[ aquarius records — Country Folk Blues ]

IMPORTANT (Please read to avoid confusion): Some items below may be tagged with a bold, red, all-caps OUT OF PRINT/UNAVAILABLE notice. This does NOT mean that all other items not so tagged are, in fact, in stock — or for that matter, in print and available, though there's a good chance they are. Some folks get confused on this point, and we can see why, so please read this for further clarification and other important before-you-order information. Unlike some mailorder websites, we don't have an electronic inventory system linked to our site, so you can't be sure of what we actually have or don't have in stock at any given moment without asking us — please email our mailorder department for availability status — or better yet, just go ahead and place your order using our shopping cart function and we'll get back to you with the status of each item. If you have general non-mailorder questions, email the store.

Showing results 301 through 350 of 1618.

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. Local boy Matty Charles' first 7" won't, or shouldn't, be his last. Beautiful, heart rending songs sung with a voice at times silky and others gravelly. Some of the best country to come out in a while.

Never heard of the Cherry Blossoms? Neither had we, but some quick digging around revealed that they are a damaged abstract free folk jugband from Tennessee, and that for this here disc, they were joined by none other than folk songstress Josephine Foster for a dizzying, tripped out experimental folk freeforall. Foster fans should be well prepared to not expect only gentle strumming, dreamy torch songs, and Appalachian fingerpicking, while some of that stuff is present, Foster spends as much time wading through dizzying folk flecked soundworlds that have way more in common with the No Neck Blues Band or Sunburned Hand Of The Man or Avarus. But even compared to those far out cats, some of this sounds pretty dang unhinged. Thee opening track is a minimal chaotic swirl of random clatter, detuned guitar strum and scrape, and a dense cloud of tangled voices, a druggy psychedelic choir, voices all intertwined, crooning and cooing, careening back and forth, wild and confusional, eventually coalescing into a drug folk lament right at the end, before drifting into the next track, a wandering atonal folk jam, the guitar stumbling and detuned, jaw harp, more kitchen sink clatter, and those vocals again, not your typical harmonies, ghostly and mildly atonal, the main male vocal, a lazy drawl, wandering through a forest of feminine chanting and falsetto ooh's and ahh's. A lot of this sounds like genuine old timey music, that became corrupted as it was transmitted forward through time from the old days, everything coming through slightly twisted and tweaked, the vocals wavery and haunting, the guitars slightly out of tune, the drums more a splatter of percussion than actual rhythm, the whole record wavers druggily from dreamy damaged folk to abstract drone and strum, back and forth, often multiple times in the same song. On first listen, it's definitely strange and off putting, but a few songs in, we couldn't help but be carried off, lulled into a strange trance, by these mesmerizingly off kilter lullabies.

MPEG stream: Shimey Chuck Down
MPEG stream: Shaker Tune
MPEG stream: These Were Our Woods

After last year's Silverlake album and slew of old Chesnutt reissues, we've sure had our fave Vic on the mind around here, and been wishing for more. Well folks, whadyaknow?! Here's a brand new album, and it does not disappoint! Some folks we know were a little disappointed by Silverlake, not sure why, maybe they were missing the more playful ramshackle Chesnutt of old, and while those folks might not necessarily find what they want here, they should be prepared (and excited) for yet another new direction from the musically restless Chesnutt. Even darker (if that's possible) and a lot more lush, Ghetto Bells is a swoonsome, melancholy dream world of droning soundscapes, twangy melancholia, and wistful countrified folk. Lyrically, less wryly clever secretly silly, and more serious and somber. The seemingly incongruous pairing of his gravelly voice atop the surprisingly elegant string arrangements brought to mind a few recordings of Leonard Cohen. We might venture to say though that the final song on the album is by far the strangest, most out-there song Chesnutt has ever recorded. A delicate, sparse, moody soundscape of upright bass, vibes, chiming harmonics, with Chesnutt singing in a wavery falsetto. Werid but really quite beautiful.

MPEG stream: Little Ceasar
MPEG stream: Gnats
MPEG stream: Virginia

Vic Chesnutt's early albums have always been a bit hard to come by... especially this one from 1990. Fingers are crossed that New West keeps these reissues in print! This is the album that started it all, and it's the one that's nearest and dearest to Cup (Andee on the other hand hugs Chesnutt's Is The Actor Happy? album). Unlike his later albums which infused pop elements into the foundation of his rootsy blues-folk, Little features some of his most barebones, raw acoustic guitar work. This starkness provides an all the more effective backdrop for one of the most expressive sourpuss voices around singing some of the most gnawingly bleak songs around. Bleary and skewed, his words tumble unapologetically from his lips -- emotional scars and verbal barbs all completely out in the open. Produced by Michael Stipe who took a shine to Chesnutt early on and helped bring him to college radio eyes and ears. Includes five previously unreleased tracks.

