Café Rembetika - The Birth Of The Greek Blues

For the uninitiated, rembetika sounds exotic, from another time and place, which is true enough. Rembetika's origins are a bit murky, but one thing is for sure, it flourished in the cafes and bars of Greece in the late 1920s through the '30s. It is outlaw music; the music of the Greek underworld sung by Rebetes (those who are social outsiders, they lived on the margins of society and crossed the line more often than not to stand apart from it).

 

It has been regarded as dangerous music even by the country's government, who nearly banned it: they tried to censor its content in recordings but failed. It has been called the Greek blues, and that's not far off. This is a place where the complex patterns of Middle Eastern modalism and the repetition of form that exist in the blues meet in one place. This collection on Nascente brings together the work of a number of rembetika's finest from two different schools, or "scenes" actually, the Piraeus and the Aman tradition:

"Café Rembetika" features four of the greatest stars of the Piraeus scene that later formed the first Rembetika supergroup: Markos Vamvakaris, Stratos Pagioumjis, Giorgos Batis and Anestis Delias. Also featured are leading singers from the Café Aman tradition: Rosa Eskenazi, Rita Abatsi and Marika Papagika.

Here´s a collection of some of the greatest songs from the golden age of Rembetika:

Café Rembetika - The Birth Of The Greek Blues
(192 kbps, small front cover included)

Brenda Fassi - Mama (1995)

"Mama" is a fine collection of Soweto township jive from Brenda Nokuzola Fassie (3 November 1964 – 9 May 2004), the South African anti-apartheid Afropop singer; it includes her hit "Ama-Gents." Sadly, Ms. Fassie is no longer with us. She has left us a small body of work that any fan of South African music will enjoy. "Mama" is an especially moving ballad. Highly recommended.         

From the linernotes:
"Brenda Fassie is often called the Madonna of South Africa. Even though she is only 5'1", on stage she is an electrifying presence. This album also includes the hit-version of 'Ama-Gents' a traditional South African chant arranged by Brenda in honor of Nelson Mandela."          

Known as the "Queen of the Vocals" and dubbed the "Madonna of the Townships" by Time Magazine, Brenda Fassie was one of South Africa's most popular vocalists, mixing African vocals with a slick international pop sound. She had her greatest success in the 1980s and continued to record into the ensuing decades, but became a celebrity known more for her off-stage antics than her on-stage work.

Born in 1964 in the small village of Langa, Cape Town, Fassie came from a musical family and began singing early, forming her first singing group at the age of four. Her precocious talent brought her to the attention of talent scouts from Johannesburg, one of whom eventually took the young teenager to the city to kick-start her career. After singing background vocals for other artists, Fassie broke out with the group Brenda & the Big Dudes with whom she recorded her biggest hit in 1986's "Weekend Special." She went on to a solo career soon after and working with producer Sello "Chicco" Twala Fassie had continued success at the end of the '80s with the hits "Too Late for Mama" and the controversial "Black President," which was banned in apartheid-era South Africa.
  Then things started to unravel for Fassie. She was involved in several highly publicized affairs with both men and women and had also begun a costly and destructive cocaine addiction. It also didn't help matters that she became notorious for missing concert dates. The nadir of her excess came in 1995 when Fassie was found in a drugged haze next to the dead body of her girlfriend. The horror of the event was enough to shock her out of her spiraling decline. Her next album, "Memeza", was released in 1998 and was the most focused and accomplished album she had released in nearly a decade. "Memeza" went on to become the best-selling album of the year in South Africa. If there had been any doubt previously, the album's success cemented Fassie's role as a superstar of Afro-pop. Her success continued with subsequent albums and, for a time, nothing seemed impossible for the township hero. In May of 2004, Fassie suffered a sever asthma attack that triggered cardiac arrest forcing her to be hospitalized. The physical breakdown was severe and Fassie's condition deteriorated quickly. On May 9, 2004, Brenda Fassie passed away.

