Reviews (1)

CD-Perfection. RJE's Finest Cuts
If you're making your first acquaintance with Ramblin' Jack, start with his 1981 German sessions, "Kerouac's Last Dream," on Appleseed 1021. Ramblin' Jack is quoted as saying he considers the German CD to be his best album. "Legends of Folk" may not have come into his consideration, seeing the concert was shared with Spider John Koerner and U. Utah Phillips. Nonetheless, what was captured in this World Theater concert in 1989 is my pick for Ramblin' Jack's best recorded music. Why? Well, Ramblin' Jack always is at his best when he talks and then sings to an audience. Other CDs gave samplings of the unique Ramblin' Jack stage experience in 1962 and 1967, but the World Theater takes make a 20-year-leap ahead in time, giving us a unique, deep-running, exciting but intimate 36 minutes with the masterful musician who now is nothing less than a Great Master. His incomparable guitar strings are vibrating almost all of the while, but about half of that time is spent hearing Ramblin' Jack rap, a heartening experience sans pareil. The music? The best thing on the whole CD is "912 Greens," his third and to date last recorded take of his own masterwork. Among other things, we also hear his best version of four (also 1965, 1967 and 1981) of Bob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice" and his finest performance of four (also 1967, 1996 and 1998) of Woody Guthrie's "Buffalo Skinners." What about Utah and Spider John? Both are superlative but in Ramblin' Jack's shadow. Utah's comic lines are timeless: "An empty car pulled up at the White House and Ronald Reagan got out." And Spider John's kinky, post-Blind Willie McTell 12-string always is fascinating. His best tracks here are "Creepy John" and "Everybody's Going for the Money." ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Excellent live CD from one of the country's top music clubs.
The Iron Horse Music Cafe in Northampton, MA is one of the things I miss most about the other coast and this CD goes a long way to showing why - great music by great performers in a great setting. For fans of New Folk, this CD's got wonderful performances by some favorites: Richard Thompson's "Galway to Graceland", Maura O'Connell's version of Thompson's "Waltzing", and Ellis Paul's ethereal "Weightless" are all definitive versions. And if you haven't heard some of these folks live - like Martin Sexton for example! - here's a cheap way to find out what all the deserved fuss is about. Can't wait for a "Vol. 2."

Great live CD
Great live CD. Bought it cause I'm a big fan of Martin Sexton, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Susan Werner. Love the live version Marty does of Can't Stop Thinking About You. Also liked Ellis Paul's song. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

For Anthropologists Only
As a huge fan of Alan Lomax and the other Southern Journey releases in the series, I was a bit disappointed with this one. There are some great tracks, but the variety of performers is extremely limited, and there are simply too many long unaccompanied ballads included. Undoubtedly, these songs are historically and culturally important, but it makes for rather tedious listening. And while I enjoy the banjo tunes and commentary, I find the fiddle playing too screechy and the guitar far too out of tune. I understand how easy it is to overmythologize folk artists, but one should be careful in doing so - just because it's 'folk' (and what does that word even mean?) doesn't mean it's good. Investigate 61 Highway Mississippi and Velvet Voices for recordings of a much higher quality. But don't necessarily ignore this one - just make sure you're really interested in the subject matter.

Stories, voices, fiddles and banjos like nothing else...
The liner notes for and actual field recordings on this album will both hopefully open your eyes as wide to the wonderfully mongrelized nature of folk balladry as they did mine...This is purely visceral stuff, some of the most powerful singing, especially, that I have ever heard in my life...[Aside to "Gummo" fans: if you ever wondered who sang the opening "My Little Rooster" song, it was Almeda Riddle, one of the unbelievable balladeers on this collection...] ... Read more

Album Description

Winter Moon is the first-ever seasonal compilation by 16 of today's most gifted new and established out-and-proud artists. Featured: Lea DeLaria, Cris Williamson, Lucie Blue Tremblay, Holly Near, Michael Callen and Broadway's Howard McGillin. As seen on the PBS series "In The Life". ... Read more