MPEG stream: Isadora Duncan
MPEG stream: Independence Day

The latest jewel unearthed by the B-Music Collective for Finders Keepers is so obscure it was actually never released. Only a small number of privately pressed vanity copies were made of this 1970 Philly-based folk-beat head trip. Using Philly studio session musicians, Axelrod-style breaks, spaghetti-western guitar, A&M strings and the "legendary" production of John Hill, who is dubiously credited in the liner notes as the inventor of both Trip Hop and Heavy Metal for his production work with Margo Guryan and The Riders of the Mark (a heavy psych predecessor to Black Sabbath, supposedly?!). Don't know about that, but the trip hop mystique of Susan Christie is definitely apparent by the opening riff of the title track begging to be sampled a million times over if it hasn't already. But it isn't just the sample potential that makes this a worthy listen. Just about every song is full of hooks and unique arrangements and darkly-tinged songwriting. Check out the nine-minute centerpiece "Yesterday, Where's My Mind?" with its spoken recitations of a bad trip culminating in a damning freak-out, before slipping into a fuzzy downbeat rocker. Freak-folk indeed!

MPEG stream: Paint A Lady
MPEG stream: Yesterday, Where's My Mind?

MPEG stream: Dragon's Dance
MPEG stream: Song Of Our Despair
MPEG stream: Willow Tree

Who can resist such a title???

Here's the real deal! Vintage recordings of Ms Patsy Cline! This generous serving of 23 songs from the '50s showcases her awesome voice and stylistic range beautifully. Walking And Dreaming is part of an impressive reissue series of classic old country artists from the mysterious Oakland, CA label The Masked Weasel. Also featured in the series thus far are great collections of early recordings by Willie Nelson, Buck Owens and Waylon Jennings. AQ friend and country music expert Kurt Wolff (author of the Rough Guide To Country Music, among other things) contributed the fine liner notes for each volume of the series.

MPEG stream: Walkin' After Midnight
MPEG stream: Stop, Look And Listen

Nashville is best known as a magnet for songwriters, musicians, and performers looking to break into the country music business; at the same time, it continues to house a small yet viable collection of exceptional artists and outlandish freaks within its genteel Southern city limits. Nashville should be proud of its eccentrics, especially the atypical songwriter Dave Cloud, who can be regularly found parked at the Springwater (a dive bar which happens to be next to Hog Heaven which slow-cooks some the best BBQ in Middle Tennessee ... make sure to try the white sauce). Cloud's alcoholic croon caught the ear of the members of Lambchop who as the Gospel of Power helped Cloud realize his second album All My Best. Cloud affects a number of vocal styles; on occasion, it's a baritone that ripples with excessive vibratto like Isaac Hayes on a motley selection of prescription drugs; on others, he's stuck in a locked groove like Philip Jeck record picking unusual phrases to repeat a few too many times. It becomes quite clear that Cloud's head is not quite screwed on right; but fortunately, the Gospel of Power keep true to Cloud's outsider aesthetics, as opposed to the Wesley Willis albums which found him working with a bad metal-funk fusion band or later Daniel Johnston records which that suffer from too much production. All My Best includes a wide selection of idiosyncratic covers such as the Rolling Stones' "Let's Spend The Night Together" and KC and the Sunshine Band's "Get Down Tonight," plus a smattering of originals.

MPEG stream: Evil Dracula Man
MPEG stream: Get Down Tonight

A name that seems to be popping up more and more among the new breed of new folk / free folk underground noisemakers is�Tirath Singh Nirmala, who has released a series of limited cd-r's on various microlabels, as well as a handful of lps and cds, the only release we've had was an lp collaboration with longtime AQ fave Richard Youngs, and even in that review we were lamenting the fact that we had yet to review a Tirath record proper. Well, while this isn't a proper Tirath record, per se, it is a brand new recording by John Clyde-Evans, who just so happens to be the man behind�Tirath Singh Nirmala, and while the name may be different, the sound is quite similar.� Asian instruments are bowed and coaxed into unfurling long dreamlike drones, shrouded in Sunroof!-like clouds of glistening sparkling high end skree, like a sky full of shimmering metallic confetti, simple percussion peppering the gauzy swirl, haunting melodies wrapping themselves around thick sheets of crystalline feedback, a fantastic slab of shimmering trance-like upper register ur-drone drift.� LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. Already SOLD OUT and OUT OF PRINT at the label. We have a bunch, but they obviously won't last long. The tapes are all psychedelic and hand painted, with tripped out full color covers.�

Oh yeah, the original country bad boy. For all the tough guys who acted the part, snarled and swaggered, none could hold a candle to David Allan Coe, who spent a good amount of his younger years in prison before he headed to Nashville to make it big in country music. He was bad ass and prison tough before it was cool. But once the big boys decided it was cool, they all came crawling back, dying to hear Coe's tales of life behind bars. This is true life, bad ass, foot stomping, boogie woogie country blues. Tales of drugs and fighting and lonliness and death. As well as one of our favorite Coe tracks "Death Row", where Coe unveils his impossibly exotic and ridiculous requests for his last meal. After all, a man can't die until he's had his last meal, so if you have to track down a double yoked egg from an albino pigeon, with fried bat wings over easy, well you'll be sitting pretty for a long long time. Each song is a stone cold classic, wild guitars, honky tonk piano, wailing harmonicas, shuffling rhythms and Coe's lazy countrified drawl. All packaged in a gorgeous digipak reissue that faithfully recreates the original lp's die cut bars and has extensive liner notes that tell Coe's unbelievable life story. But nothing says it better than Coe's dedication on the sleeve: "Pennitentiary Blooos - O.K.! So my spelling is bad! I'm not a colledge graduate. I didn't even finish high school. I was in prison. Most of my life. Reform Schools, reformatorys, and prisons. But I'm a songwriter and a singer. Over the years I've made millions of dollars, Writing songs for Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennnings, George Jones, John Cash, Johnny Paycheck, Tanya Tucker, Elvis, the Dead Kennedys, Unkle Kracker, Kid Rock. And many others. All kinds of music.Rock + roll, rap, country, pop, hip hop, do wop, ragga and blues. THIS WAS MY FIRST ALBUM. I'm 65 years old now. And as I listen back to these songs I realize I've always been part of the blues and the blues have always been a part of me. The blues isn't a black thing or a white thing. It's a black and blue thing. you have to experience it. Sincerely, David Allan Coe,ïEx-convict" Fuck yeah! Includes a bonus booklet along with the liner notes, an excerpt from Coe's book "Ex-Convict", called How To Pull Time And Parole. Complete with reproduced original typewritten pages and one of Coe's early mugshots.

MPEG stream: Penitentiary Blues
MPEG stream: Cell #33
MPEG stream: Death Row

While on the road Canadian indie songstress Ms Ora Cogan came strolling into our shop with these cd-rs charmingly hand-packaged in cut up old flea market record sleeves. On first glance of the varied decontextualized artworks, you might expect her music to be along the earthy experimental lines of the Bay Area's Jewelled Antler and Jyrk Collectives, but she's definitely coming from a different place -- Salt Spring Island, BC, haha! Seriously though, she's been making good ol' down home, twilight porch swing tunes for the past seven years. Her vocal delivery bears more than a passing resemblance to Ms Jolie Holland's. It possesses that haunting, soulful quality that seems like its source is coming from deep deep within or beyond. Like a mysterious transplant from decades past, it's as though she opens her mouth and a lilting voice from the '20s comes drifting out. It's beautiful in its simplicity, just her and her guitar and a few banjo and back-up vocal additions. Cogan is part of a close knit Canadian folksy sisterhood which includes the Begood Tanyas and Carolyn Mark. If you've a fondness for those ladies (and Ms Holland too), don't wait another second. This is totally for you!

MPEG stream: Old Black Swan
MPEG stream: Take Me Home

If the earthy dusk beauty of Ms Cogan's most recent full length The Quarry charmed your ears, you won't want to miss this special treat... and don't dilly dally, this limited edition cassette is sure to be gone in a flash. Only 50 copies were made, and we got a scant five from the lady herself! So, once they're gone, it's most likely that'll be it. Although a boggy mire sounds like a rather unpleasant place to be, we think it might not be so bad with Ora by our side. She exudes a quiet strength and warm presence both in person and on record. Here, she covers the songs of legendary country, folk and blues artists Elizabeth Cotten, Dock Boggs, Bonnie Raitt, Irma Thomas, Don Gibson and Skip Spence, as well as more recent numbers by Sonic Youth and Rio En Medio, and tucks in a couple of old traditionals too. Lovely stuff!

West Coast songstress Ms Ora Cogan is back with a pair of new releases... this, a full length titled The Quarry (on cd and lp), and a cassette called The Boggy Mire. So lush yet rustic, The Quarry is perhaps a bit darker in tone and haunting in mood than her previous recordings. Deeply moving, but not despairing, each word is drawn out into almost non-verbal utterances which at times seem as much inspired by old tymey Appalachian folk as by Canadian aboriginal music vocalizations and Cocteau Twins' Elizabeth Fraser. Cogan's voice lilts and swoops amid her delicate finger picked and strummed guitar along with some dreamy dulcimer, violin, and fleeting moments of droney dissonance too. The dozen numbers take an unhurried pace, gradually winding their way into your heart. A lovely and deceptively potent aural elixir! Limited pressing of 500!

MPEG stream: The Quarry
MPEG stream: Gather

Perched on the same weeping willow branch as the lovely folksy likes of her pals Be Good Tanyas and Jolie Holland, Ora Cogan's Tatter (both in its original cd-r format and on the more recent cd release) album has been going about its kindly hushed way, charming the ears of all who've encounter it. Peep Creek is another little homespun release by this Canadian gal. It's a 2-song ep on cdr with packaging fashioned out of recycled lp jackets, sheets of fancy paper and gold star confetti. The two tunes are Spartan and lovely with simply plucked guitar, an occasional cello and lilting vocals that also bring to mind Karen Dalton and Jesse Sykes. Our only complaint is that this is far too short. More, please!