Brenda Fassi - Mama (1995)
(256 kbps, cover art included)

Kurt Weill & Bertolt Brecht - Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (Lotte Lenya, Wilhelm Brückner-Rüggeberg, 1956)

The opera, "Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny" ("Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny"), is a razor-edged critique of capitalism, and considered by many to be the greatest collaboration between music composer Kurt Weill and playwright Bertolt Brecht. This political-satirical opera was first performed in Leipzig on 9 March 1930.

The libretto was mainly written in early 1927 and the music was finished in the spring of 1929, although both text and music were to be partly revised by the authors later. An early by-product, however, was the "Mahagonny-Songspiel", sometimes known as "Das kleine Mahagonny", a concert work for voices and small orchestra commissioned by the Deutsche Kammermusik Festival in Baden-Baden and premiered there on 18 July 1927. The ten numbers, which include the "Alabama Song" and "Benares Song", were duly incorporated into the full opera. The opera had its premiere in Leipzig in March 1930 and played in Berlin in December of the following year. The opera was banned by the Nazis in 1933 and did not have a significant production until the 1960s.

Weill's score uses a number of styles, including rag-time, jazz and formal counterpoint, notably in the "Alabama Song" (covered by multiple artists, notably The Doors and David Bowie). The lyrics for the "Alabama Song" and another song, the "Benares Song" are in English (albeit specifically idiosyncratic English) and are performed in that language even when the opera is performed in its original (German) language.

Here´s the recording with Lotte Lenya, Heinz Sauerbaum, Gisela Litz and the orchestra of the Norddeutsche Rundfunk, conducted by Wilhelm Brückner-Rüggeberg and recorded in 1956 in Hamburg.
.
Kurt Weill & Bertolt Brecht - Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny CD 1
Kurt Weill & Bertolt Brecht - Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny CD 2
(192 kbps, front cover included)

Ramblin´ Jack Elliott - Sings The Songs Of Woody Guthrie (1960, vinyl rip)

Ramblin' Jack Elliott is one of folk music's most enduring characters. Since he first came on the scene in the late '50s, Elliott influenced everyone from Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger to the Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead. The son of a New York doctor and a onetime traveling companion of Woody Guthrie, Elliott used his self-made cowboy image to bring his love of folk music to one generation after another. Despite the countless miles that Elliott traveled, his nickname is derived from his unique verbiage: an innocent question often led to a mosaic of stories before he got to the answer. According to folk songstress Odetta, it was her mother who gave Elliott the name when she remarked, "Oh, that Jack Elliott, he sure can ramble."

"Jack Elliott Sings the Songs of Woody Guthrie" was released in 1960. Elliott interprets many of the most popular items in the Guthrie repertoire, including "So Long," "This Land Is Your Land," "Pretty Boy Floyd," "Talking Dust Bowl," and "Philadelphia Lawyer," on the recording that is most representative of his role in popularizing the work of his hero.



Tracklist:

Side one:

1. "Hard Traveling"
2. "Grand Coulee Dam"
3. "New York Town"
4. "Tom Joad"
5. "Howdido"
6. "Talking Dust Bowl"
7. "This Land is Your Land"

Side two:

1. "Pretty Boy Floyd"
2. "Philadelphia Lawyer"
3. "Talking Columbia"
4. "Dust Storm Disaster"
5. "Riding in My Car"
6. "1913 Massacre"
7. "So Long"

Ramblin´ Jack Elliott - Sings The Songs Of Woody Guthrie (1960, vinyl rip)
(192 kbps, complete cover art included)

Thanks a lot to Uncle Gil for sharing this rip!

Ramblin Jack Elliott - Sings Woody Guthrie and Jimmie Rodgers (vinyl rip)

Ramblin' Jack Elliott is one of folk music's most enduring characters. Since he first came on the scene in the late '50s, Elliott influenced everyone from Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger to the Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead. The son of a New York doctor and a onetime traveling companion of Woody Guthrie, Elliott used his self-made cowboy image to bring his love of folk music to one generation after another. Despite the countless miles that Elliott traveled, his nickname is derived from his unique verbiage: an innocent question often led to a mosaic of stories before he got to the answer. According to folk songstress Odetta, it was her mother who gave Elliott the name when she remarked, "Oh, that Jack Elliott, he sure can ramble."