Reviews (3)

YEAH RIGHT!!!
THIS IS NOT LESBIAN MUSIC, BUT A CORPORATE MEDIA MAN'S VERSION OF WHAT LESBIAN MUSIC IS ALL ABOUT!!! THEY ARE TOTALLY MISSING THE POINT HERE. I SEE NO REASON TO BUY THIS CD UNLESS YOU WANT TO EXTEND THE DOMINANCE OF MALE OPPRESSION OVER TOP OF US!!! STOP THE MADNESS, WHERE IS MEG CHRISTIAN AND JOAN ARMATRADING!!! BRING BACK THE REAL LESBIAN MUSIC!! KEEP OUR MUSIC 100% LESBIAN!!

Holiday music...for the rest of us
Strictly speaking, this is not a Christmas CD, nor is it an especially gay/lesbian CD. The music will appeal to a wide range of people...that the artists are mostly gay/lesbian is incidental. I enjoyed all the music on this CD, but my favorites would have to be:

The Truth About Christmas - Lea Delaria offers a humourous look at what Christmas is really all about.

Just In Time For Christmas - Alright, this would have to be my favorite...especially since my husband and I met right before Christmas...14 years ago. "You showed me what Christmas is about!"

Change Of Heart - Holly Near updates this wonderful song that never fails to warm my heart.

I could go on, but let me just say Bill McKinley, Michael Callan and The Flirtations all make this a priceless addition to any collection.

Excellent, captures the Holiday Spirit not always happy
but always gay (atleast in this case). For many the Holiday season isn't a time of immense cheer. We find ourselves estranged from our friends and families, we are reminded of the ones we have lost, and we feel a bit side amongst the glittering lights. This album is for you. But, don't think that it is all depressing music, because there is also a very positive message of love and joy that flows through every song. We may not always be happy, but we are always gay.

Happy Holidays under the Winter Moon. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Required listening
The first reviewer is absolutely correct in everything he says. This CD is required listening. It is encouraging to see this CD and several others of equal importance being issued at this time. Is there increased interest in this music, or is it just finally getting the attention it deserves? I first became interested in Northumbrian pipe music in the late 70s, and the only recording I could find was in the University music library. It was Billy Pigg's classic, most of which is included on this CD. The other two CD's that are required listening are NORTHUMBRIAN SMALLPIPES (Topic) and SPIRIT OF THE BORDER (Nimbus). The first is a compilation of important older recordings. The second is a modern recording made by the excellent Nimbus label, which has brought us other great CDs of contemporary traditional music from the British Isles. SPIRIT OF THE BORDER also features Chris Ormston. Perhaps Chris will finally get the chance to make his own CD.

A superb compliation of Northumbrian Pipes music
I really think that this is one of the best compilations and introductions to the Northumbrian Smallpipes that I've heard in a long time. It covers a good many of the great players of the past ( Billy Pigg, Jack Armstrong, Joe Hutton ) and the current leading exponents like Anthony Robb ( a brilliantly played "Dargai"), Colin Ross, Pauline Cato and Kathryn Tickell. ( Particularly good to hear the seriously under-recorded Chris Ormston on there)

Inevitably afficionados will notice omissions from both groups but a CD is only so long and Burt Feintuch and his colleagues have done a fine job in cramming as much excellent music onto the disk as they have.

Well done! ... Read more

Album Description

Seductive Acoustic Guitar duets with a groove." Al Petteway and Amy White are award winning musicians: 37 Wammies and 3 Maryland Art Council awards.