MPEG stream: Riverside

NEW ON MISSISSIPPI RECORDS. Just thought we'd get that out of the way, since it seems like folks want anything and everything this tiny Portland label releases, and for good reason, they have amazing taste for one, their records look and sound fantastic, and probably most importantly, most of their releases have never been available on vinyl before. Originally released on Arhoolie in 1969 (and still available from them on cd!), this lp features the collected wildness, weirdness and wisdom of one George Coleman, also known as Bongo Joe, on vinyl for the first time in AGES (you may remember Bongo Joe was on the bonus 7"s that originally came with the first pressing of the Mississippi release Life Is A Problem!) George Coleman is not called Bongo Joe because he plays the bongos, it's because, well no one is sure exactly, but he does play the drums, or more specifically, the giant oil barrel. Modified of course. Coleman's instrument of choice is a 55 gallon oil drum, its sound customized by dents and bulges and tears created with a small axe. He beats this oil drum with hammer handles, the bottom of the barrel filled with sand and buckshot to create a sort of rattle. And while that might be amazing on its own, it's Coleman's singing, or rapping, or whatever it is, probably somewhere right in between that really seals the deal. When former aQ staffer Byram worked here this was his FAVORITE record and he played it incessantly, and we all eventually grew to love it, a totally wacked stripped down freaky funky sort-of-steel-drum rhythm and blues, Coleman calls it "fundamental beat music", as played by a crazy Texas street musician, who has plenty to say about pretty much everything, and does so quite eloquently, and a bit confusionally, a wild unhinged delivery that some folks around here have likened to Wesley Willis, but we think it's way more soulful, like James Brown crossed with Screamin' Jay Hawkins, imagine one of those guys jamming with Moondog, and voila! Bongo Joe played all over Texas, once with Dizzy Gillespie, for presidents, for Muhammad Ali, in front of the Alamo, he eventually ended up in San Antonio after a retirement community complained about the racket he was making outside. And at one point he shot a man who he thought was going to rob him while he was performing. Woah. But none of that matters as much as the music, and the music is amazing. Far out and funky, rhythmic and stripped down, wild and strange and beautiful and pretty much unlike anything else you'll ever hear. [Fair warning, Mississippi is a pretty DIY operation, so very often the lps are not in absolutely perfect condition, the records themselves are immaculate, but sometimes the sleeves have slightly bent corners or something similar, all very minor, but super vinyl collector nerds beware]

Record number two from the peculiarly monickered Common Eider, King Eider, the one man project of Mr. Rob Fisk, formerly of Deerhoof, currently of Badgerlore, and much like the first disc, Figs, Wasps And Monotremes, is another haunting missive of long drawn out drones, and minimal folk mesmer. The intro is a smoldering shimmer of scraped strings, wavery falsetto vocals, and all manner of overtones and harmonics, mysterious and hypnotic, we would have been quite happy if it had gone on just like that for the record's entire 32+ minutes, but the record soon shifts to something more songy (only slightly though), deep distant swells, dense soft drones and more ethereal falsetto vocals, all drift over insistently sawed strings, the string unfurling an almost looped sounding rhythmic melody. The record drifts lazily after that from spare melancholic reverb drenched sun dappled soft folk, all shimmery and washed out, to still more keening high end drones, looooong tones allowed to howl and buzz and slowly decay before being overtaken by still more growling, scraped strings, sounding almost like a 20th century string quartet slowed down to no beats per minute, to fractured free folk, steel string buzz, angular abstract riffage wrapped in haunting gauzy lo-fi hum, to super intense, almost Sunroof! worthy sheets of high end ur-drone, the notes crumbling and distorted and gorgeously blown out, and back to more introspective folky flutter. A gorgeous sprawling, abstract record, the listener drifting dreamily from song to song, sound to sound, sinking ever deeper, falling in slow motion, Common Eider's blurred soundscapes moving past, like a film slowed way down, so each frame flickers gently before slipping away, allowing another to take its place. Absolutely lovely. Gorgeous packaging too, as with all Root Strata releases, a three panel white cardstock sleeve, printed in silver ink, adorned with images of fruits and branches and a platypus!

MPEG stream: Wasp Tunnels (Intro)
MPEG stream: Monotreme Mom (For Jamie & Andrew)
MPEG stream: Brown Trumps White (Harry's Mix)

This is Mr. Chris Stroffolino and co.'s follow-up to their warmly received debut album Exile In Babyville from a couple of years ago. Once again Stroffolino's expressive saloon-style piano playing is a key ingredient to C.P.'s potency. It shines forth from the backdrop which is solid rootsy rock with some Pavement-y indie boy slouchiness. Comparisons to Silver Jews (with whom Stroffolino has played keyboards) are still very apropos. That said, Ms Mia Lipman's backing vocals certainly offer a nice contrast to his world weary 'n' whisky'd delivery. Prior to entering the musical realm, Stroffolino put his thoughts to paper rather than music, writing numerous books of poetry and prose. His literary past definitely surfaces in his evocative lyrics which take primarily an intimate, observational, first person perspective. They're granted ample space to unwind and sink in, given the songs' mostly slow to mid tempos. That said, occasionally the band kicks up a cloud of dirt for more rollicking numbers such as "You Don't Believe In Nuthin'".