The album "Sings Woody Guthrie and Jimmie Rodgers" was recorded November 14, 1959 in London and released in the USA in 1962.
Elliotts covers of a half-dozen Woody Guthrie songs emphasize his vocals and their expressiveness, with the accompaniment subordinate to the singing. The Jimmie Rodgers stuff, by contrast, shows off some very attractive playing by all concerned, with wonderfully smooth guitar and fiddle work, and a very fine produced sound. The two sets of six songs sound very dissimilar to each other - Elliott has more of a drawl on the Guthrie material and a fine yodel on the Rodgers songs.

Tracks:


01 - T For Texas.

02 - Waiting For A Train

03 - Jimmie The Kid

04 - Mother, The Queen Of My Heart

05 - In The Jailhouse Now

06 - Whippin' The Old T.B

07 - Do-Re-Mi

08 - Dead Or Alive

09 - Grand Coulee Dam

10 - Dust Storm Disaster

11 - I Ain't Got No Home

12 - So Long, It's Been Good To Know You


Ramblin Jack Elliott - Sings Woody Guthrei and Jimmie Rodgers (vinyl rip)
(192 kbps, complete art work included)


Thanks a lot to Uncle Gil for sharing this rip!

Ramblin´ Jack Elliott - Jack Takes The Floor (Topic, 1958, vinyl rip)

Ramblin' Jack Elliott is one of folk music's most enduring characters. Since he first came on the scene in the late '50s, Elliott influenced everyone from Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger to the Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead. The son of a New York doctor and a onetime traveling companion of Woody Guthrie, Elliott used his self-made cowboy image to bring his love of folk music to one generation after another. Despite the countless miles that Elliott traveled, his nickname is derived from his unique verbiage: an innocent question often led to a mosaic of stories before he got to the answer. According to folk songstress Odetta, it was her mother who gave Elliott the name when she remarked, "Oh, that Jack Elliott, he sure can ramble."

Elliott's recording debut came in the mid-'50s when he recorded three songs for a multi-artist compilation, "Bad Men, Heroes and Pirates", released by Elektra. Elliott was so influenced by Guthrie (whom he had met during a Greenwich Village picking session in 1950) that he began his musical career by mimicking the legendary folksinger. When Guthrie traveled to Florida in 1952, he sent for Elliott to join him. By the time Elliott arrived, however, Guthrie had already left for Mexico, where he was turned back at the border and forced to return to New York. Elliott reunited with Guthrie a few months later. In the winter of 1954, they traveled together back to Florida; in the spring of 1954, they continued on to California's Topanga Canyon. The trip marked the last time that Elliott saw a healthy Guthrie. When he went to Europe in 1955, Elliott sang Guthrie's songs and told stories about him. England provided the setting for Elliott's early success; his first album on his own, Woody Guthrie's Blues, was recorded in England for the Topic label. In addition to recording four more albums for Topic, he attracted attention with his performances with Derroll Adams, a banjo player he had met in California. The duo barnstormed throughout Europe and had a profound influence on the British music scene.


Here´s his Topic album from 1958 released in Great Britain on a 10-inch LP.

Ramblin´ Jack Elliott - Jack Takes The Floor (Topic, 1958, vinyl rip)
(192 kbps, cover art included)

VA - Your Jamaican Girl (1971)

"Your Jamaican Girl" is a compilation of rock steady and early reggae tracks produced by C.S. Dodd and released in 1971 on the Bamboo label.