Al & Amy were the January 1999 ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE at the Kennedy Center Millenium Stage. Often heard on National Public Radio ...this is their first all guitar recording..featuring a vaired collection of duets. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

SMOOTH WITH A GROOVE
I HAVE TO SAY THIS IS THE BEST DUO ACOUSTIC GUITAR CD'S I HAVE EVER HEARD. AL AND AMY DO NOT GET IN THE WAY OF EACH OTHER THEY SIMPLY COMPLIMENT.A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE SONGS. "POCKET CHANGE" IS A VERY LAID BACK SONG WITH A FUNKY LITTLE BREAK THAT IS SURE TO PLEASE."IN LIKE A LION" IS A CELTIC SOUNDING SONG WHICH IS REALLY A TRADEMARK OF AL'S WORK."BAKER'S DOZEN" IS A GUITAR DRUM SOLO,SORTA PRESTON REEDISH,COOL.THIS IS THE TYPE CD YOU PUT IN AND PRESS REPEAT AND PLAY OVER AND OVER AGAIN,NOT A BAD SONG TO BE FOUND HERE.YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE A GUITAR PLAYER TO ENJOY THIS CD.THESE ARE TWO GIFTED PEOPLE THAT HAVE FOUND EACH OTHER AND THEY SIMPLY LOVE WHAT THEY ARE DOING AND YOU CAN TELL.

A fan from Arlington, Va.
Al Petteway and Amy White are two of the most creative talents in acoustic music today. They are not only gifted songwriters, they are masters of their instruments. In this CD, that instrument is the guitar. In their other work it is the piano, the drums, the bazooki, the mandolin, etc.

It is, therefore, especially interesting and rewarding to hear them focus strictly on the guitar. The result is both amazing because of their clear mastery of the guitar and moving because of the beautiful and creative music they play.

Al is a guitarist's guitarist. He is fast when it is called for, lyrical when appropriate and always creative. His right hand is as good as his left-- i.e. he can work a rhythm as well as a melody. Nobody plays the guitar better than he does. But what is equally apparent on this CD is Amy's fine guitar work. She is a real talent.

Both Al and Amy use their instrument not only to make music but to communicate to their audiences. It would be hard to listen to "In Like a Lion" (one of the best cuts on the CD) and not have your mood transformed. The same is true with other cuts on the CD, in particular "Ani in the Tall Reeds", "Let the Wind Carry You" and "Baker's Dozen".

Al and Amy don't simply perform, they communicate with their audiences. Their music speaks for them whether it is through a haunting melody, a particularly adept blues riff, or by playing the guitar as if it were a drum. They are virtuosos, and that comes across, much as it does in their other work. This CD really should not be missed. You can play it over and over and still find something new (and old) to enjoy.

If there is any justice in this world, Al Petteway and Amy White will get the kind of national and international following that they so richly deserve. So, spread the word about them and their music, and in the meantime, buy this (and their other) CDs. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

An solid little introduction to the folk's protest songs
It is always interesting with collections of folk music to see what hands are tied behind the backs of the people putting it together, and with Volume 2 of the "Generations of Folk," "Protest & Politics" the glaring omission is Bob Dylan. But once you accept that limitation you have to be impressed with the dozen songs put together to reflect the war against the war and for civil rights from the Sixties. For example, the basic rule of one track per artist goes out the window because who wants to pick between "Draft Dodger Rag" and "I Ain't Marching Any More" by Phil Ochs? The latter is arguably the definitive protest song of that time.

Once again this CD covers the diversity of the folk movement, going back to the Weavers ("Marching to Pretoria") and Pete Seeger ("We Shall Not Be Moved"), and the next generation with Joan Baez ("Pity the Poor Immigrant") and Arlo Guthrie ("1913 Massacre"). The other gems on this album include Baez singing "We Shall Overcome" at the 1963 March on Washington and the original Buffy Saint-Marie version of "Universal Soldier." The use of humor as a pointed weapon of protest is seen on Mimi and Richard Farina's "House Un-American Blues Activity Dream," and Tom Paxton's "Anita O.J." Roy Trankin Sr. provides solid liner notes that explain the contexts for these songs (e.g., "Anita O.J." was about former Miss America and Floria Orange Juice spokeswoman Anita Bryant's homophobia), which will be necessary for younger listerners to get the point.

