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Don Quixote
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On the Track
: :Once cited by Bob Dylan as the first performer he'd want to sign to his own label, Leon Redbone instead made his 1976 recording debut with Warner Brothers. On the Track carries a 'very special thanks' to Jelly Roll Morton and Jimmie Rodgers, and indeed sounds like the offspring of the pioneering jazzman and the early hillbilly blues singer, with perhaps a bit of Bing Crosby tossed in. Aided by a small horn section (including a prominent tuba) and violinist Joe Venuti, among others, the disc is a gorgeous, affectionate tribute ...
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Sundown
: essential recording:This album wasn't Lightfoot's breakthrough recording, but it was both a demonstration of the rocking electric turn most folkies would make after Dylan's revolution, and a commercially successful marriage of soulful, R&B sensibility with folk narratives. The title cut is probably engrained in the memory of anyone with an A.M. radio in the '70s, but 20 years later, it sounds suggestive, even bluesy. 'Carefree Highway' perhaps excessively romanticizes the road, but less familiar tracks like 'Watchman's Gone' and 'Too Late for Prayin'' are convincing statements of Lightfoot's lyrical endurance. ...
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Songs to Grow on for Mother and Child
:Album Description:Beautifully remastered vintage recordings with vocals, acoustic guitar, and rattles. Includes counting songs 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and One Day Old, playful songs Wash-y Wash and Pick It Up, and songs of adoration Little Sugar and Eat You Up. 'Songs meant for you to sing with your children as parents have done for generations.' - Long Island Parenting News essential recording:Woody Guthrie offered some sage advice in his liner notes to this collection of children's tunes. 'Don't just buy this record and take it home so your kids can listen to it ...
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The Geography of Light
:Album Description:The Geography of Light, the latest Philo recording from folk-roots artist Carrie Newcomer, is a resonant soundtrack for a world that is both sacred and ordinary. Newcomer sings about serious subjects with clarity and elegance, and a healthy measure of good humor and self-awareness, with a voice the Austin Statesman has called 'as rich as Godiva chocolate.' Her music resonates with Appalachian and classical influences, and The Geography of Light combines piano, violin, mandolin, cello, bass, percussion, and harmony vocal textures with Newcomer's adept guitar work and powerful but intimate ...
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Solitude Standing
: :Suzanne Vega emerged in the mid-'80s, and while her intimate voice and acoustic guitar brought to mind Joni Mitchell, her urbane lyrics suggested a sensibility that was as much reportorial as confessional. Vega's second album, which replaced the delicate acoustic textures of her self-titled debut with more dramatic arrangements, includes Vega's career song, 'Luka,' surely one of the biggest hits ever written about child abuse. But it was the energetic folk-rock production of 'Luka,' thick with ringing guitars and pushed by perky drums, that let the listener luxuriate in a song ...
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People Take Warning! Murder Ballads & Disaster Songs 1913-1938
:Album Description:'In the late 1920's and early 1930's, the Depression gripped the Nation. It was a time when songs were tools for living. A whole community would turn out to mourn the loss of a member and to sow their songs like seeds. This collection is a wild garden grown from those seeds.' - Tom Waits, from the Introduction Songs of death, destruction and disaster, recorded by black and white performers from the dawn of American roots recording are here, assembled together for the first time. Whether they document world-shattering events ...
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Letters from Sinners & Strangers
: :It's hard to tell where the traditional ends and the original begins in the music of Eilen Jewell, a sweet-voiced young singer who steeps her material in the hard times of old, reviving the stories and musical styles of the Depression. On her own 'Rich Man's World,' she casts herself as a 'lonely rambler girl' while conjuring comparisons with Gillian Welch. Another original, 'In the End,' sounds uncannily like Lucinda Williams, while a revival of Eric Andersen's train-hopping 'Dusty Boxcar Wall' and the double-entendre blues of the traditional 'If You Catch ...
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Will The Circle Be Unbroken - The Trilogy
: :The original Will the Circle Be Unbroken is undoubtedly a landmark country-music recording. A peace offering between rock-reared longhairs and rock-ribbed Nashville patriarchs (and one matriarch, Mother Maybelle Carter), it exposed generations of upstart pickers and singers to old-time country music and its impact is felt to this day. The organizers of the 1971 sessions that led to the initial three-LP set, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, have produced two sequels, the first in 1989 and the most recent in 2002. This six-disc collection (including an all-star concert DVD) pulls together ...
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Jonathan Edwards
: :Singer-songwriter Jonathan Edwards released this charming debut record in 1971. The album gained some mainstream attention thanks to the catchy political-pop single 'Sunshine.' Featuring rustic, acoustic-based ballads, and up-tempo numbers like 'Train of Glory,' Edwards's warm, gentle voice was surrounded by a group of empathic musicians collectively known as Orphan. Edwards sang his homespun tunes in a casual, easy manner, while accompanying himself on acoustic guitar and harmonica. The emotional centerpiece on this album is 'Sometimes,' a touching ode to the early-morning memories of a love long gone. A convincing vocalist ...
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