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Infamous Angel
: :Artists like Iris DeMent aren't supposed to exist anymore in this cynical world. Singing unironically about family, forgiveness, and other real-life mysteries, DeMent is accompanied on this great debut by little more than acoustic guitar, upright bass, piano, and an occasional fiddle. But the songs (especially the bittersweet 'Our Town' and the grand dreams of 'Mama's Opry') are more than smart and honest enough to bear standing so naked. And her singing--highlighting a sweet Ozark twang--is that rarest of gifts: a wise, friendly voice that can break your heart even as ...
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The New Possibility: John Fahey's Guitar Soli Christmas Album
: :John Fahey has made a habit of recording a new album of Christmas music every five or six years, but The New Possibility, which was originally released in 1968, is still his best. On it, Fahey has pulled off the near miraculous feat of taking old holiday chestnuts like 'Joy to the World' and 'It Came upon a Midnight Clear' and making them sound fresh. When he plays a Travis-picking version of 'O Come All Ye Faithful' or he recasts 'Silent Night, Holy Night' as bottleneck blues, you get the feeling ...
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Alice's Restaurant: The Massacree Revisited (30th Anniversary Edition)
:Album Description:WHAT CAME AROUND - COMES AROUND AGAIN! TALK ABOUT TIMING!!! Though all the other songs on this album were rerecorded in the studo, in 1995 Arlo returned to the church near Stockbridge, Massachusetts where he originally wrote Alice's Restaurant. On the 30th anniversary of the massacree, on Thanksgiving, before a live audience, in the place where it all began, he does 'Alice' again with some historic footnotes added to the original, creating a return to the scene of the crime in ways that make this version of the famous record ...
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A Celtic Christmas: Peace on Earth
: :Number five in Windham Hill's Celtic Christmas series, this may be the best of the lot with evocative compositions and arrangements that don't slip into seasonal sentimentality, better known as schmaltz. Produced by Micheal O'Domhnaill, the guitarist and founder of Nightnoise, the disc centers on members of that band. Nightnoise gives a Celtic chamber music feel to the traditional Irish carol, 'The Flight into Egypt,' while also offering up the serene original, 'No Room at the Inn.' Nightnoise singer Triona Ni Dhomhnaill duets with her sister Maighread on the quavering harmonies ...
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Chinatown
: :Once again a Canadian perspective helps to bring out the best in American roots music. Like the Band, these three women of the Great North have taken the traditional sounds of their southern neighbor and made them uniquely their own. They inflect the acoustic intimacy of public domain tunes like 'Reuben' and 'In My Time of Dying,' modern classics like Townes Van Zandt's 'Waiting Around to Die,' and Peter Rowan's 'Midnight Moonlight,' and their own songs with only the best and most appropriate elements of their punk, trip-hop, and Motown influences. ...
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Guantanamera/The Sandpipers
:Album Description:New exclusive from The Sandpipers, one of those mid-60's groups that straddled the line between folk, pop and rock. Described as breezy, gentle versions of pop standards and more contemporary (Beatles) material, a mixture that landed them seven charting albums, of which these are their first two and highest-charting ! Complete with original artwork. 24 tracks. Standard jewel case. 2000 release.
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I'm Your Fan
:Album Description:New exclusive from The Sandpipers, one of those mid-60's groups that straddled the line between folk, pop and rock. Described as breezy, gentle versions of pop standards and more contemporary (Beatles) material, a mixture that landed them seven charting albums, of which these are their first two and highest-charting ! Complete with original artwork. 24 tracks. Standard jewel case. 2000 release.
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New York Tendaberry
: :Though Laura Nyro was one of the most successful American songwriters of the late '60s, penning hits like Streisand's 'Stoney End,' Blood, Sweat & Tears' 'And When I Die,' Three Dog Night's 'Eli's Coming,' and the Fifth Dimension's 'Wedding Bell Blues,' her buoyant, genre-blending major-label debut clicked with only a small, if influential, cult audience. But even Nyro's faithful must have been taken by surprise by its 1969 follow-up. A mature, deeply impressionistic ode to her hometown, New York City, Nyro's creation captures the city's multicultural soul and emotionally jagged edges ...
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In My Life
: essential recording:Folky chanteuse Judy Collins is generally known for two things: Her great eyes (memorialized by Stephen Stills) and her ability to interpret other people's songs in that crystalline voice. 1966's In My Life, her sixth record overall, was considered a watershed when it was released--the album on which Collins moved beyond narrowcast protest-folk and into more expansive, romantic, contemplative material: everything from cabaret theatrics (Brecht and Weil's 'Pirate Jenny,' the wonderful medley 'Marat/Sade') to pop (the Beatles' title tune) to undiscovered brooders ('Suzanne' by the then-unknown Leonard Cohen). Yeah, ...
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Gord's Gold
:Album Description:A national treasure in his native Canada and a timeless star Stateside and worldwide, legendary singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot first rose to fame in the mid-'60s when his compositions became hits for Peter, Paul and Mary ('Early Morning Rain') and Marty Robbins ('Ribbon of Darkness'). Both songs are featured on Rhino's newly reissued CD version of the artist's hits compilation Gord's Gold-a Top 40 Album-originally released in 1975 as a 2-LP set currently out of print. This in-depth overview of troubadour Lightfoot's famed Warner Bros. years provides an insightful portrait of ...
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