This album has songs about the Sixties, such as John Fahey's "March! For Martin Luther King," but also goes beyond that with "The Death of Stephen Biko" by Tom Paxton. The result is that "Protest & Politics" is a more than adequate basic introduction to the protest songs that are forever linked to the folk revival period of American music, which provides five solid standards from that time while also giving a range of the topics that had some people marching in the streets and others singing songs to inspire them. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Much more than a nostalgia excursion, this CD stands as a critical document of late 20th century American culture. Don't expect a stodgy history lesson, however. The music from the 1963 festival is rousing and bell-clear. Jack Elliott gives a gutsy performance of "Diamond Joe" and Mississippi John Hurt's set is a triumph, especially the signature "Coffee Blues" and "See See Rider." The intimacy and excitement is palpable, even though much of the audience had never heard these songs, let alone seen this country-blues master. But it's the finale that's most remarkable, even if today it sounds surreal: Dylan and the folk elite--including Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, and Peter, Paul & Mary--singing "Blowin' in the Wind." An honestly moving moment, though not one that would last. --Roy Kasten ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Excellent Piece of History now Preserved
Got this for my dad who was at this concert and it really took him back. Good sound quality and classic performances.

NEWPORT LIVE
this was a great era prior to the outbreak in southeast asia it literaly set the stage, for the protest songs soon to follow a great nostalgic view of the past ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Thirty Years Of Music From the Topic Records Vaults
This past week--while my wife and daughter were shopping--I spent a couple hours browsing through one of my favorite record stores, not looking for anything in particular. While checking out the folk section I came across this 2-CD collection. I recognized several artists--Richard Thompson, Maddy Prior, Martin Carthy and a few others--and decided to take a chance. Sometimes my impulse purchases are disappointments, but this is a very engaging collection if you enjoy celtic/British folk music.

This is more than two hours and twenty minutes of music from the Topic Records vaults from as far back as 1967's "Brigg Fair" by Shirley Collins to 1999's "The Happy Salmon" by Tarras. Some of the songs are instrumental (John Kirkpatrick's "Brighton Camp/March Past"), while others are acapella (The Watersons' "The Good Old Way"). A few artists are featured twice--only Eliza Carthy (Martin Carthy's daughter) appears three times, and her "Adieu Adieu" is one of the album's many highlights. In all you get more than two dozen artists. If (like me) you're new to the Topic Records roster of artists, this is an amazing introduction--and the price is very reasonable. My only complaint is that the accompanying booklet is very brief. It includes no artist biographical information, but it does include the album each song was taken from. [It's worth noting that Richard Thompson's "Time To Ring Some Changes" is a studio recording from the 1990 collection "Hard Cash Fledgling" and not the 1984 live version from "Small Town Romance."] A very enjoyable album. RECOMMENDED ... Read more

Reviews (1)

More Lomax Italia
Very interesting five part vocal groups . . from falsetto to basso . . .ever so vaguely reminiscent of doo-wop street type harmonies. It's nothing like I've heard from Italy, but that's what Alan Lomax did, document the most remote, grass-roots corners of the earth. It's the sort of thing to collect if you like eclectic world-music type stuff, not necessarily for someone looking for familiar Italian melodies delivered in a more rootsy style. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Oh, I wish for more from Disky--hurrah, hurrah!
This wonderful, very low-priced collection from Holland's Disky label features 104 tracks of country and pop-folk music from the late 1920s to the mid-1940s. The unusually good sound quality on the earliest tracks, to say nothing of the radio-style intros on several numbers, lead me to suspect that much of this was recorded for, or from, radio broadcasts. For example, one of the Carter Family tracks is entitled "Jimmie Rodgers Visits" and features classically hokey Opry-style banter. Unfortunately, there are no liner notes, though at least recording years are listed on the inserts. Contrast the casual nature of this European "roots" collection with the pretentious hoopla that normally accompanies domestic issues of the same type. Strange and, in a way, refreshing.