MPEG stream: All I'm Saying
MPEG stream: You Don't Believe In Nuthin'

Wow! What is it about the sudden appearance of a cache of lost amateur folk recordings that just makes us stop everything we're doing and pay attention? Well, in the case of Connie Converse who made these recordings between 1954 and 1961, her sadly beautiful songcraft coupled with her mysterious (and most likely, tragic) disappearance in the early seventies, paints a tinge of regret and missed opportunities on the proceedings that make her gentle and deeply personal songs resonate more poignantly. A bookish gal from New Hampshire with academic leanings and no strong musical background, she took to writing poems and songs after leaving college in New York a year before she was to graduate. Her songs attracted the interest of animator and amateur recordist Gene Deitch who taped over 40 songs of hers, before she moved to Michigan to live with her brother and set her mind to other pursuits. In the years since, she still played music for friends and family, but her hopes that her recordings would lead to successful opportunities did not pan out and she became more despondent. Taking a leave of absence from her job, she wrote several farewell letters to family and friends, packed up her Volkswagon and disappeared, her whereabouts still unknown... Similar in tone to Vashti Bunyan and Sibylle Baier, Converse came from a generation earlier. Her songs have a folk-country revivalist vibe popular during the time but her songs don't seemed to be influenced directly by the folk revival movement. Instead it seems she was orbiting in her own parallel universe, like a folksinger version of Emily Dickinson, focussing on the subtle details of daily life and the lovely and lonely qualities that intertwine throughout. Those qualities are heightened by the raw and intimate feel of the recording with its natural imperfections, and side dialogue left thankfully intact. Fans of Bunyan and Baier, Barbara Dane, Ruth Friedman, Karen Dalton and Niela Miller will find lots to love here. How Sad, How Lovely, Indeed!

MPEG stream: Talkin' Like You (Two Tall Mountains)
MPEG stream: Roving Woman
MPEG stream: One By One

Apt title, but despite being a bad, violent man, fiddler Spade Cooley made some great music, helping to establish the style known as "Western Swing" back in the 1940s. 25 songs, 9 with the vocals of Tex Williams, the others all adrenaline-fueled instrumentals. These tracks are all previously unreleased versions, cut for radio broadcast and never before available to the public.

When Neko Case isn't out breakin' hearts with her country combo The Boyfriends or popping up with the New Pornographers, she gets together with her pal Carolyn Mark to become the Corn Sisters. Two beautiful, gutsy gals fueled by a love of country and yes, corn. Together they're a wild hayride of hilarity breaking out into song or story at the drop of a hat. They can wind a beautiful tale of love lost and in the next breath hoot out a gutbusting tale of the rawest humour. These songs were recorded live at a cool little cafe known as Hattie's Hat in Seattle, WA. Highlights include a string of songs mid-cd namely "She's Leaving Town", Loretta Lynn's "Fist City", the Carolyn-penned "Matineed", and Leiber & Stoller's "Love Me" as well as a Nick Lowe cover and a reworking of Neko's "High On Cruel".

RealAudio clip: Too Many Pills

Over the years we have sold a ton of Elizabeth Cotten's two Smithsonian Folkway cd collections, Freight Train And Other North Carolina Folk Songs And Tunes, and Shake Sugaree. Now we have the Freight Train collection on vinyl in a beautiful reproduction of the original lp which was originally called Folksongs and Instrumentals With Guitar.... well, it was *originally* called Negro Folksongs and Tunes, only to be changed a year later, but we won't get into that. "Freight Train", an American folk song classic, was written when Cotten was just eleven using a unique guitar style developed by playing her brother's guitar upside down to accommodate her left handedness. Even though she was quite an adept guitar and banjo player and taught herself a healthy repertoire of songs, she was discouraged to pursue music in her early years by family and church, so her musical talents weren't discovered until much later in life - through a miraculous chance encounter with Ruth Crawford Seeger that was ultimately life-changing. Cotten came to work for the Seegers after finding their daughter lost in a department store. Once she was caught by Peggy Seeger playing Mike Seeger's guitar and while she thought she was going to get fired, the Seegers were actually amazed at her unique playing style and breadth of old folksongs and original material she had written. Mike Seeger began recording her, and released this first record in 1957, and a folk star was born at the age of 63! An uncompromising voice of 20th century Americana, it is no surprise that Elizabeth Cotten was named a National Treasure. Highest recommendation!

