostly from the internet and, Crumb insists, with the help of others who understand such modern technology).
Oneof three new Mississippi titles this week is an infectious ten inch charting what they call "The Global Rise of Rocking Music" over two decades , eight songs and seven countries. Largely, this is swinging big band music with touches of boogie, jive, early rock and roll and hot jazz from corners both far and near, each with its own unique cultural trademarks. A Thai take on an American song called "Rocking in Baghdad", a classic from Zimbabwe that has been described by the Everly Brothers as the first rock n roll record they ever heard, a female Japanese jazz singer who was once a geisha, jump blues from Egypt, Columbian cumbia, Chicagoan polka, hillbilly boogie from Ohio, and an Indian film theme that would have fit right in on one of the Great Googly Moo compilations. Red Hot!
Despite the crappy looking cover, a pretty cool "race music" collection full of classic blues and gospel that set the scene for today's hip hop and rap.