The best material is the earliest, and this includes tracks by Uncle Dave Macon, the meter-challenged Fiddlin' John Carson, the elegantly-named Earl Johnson's Clodhoppers, The Carter Family, and Gene Autry, among others. Early Bluegrass abounds, and long before it is alleged to have existed--check out Byrd Moore and his Hot Shots from 1930, Hayes Shepherd's 1927 bluegrass banjo playing, and Uncle Dave Macon's "Sail Away Ladies," also from 1927, a call-and-response number in pure Bill Monroe/Carl Story style. Early country crooning is represented by Jimmie Rodgers, Vernon Dalhart, and Gene Autry--the latter sounding atypically downhome on 1931's "High-Steppin' Mama." Elsewhere, Moonshine Kate makes like Bessie Smith on "My Man's a Jolly Railroad Man" ("His engine's number eleven"), and Riley Puckett offers a smooth, cowboy-crooner rendition of "Red Wing," which was an oldie even then (1927, again). These tracks are superbly representative of the earliest recorded country.

The third and fourth CDs feature more commercially familiar string-band styles, 1940s bluegrass, highly nimble Django-Reinhardt-influenced guitar picking by Merle Travis, and the "Crazy Tennesseeans" of Roy Acuff. Of particular interest are Travis' "Pigmeat Strut," which was ineptly lifted, in part, by Scotty Moore on Elvis Presley's "Just Because," and a song called "Oklahoma Hills," the melody better-known as "Cottonfields." Woody Guthrie, Cisco Huston, Peter Seeger and the Almanac Singers, and other pop-folk greats close the collection. The highlights: A lovely, mixolydian-mode melody on Guthrie's 1941 "House of the Rising Sun;" Pete Seeger's energetic banjo workout "Cumberland Bear Chase" (1944), a version of a tune-with-narrative recorded in the 1920s by the Hill Billies; and Seeger's "Talking Union" (1941). "Talking Union" found new life many years later as Dick Feller's apolitical rant against bad customer service, "The Credit Card Song."

Sound quality ranges from acceptable to fabulous. An incredible deal. I wish for more from Disky.

a lot of music for the price, but not much else
Like the first reviewer, I too was struck by the lack of African American representation in a collection titled "American Roots." I can't really imagine how this might have happened, except perhaps because the collection comes from a Dutch record company, though even that explanation seems rather untenable. The lack of any documentation in the box set only exacerbates this oddity.

You sure get a lot of songs here, and the range of material is useful for a collector of old timey music - I particularly appreciated the inclusion of "I'm A Man of Constant Sorrow" and the Pete Seeger repertoire. Again, though, there's zero documentation on the history of these selections, and specific information like recording dates and record labels is really missed.

For the completists in the audience, you'll want this collection. For interested amateurs, you'll probably be better off with either the Harry Smith's AAFM or the many series put together (and well documented) by Yazoo. In fact, there are probably links above this review to at least one Yazoo series.

Bottom line: lots of songs but little explanatory information.

some of the history of American folk music, anyway
Odd that something with a title and subtitle so grandiose as this collection's has no songs by African-American artists on it. After all, black Americans have played a huge role, from spirituals to blues and all points between, in the creation of our country's folk and vernacular music. Here, as far as I can tell, only two African-Americans appear, and in secondary roles on disc four: Sonny Terry and Josh White. For the sort of racial integration that more truly defines our grassroots music, you'll have to go to Yazoo's splendid ongoing series on Early Rural American Music.

That -- no small consideration -- aside, American Roots is a good deal, financially of course, but also artistically. The no-frills packaging assures the absence of a fat (or even thin) booklet of liner notes, explaining what compiler Tony Watts's selection criteria were. They're certainly unusual, though they shouldn't be; unlike many of his colleagues, Watts apparently has no trouble seeing that Gene Autry, Roy Acuff, and Merle Travis have as legitimate a claim to a place on the folk-music spectrum as do the Carter Family, Uncle Dave Macon, and Fiddlin' John Carson, whose archaic styles are more obviously tied to earlier Southern traditions. Watts documents the debt early country innovators had to the sounds that came before them as well as the creative, personal approach they contributed as they invented a more modern music. And listening to Travis's flat-picking instrumental "Cannonball Rag," you can hear the music coming full circle; Travis pupil Doc Watson would make Travis's jazz-inflected city sound into something most people assume to be organic Appalachiana.