If you found your ears as pleased as plums (as we found ours to be) by Shake Sugaree, the album of Elizabeth Cotten's music, here's more of her early 20th century goodness! As we've mentioned before, at the age of eleven, Cotten wrote "Freight Train", one of the most influential and stunning folk songs ever written. If this is your first introduction to Cotten, and you like what you hear, well then, Shake Sugaree's the next stop for you!

Absolutely amazing! Elizabeth Cotton, born in Chapel Hill, NC in 1895, has provided brilliant inspiration to many notable folk performers since her discovery and first recordings by Mike Seeger in 1958 -- when Cotton was well-past sixty! The daughter of a miner and a midwife, Cotton developed her own unique fingerpicking guitar style as a young girl by stealing away to her brother's room while he was away to learn the guitar and banjo for herself. By laying the instrument flat on the bed, she figured out a picking pattern, then moved on to rudimentary chord development. At age 11, she wrote one of the most influential and stunning folk songs ever written, "Freight Train". Age twelve found her moving to DC to become a domestic and working temporarily at a department store. At this store, fate took its turn when the daughter of Peggy Seeger was running around frightened and lost. Cotton returned her to Peggy Seeger and they quickly became friends. The Seeger's hired Cotton as their maid and during her years with them, she picked up the instrument again, remembering the songs from her youth and performing them for the Seeger family, only then to begin her public musicianship. I could go on and on about how lovely her songs are, how touching her story is, etc. Her songs are sparse but inspired and beautiful. Shake Sugaree contains 26 folk gems, including its sparkling title track. This album works extraordinarily well as a companion piece to her album Freight Train and is lovely on its own. Crazy recommended.

MPEG stream: Shake Sugaree
MPEG stream: Take Me Back To Baltimore

Firstly, whomever made the decision to stick to the original design and packaging for the Smithsonian Folkways vinyl reissues, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! The benign simplicity of the original Folkways records have always had the charmed feel of a true folk document, one that never needed to oversell the musical wonders inside. And this is indeed a wonder of wonders, the third installment of recordings by legendary guitar player and singer Elizabeth Cotten, compiled from sessions made in the sixties and seventies by Mike Seeger. Originally released in 1979, these are mostly instrumentals with a few songs written by Cotten's granddaughter, often referring to death, salvation and the afterlife. She even does a later rendition of her hit song, "Freight Train", slowing the tempo down, imbibing it with the wisdom and experience of her old age. Her masterful picking and chording style, developed at an early age by playing with the guitar and banjo placed in her lap, displays an earthy virtuosity that easily trumps anything from the Fahey school. As it should, coming from a poor but educated black woman who pretty much was never without her guitar, using it as a diviner of storytelling and song or just making it weep in unbridled joy. Highest Recommendation!

The Country Gentlemen were one of the great bluegrass bands to come out of the Washington DC area folk revival in the late fifties. The diverse backgrounds of core members Charlie Waller (guitar), John Duffey (mandolin), Eddie Adcock (banjo) and Tom

RealAudio clip: Long Black Veil
RealAudio clip: John Henry

Record number two from local country rockers the Court And Spark takes the whispery desert twang of their debut on Andee's tUMULt label, and expands on it, creating a lush, dark and surprisingly varied masterpiece. That may seem a bit effusive, but these guys are so so good. It's unbelievable that they aren't huge and playing bills with Wilco or Ryan Adams or Jay Farrar -- people who I'd imagine they'd blow off the stage at this point. But with the release of 'Bless You' and on the heels of their debut 'Ventura Whites', it probably won't be long. 'Bless You' starts out with the sound of far away pianos and Tom Waits-ish junkyard percussion, all buried under a haze of reverb. Slowly, gently strummed guitars and ringing piano emerge from the gloom, as they launch into 'To See The Fires', probably their best song yet. The whole record is a mix of gloomy slow core country dirges like a countrified Codeine or Low, and rollicking country rock reminiscent of Uncle Tupelo or even the Eagles. The production is bizarre and experimental with all sorts of stereo panning, disembodied brushed snares, strange hums and whirs, extra percussion, and shimmering cymbals. And the musicianship is ace, especially with the permanent addition of Wendy Allen on angelic harmony vocals and Tom Heyman on lap steel. And it doesn't hurt that Gene Parsons of the Byrds plays on a bunch of the tracks as well. The vocals, which seemed to be what the Court and Spark were all about circa their first record, seem to have become more just a part of the whole sound, with MC Taylor's gruff gravelly growl smoothed out, and eased back in the mix a bit, giving their gorgeous twangscapes center stage. Practically perfect.