Tracklist:

Robert Lynn - Zip Code
Larry Marshall - Jamaican Girl
Delroy Wilson - Just Because Of You
Winston Williams - Still Love
Dennis Brown - Going To The Ball
Ernest Ranglin - Oh My
I'm And David - Chuky
Carl Bryan - Cover Charge
Splenders - Sometimes Coffee
Winston Francis - Halfway To Paradise
I'm And David - Searching Mind
Sound Dimension - Little Green Apples

Your Jamaican Girl (1971)
(192 kbps, front cover included)

VA - Jack Ruby Hi-Fi (1981)

What we have here is a full showcase-style dyed in the wool stormer. Ruby is the infamous producer linked to the Ocho Rios - Sound of Saint Anns, best known perhaps for his production associations with Burning Spear around the start of their Island career, Justin Hinds of the Dominoes, as well as numerous high calibre artists, think The Gaylads, Big Youth, King Tubby, Errol Thompson and some of the artists featured here, Ken Booth, Black Disciples and his long term studio associates. “Hi-Fi” is an album originally appearing on Brooklyn’s little known but genre-breaking Clappers label, “a weapon without compromise” as their chairman once put it, a label which ushered the transition of reggae into early new york dancehall and beyond, spawning early crossover hip-hop classics from the likes of Brother D and Silver Fox.

Here Ruby focusses on four vocals segued into four full length dubs: Ken Booth’s voice has to be one of the most divine instruments in all music if not reggae, ‘Peace Time’ rides a delicious guitar line – Booth is in fine fettle on a lyric for universal peace , and the whomping ‘Khomeini skank’ version establishes this somewhere at the turn of the seventies. Lennox Miller’s take on Delroy Wilson’s alltime big one ‘Better Must Come’ is a belter – lively drummatical version and a wicked Jah Coller deejay version, 12 minutes plus of sublime reggae. .

Recorded at Jack Ruby's Studios, Ocho Rios, JA. January 1, 1980, mixed at King Tubby's Studios, Kingston, JA.
Tracklist:

1. Peace Time/Khomeni Skank

2. Hypocrites/Brezinsky Dub

3. Better Must Come/Jah Coller Speaks His Mind

4. Jail House Free/Rikers Island Dub VA - Jack Ruby Hi-Fi (1981) (192 kbps, front cover included)

Kurt Weill - Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2 - Lady In The Dark

A student of Busoni, Kurt Weill wasn't just the tunesmith of "The Threepenny Opera." In a tangy, neo-classical style, the German composer wrote two symphonies, a violin concerto and a string quartet. This disc features the symphonies, plus a "Symphonic Nocturne" arranged from his 1940 Broadway show "Lady in the Dark."
The piquant reeds and whistle-worthy tunes of Weill's Brechtian theater masterpieces are apparent in his symphonies, especially the Second, of 1934. For his EMI recording, Mariss Jansons had the Berlin Philharmonic bite into the Second with pre-war edginess. While not ignoring the spirit of Stravinsky in both symphonies, Marin Alsop has her English orchestra caress the music more, bringing out its almost erotic allure.

While he left as extensive and as significant an output of stage-works as any composer active during the first half of the twentieth century, the contribution of Kurt Weill to orchestral and instrumental genres was largely restricted to his formative years as a composer from 1918 to 1924. Although he had attempted opera in several unfinished and now lost projects during and after the first World War, Weill’s earliest major works are a String Quartet (1918), a Suite for Orchestra (1919) and a Cello Sonata (1920). Yet an urge towards more concrete expression was inevitable in the social climate of post-war Germany, with political left and right fighting for supremacy as the country moved shakily towards a republic. Something of this turmoil can be gauged from the Symphony Weill completed in 1921, but which remained unperformed – and was for many years thought lost or destroyed before being located, surprisingly, in an Italian convent – until 1956.

"An intriguing musical side-glance at Kurt Weill's output. The First Symphony, from 1921, was written at the time when Weill was studying with Busoni. The Second, from 1934, is a much stronger work: it was premiered by Bruno Walter in Amsterdam and is well worth hearing. Marin Alsop and her doughty Bournemouth ensemble play with tremendous spirit, thrillingly recorded."