Disc four moves from the South to New York City, where the Communist Party's Popular Front and singing Stalinists Pete Seeger, Lee Hays, Cisco Houston, and Woody Guthrie created the urban folk revival. This disc contains one of American Roots' two genuinely repellant songs (the other is on disc one -- Vernon Dalhart's "The Runaway Train," bearer of what passed for humor in 1931 but seven decades later comes across as crude and stupid racism). In a 1940 reworking of the traditional "Liza Jane" into an anti-war agitprop exercise, we are reminded that during the Hitler-Stalin pact, Seeger, et al., cravenly followed the Soviet line, which was that World War II was all about the machinations of British capitalists and none of America's business. Later, in the same disc, Seeger and the Almanac Singers are performing a vigorous, full-throated, chirrupy anti-Hitler tune, "Deliver the Goods," done in 1942 after Hitler had attacked Russia and it was okay to oppose Hitler again. The hypocrisy is not pretty to hear. Side four also serves to remind us that where sheer talent is concerned, Guthrie was head and shoulders above the rest.

The sound quality on all four discs is decent on the whole. Inexplicably, however, there is annoying surface noise on Burl Ives's "The Big Rock Candy Mountain," hardly a rare recording. But for the price, I guess it's churlish to demand perfection. Anyone who loves American folk music, or at least that part of it sung by European Americans with (mostly) Southern accents, should have this worthwhile and entertaining anthology in his or her CD collection. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

The most diverse collection of fiddle music available.
I doubt there's a more diverse, more exciting collection of American fiddle music available today. With over 30 (!) tracks on one CD - all of them puerely instrumental, no vocals-, it is a collection of all the different shades and styles that this exhilarating music has to offer: from rustic, uncouth melodies to the more polished tunes of our time, from melodies that could have been taped in Scotland or Ireland to very American originals. The sound quality is excellent; so is the accompanying booklet, that does not only contain a mint of information, but also shows how dedicatd the Rounder people are to the conservation and promotion of traditional American music. ... Read more

Album Description

The first volume of Hungry for Music's annual collection of both original and popular Christmas songs performed by local bands. Considered one of the TOP TEN Holiday CD releases by The Washington Post in 1996.

"...this Washington, D.C.-area compilation is more diverse and more engaging than most major label collections ... There's not a weak cut..." -- Orlando Sentinel

"Livelier and more diverse than most Christmas compilations..." -- Washington City Paper " ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Like Raw Oysters
Some things are best in their simplest most elemental form. In many ways this is true of bluegrass and the bluegrass banjo in particular. This CD contains very raw, unprocessed, unmixed, mountain banjo music. All songs are performed in 3 finger style pickin, lyrics and accompaniments are very minimal and recording quality is marginal...but these factors only enhance the power of this music. In a world that has gone mad with pre-fab over-produced music, this CD is like a blast from a cold mountain waterfall....but like eating raw oysters or standing under a mountain waterfall, it takes some getting used to and it's not for everybody. But if you can handle it, you'll love it.

This is a solid Bluegrass primer well worth the $$
It's a good all-around list of tunes played by some greats. Fidelity and clarity are lacking, and you might consider it more for interesting background music than for focused listening. For the price and the songlist, tho', you really can't go wrong if you want to hear hillbilly music (which I happen to like in most forms). I recommend listening to the tracks here on Amazon, first.... ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Fantastic Fandango
John Dillshaw and the String Marvel's rendition of "The Spanish Fandango" on this album is one of the finest guitar performances I've ever heard - worth picking up the CD for this track alone.

Good Old Time Guitar Pickin'
If you like guitar music and want to hear how they SHOULD be played, buythis CD.If the GUITAR RAG doesn't get you movin' nothin' will.Thesesongs from '26-'31 will show that the current guitar pickers do not haveanything on these boys.BUY the CD.

P.S. Amazon sell the same things oncassettes for those of us that don't have CD players in our cars. ... Read more