RealAudio clip: Fade Out to Lttle Arrow
RealAudio clip: To See the Fires

5 new tracks to keep us sated in lieu of a full length from AQ faves Court And Spark. Like their previous releases, especially Bless You, Court & Spark continue with their lush -- so gorgeous it fairly drips from the speakers -- brand of Gram Parsons-esque country rock. Songs like "Bar The Door, Davy" are just as perfect to listen to alone at the bar with a bourbon on the rocks as it is sidling up to your significant other on the dance floor for a slooooow dance. They've got all the elements you could want: beautiful male/female harmonies, pedal steel guitar, harmonium, vibraphone, violin, organ, fingerpicked guitar and the usual supects (bass & drums). We feel pretty damn lucky to have these stars here locally to shine on us day and night, but there's no reason you can't enjoy them as well.

MPEG stream: Lucia
MPEG stream: Bar The Door, Davy

You know how we hate to pull the "buy now or cry later" guns on you all, but this one's definitely in that realm. So all you fellow Court And Spark fans out there, no dilly dallying on this one. Unless you had a chance to see them on their recent tour, you wouldn't have had a chance to pick this one up. Double Roses is a tour EP the band put together of home recordings (really *nice* recordings we might add, not your typical crappy home studio fare), originals and covers and some tracks recorded live around town and on the radio in Portland. A little more of that Court And Spark smoke and smolder, torch and twang to hold us over until their next full length to be entitled Witch Season. This band just keeps getting better. Lush country folk, amazing arrangements, perfect players, and MC Taylor's gorgeous rough hewn drawl. We'll never understand why this band isn't HUGE. But it's only a matter of time. Gorgeous, numbered (limited to 400 copies), silkscreened/letterpressed sleeves.

This week marks the welcome release of a few new albums by a few old AQ faves including this fine Bay Area combo Court & Spark (others include Matmos, Black Heart Procession, Jolie Holland, Enslaved and Longmont Potion Castle!). Hearts finds the band taking even more of a '70s classic country rock direction than on their 2004 album Witch Season (which was already knee deep in that vibe and sound). That said, somehow they've struck what in our opinion is a better balance between their earlier roughhewn selves and their more recent luminously polish recordings. There are two types of songs on Hearts, although the differences are subtle shades of grey. There are the dark brooding soulful introspective numbers, with glistening guitars, lush instrumentation, and MC Taylor's velvety croon, much more polished now than whiskey soaked, but it definitely suits their constantly maturing sound. Then there are the slightly more rocking tracks, channeling the Eagles and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, with foot stomping rhythms and wah guitar. But even when the band is kicking up a rocking fuss, this is still more of a late night early afternoon stroll, definitely on the dark introspective side, all warm breezes and rustling leaves, looking inward with eyes cast earthward, hearts on sleeves, lumps in throats. So nice. And if you're looking for a listening companion, this fits quite nicely alongside Calexico's most recent album Garden Ruin.

The long awaited debut from San Francisco's purveyors of epic and sweeping country rock heartbreak is finally here. If the Beachwood Sparks (last week's record of the week) can be likened to the bouncy and sunny side of The Byrds, all harmonies and jangle, then The Court and Spark represent The Byrds' dark side: melancholy murmur, stark and wintery, like the restless ghost of Gram Parsons, with echoes of Nick Drake and Townes Van Zandt. TC&S produce perfectly bittersweet songs and spectral soundscapes constructed from plaintive piano, delicately plucked guitars and found sounds. A wash of sweet strings, organ hum and muted buzz, pedal steel and breathtaking harmonies. Epic and sweeping. Gossamer traces of sounds heard in dreams. Dobro, mandolin, banjo, and even glockenspiel. And then there's the voice, a deep and ragged drawl, rough and world weary. For fans of the abovementioned artists, as well as folks who like the Scud Mountain Boys, the Jayhawks, and Souled American. Which reminds us, we should mention that this is being put out by our own Andee's fabulous tUMULt label, and it may well be the only other tUMULt release that will appeal to those who have been waiting for a follow-up to tUMULt's Souled American reissues, except of course, for the very broadminded!

RealAudio clip: Doctor The Veranda
RealAudio clip: Sugar Pie In Bed

With each release San Francisco's beloved Court & Spark seem to draw closer and closer to a smoooooth country rock (occasionally dangerously close to 'adult contemporary' territory) -- systematically smoothing out any and all perceptible rough edges. Some see this as a good thing, while others might view their progression as much less favorable, preferring there to be a little dust and grit on their lonesome country path. Don't want things to be too pristine now do we? That said, we've had many customers coming in saying they far prefer this new record to C&S's last full length Bless You which we described as being "practically perfect". But then a band full of perfectionists who spend several years recording their record, with an engineer who is also a perfectionist, well the results should be darn near perfect, right? And they pretty much are. Really, except for that urgency, the raw element, the roughness a lot of us loved and felt was an important part of the Court And Spark's sound. Which is fine, bands don't always stay angry, and their sound changes as they get more successful or have to struggle less or have access to more money and have more time to record. It's part of growing and maturing as a band. Now don't get us wrong, this is by no means a bad review, this is a positive review and Witch Season is an AMAZING record. Certainly the Court And Spark's songwriting has grown by leaps and bounds. As has the band's sound. Soaring and melancholic, sweet and smooth, lush and epic, gorgeously melodic and sonically dense. They truly are one of the best San Francisco bands of the moment, and certainly one of the most important bands currently exploring the whole modern country, post-no-depression sound. And as they grow, and shed their raggedy, rough around the edges, old skins, they will be exposed to more and more folks who will love this band. And we are truly psyched. We have always though they should be HUGE. But once in a while, we just want to hear Mike's voice crack, or a barely out-of-tune guitar, or a bit of their charmingly ramshackle past. But maybe that's just us.