The disc concludes with "Lady in the Dark: Symphonic Nocturne", a concert suite of familiar tunes from Weill´s American period, arranged by Robert Russell Bennett, that provide a diverting departure from the dark and unrelenting march of history that has come before.

.

Kurt Weill - Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2 & Lady In The Dark 
(256 kbps, cover art included)

Henry Cow - Unrest (1974)

We would like to celebrate the life and work of Lindsay Cooper, who died in September 2013.

Lindsay Cooper was an English bassoon and oboe player, composer and political activist. Best known for her work with the band Henry Cow, she was also a member of Comus, National Health, News from Babel and David Thomas and the Pedestrians. She has collaborated with a number of musicians, including Chris Cutler and Sally Potter, and co-founded the Feminist Improvising Group. She has written scores for film and TV and a song cycle Oh Moscow which was performed live around the world in 1987. She has also recorded a number of solo albums, including Rags (1980), The Gold Diggers (1983) and Music For Other Occasions (1986).
Cooper was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1991, but did not disclose it to the musical community until 1998 when her illness prevented her from performing live.                   

"Unrest" was the 1974 release of Henry Cow. During their brief and tumultuous lifespan, fiercely political British art rockers Henry Cow spawned a musical subgenre that became known as Rock In Opposition.

By this point Henry Cow consisted of guitarist Fred Frith, drummer Chris Cutler, bassist John Greaves, keyboardist Tim Hodgkinson, and, of particular importance to the band's sound at this point, bassoonist Lindsay Cooper. As is so often the case with avant-garde rock & roll, it's the composed pieces that work best, and the fact that Frith is responsible for the majority of them is significant. "Bittern Storm Over Ulm" is an absolutely brilliant demolition of the Yardbirds' "Got to Hurry," while the brief but lovely "Solemn Music" unfolds in a stately manner with atonal but pretty counterpoint between Frith and Cooper. The improvised material succeeds in a more spotty way. "Upon Entering the Hotel Adlon" demonstrates how fine the line can be between bracing free atonality and mindless cacophony. The unsettling but eventually gorgeous "Deluge," on the other hand, shows how well Henry Cow could walk that line when they tried; in this piece, random guitar skitterings, scattershot drum clatter, and pointillistic reed grunts are eventually snuck up on and overtaken by softly massed chords and Cooper's gently hooting bassoon. The effect is startlingly moving. Overall, this is one of Henry Cow's better efforts.    
The album was dedicated to Robert Wyatt and Uli Trepte. The cover art work was by artist Ray Smith and was the second of three "paint socks" to feature on Henry Cow's albums.

Side one

1. "Bittern Storm over Ulm" (Frith) – 2:44
2. "Half Asleep/Half Awake" (Greaves) – 7:39
3. "Ruins" (Frith) – 12:00

Side two

1. "Solemn Music" (Frith) – 1:09
2. "Linguaphonie" (Henry Cow) – 5:58
3. "Upon Entering the Hotel Adlon" (Henry Cow) – 2:56
4. "Arcades" (Henry Cow) – 1:50
5. "Deluge" (Henry Cow) – 5:52

Bonus tracks on 1991 CD re-issue

9. "The Glove" (Henry Cow) – 6:35
10. "Torch Fire" (Henry Cow) – 4:48

Henry Cow - Unrest (1974)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

The Kingston Trio - Close Up (1961)

The Kingston Trio entered the '60s proper under seemingly less than ideal circumstances; founding member Dave Guard had announced his intention to leave the group early in the year, formally exiting in August, and not one single by the trio charted during all of 1961. They were hardly to be counted out, however, as demonstrated by the "Close Up" album, released just a month after Guard's exit.