MPEG stream: Suffolk Down Upon The Night
MPEG stream: Out On The Water

Alt-country long before the term ever existed, these kings and queen of dreamy slower than slow, more bitter than sweet music have rarely strayed from the mellow path they've tread for over fifteen years. However, on 'Open' they venture into brief moments of almost psych/space-y territory and more upbeat tempos. Not sure if this is a good thing 'cause the Cowboy Junkies are at their

Seven Sisters is actually a soundtrack for a documentary film of the same name which follows the lives of seven sisters who grew up and moved away from their home in the Kentucky Appalachians during the 30's and 40's. The songs are all covers and traditional numbers that were popular during this time and arranged by the Crooked Jades. Among the tracks here are "Put My Little Shoes Away", Roscoe Holcomb's "I Wish I Was A Single Girl Again", "Cumberland Gap", "Mystery Train" (the very one popularized by E. Presley), "Pretty Polly" and much more.

RealAudio clip: Put My Little Shoes Away
RealAudio clip: Moonshiner

Feels like it's been ages since we've heard from local faves, The Crooked Jades, and just when we were about to file a missing persons report, in they walk with a brand spanking new release of the darkly tinged Americana that we've been craving. Shining Darkness has a more fleshed out sound than previous Jade releases covering a lot of ground from haunting Appalachian lullabies and fiery bluegrass dust-ups to dirgy British folk, full of sweet two part male and female harmonies, fiddle, mandolin, guitar and atmospheric harmonium. So nice!

MPEG stream: The Marrow of A Young Girl
MPEG stream: Lost In The Woods
MPEG stream: Shining Darkness

After a much too long three year recording hiatus, the Crooked Jades return with 23 new tracks. Like their previous releases, volume 2 of The Unfortunate Rake is a mix of both arrangements of traditional tunes and original compositions. For those who still haven't heard them yet, the Crooked Jades play a seamless blend of American roots music that absorbs bluegrass, country, and early string band styles with remarkable fluidity. Like their previous releases, heart rending ballads, superb vocal harmonies and high powered fiddle tunes abound here. As much as the Jades -- possibly the hardest working roots music band in the Bay Area -- excel in what's expected of a great string band (excellent instrumental breaks & vocal harmonies), it's their arrangements and choice of instrumentation that puts them over the edge. With judicious inclusion of hammond organ and piano to their growing arsenal of ukuleles, Hawaiian slide guitars, dobros, myriad banjos (tenor, banjo-uke, etc) and pedal-steel as well as the usual suspects (fiddle, guitar, string bass, mandolin), the Jades have developed a sound that's far more rich and interesting than the "olde-timey" groups they're unfortunately often lumped in with. There's even a soundtracky instrumental composed by leader Jeff Kazor which is nicely reminiscent of Penguin Cafe Orchestra's better moments -- Yellow Mercury No. 2 -- featuring Jeff on dulcimer accompanied by Richard Buckner (who again plays all over this new album as well as being credited as co-producer) on piano & ukulele and Michael Ismerio on fiddle. Highly recommended! And for those who still don't have them, we still stock the Jades first two records.

MPEG stream: Love Got In the Grain
MPEG stream: Yellow Mercury No. 2

Those AQ customers who live here in SF may have seen the Crooked Jades play at the Mission's beloved Radio Valencia (R.I.P.) on Sunday nights for years. And though it's been hard to catch them live these days, we're blessed with two new releases by the group to serenade us any day of the week, any time of the day in lieu of the real thing. Drawing from old time string band, bluegrass and country influences the Crooked Jades put together a sound that's original, but never forced. With a full arsenal of guitars, dobro, hawaiian guitar, banjo (played clawhammer style), fiddle, piano, ukulele, mandolin, pedal steel guitar, string bass and even the occasional casio & moog (says so on the liner notes, but hardly noticeable) the Crooked Jades continually vary the size and style of their arrangements to accompany beautiful male and female harmonies. The Unfortunate Rake is comprised of about 50% traditional numbers and the other half equally divided between covers and originals. The album was produced (and excellently recorded at SF's Tiny Telephone) by Richard Buckner, who also sings and plays on several of the tracks including an eerie rendition of the traditional song 'Ida Red' played on piano, baritone ukulele & E-bow.

RealAudio clip: Angel of Mercy
RealAudio clip: Little Painter Boy
RealAudio clip: Lucy Molen