With new member John Stewart in place, the album showed the trio to be in solid musical shape, harmonizing beautifully, and with a new songwriting talent in their midst in the guise of Stewart, whose haunting, slightly bluesy ballad "When My Love Was Here" was the highlight of the record. "Close Up", although not as groundbreaking as the trio's self-titled debut three years earlier, showed a surprisingly undiminished group and is a good representation of where popular folk music was in late 1961; the mix of traditional songs, well-known standards (most notably a rousing version of Woody Guthrie's "Reuben James"), gospel, humor, and pleasing folk-like originals was popular enough, rising to number three on the LP charts.

The audience for folk music, especially among college students, was to shift dramatically, and into a more radical stance, in a couple of years, but this melodic and aesthetically pleasing album was perfect for its time and still evokes that relatively innocent and calm period in our past. The group was also learning how to use stereo to great effect, even as an acoustic outfit; Nick Reynolds' percussion workout on "O Ken Karanga" was some of the best binaural stereo of this period in Capitol's history.    

Tracklist:                           

A1	Coming From The Mountains
A2	Oh, Sail Away
A3	Take Her Out Of Pity
A4	Don't You Weep, Mary
A5	The Whistling Gypsy
A6	O Ken Karanga
B1	Jesse James
B2	Glorious Kingdom
B3	When My Love Was Here
B4	Karu
B5	Weeping Willow
B6	Reuben James

     
The Kingston Trio - Close Up (1961)    
(256 kbps, cover art included)

Pete Seeger - American Folk Songs For Children (1954)

For over 35 years, this heartwarming collection has introduced children to such folk classics as Jim Crack Corn, This Old Man, Frog Went A-Courting, and many others. Essential for homes, libraries, and schools. Includes a valuable subject index for parents and teachers, complete lyric sheet, and recommended activities for each song. "Pete sings them all with great enthusiasm." —Record Roundup

The eleven songs on this album were specifically selected from an identically titled book anthology of folk songs for children collected by Seeger's stepmother, Ruth Crawford Seeger. Pete Seeger renders them plainly and simply, singing and playing and banjo, on a program designed especially (but not solely) for children between three and seven years of age. "Jim Crack Corn," "Frog Went A-Courting," and "She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain" are some of the better-known tunes on the record, but not all of them are as overly familiar. 

On American Folk Songs for Children, Seeger brought tunes back to life that, today, seem naturally ingrained in our nation's psyche. Songs that are familiar to us now, like "Jim Crack Corn," "This Old Man," "Frog Went A-Courting," and "She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain," were on the verge of being lost in the shuffle of the post-war prosperity of the 1940s and the New Frontier sheen of the 1950s. Seeger brought them back through a respect for musical and folkloric history, and by sheer dogged determination.
Just listen to Seeger's ringing banjo on "Jim Crack Corn," his unabashed joyfullness on "Clap Your Hands," his giggling at his own lyrical mistake on "There Was a Man and He Was Mad." Only the sourest of sourpusses could discount this great collection of family songs.
 

American Folk Songs for Children was the first in a long line of kids' classics from Seeger, and he did it with only his voice and banjo. This is a great album for family sing-alongs, for classroom use, and for children's entertainers who need a solid performance catalog.

Tracklist         

A1		Jim Along Josie
A2		There Was A Man And He Was Mad
A3		Clap Your Hands
A4		She'll Be Coming 'Round The Mountain
A5		All Around The Kitchen
A6		Billy Barlow
B1		Bought Me A Cat
B2		Jim Crack Corn
B3		Train Is A-Coming
B4		This Old Man
B5		Frog Went A-Courting

Pete Seeger - American Folk Songs For Children (1954)
(flac, front cover & booklet included)                

The Kingston Trio - The Last Month Of The Year (1960)

Released in 1960, when the Kingston Trio were one of the most popular recording acts in the U.S.A., "The Last Month of the Year" did not tear up the charts as expected. It peaked at number 11, a relatively low placement given their popularity, and it didn't become a catalog item, which is the ultimate goal of any holiday record.



The reason why "The Last Month of the Year" failed to become an accepted standard is due entirely to its ambition. Most musicians stick to the tried-and-true carols but the Kingston Trio dug deep into unheralded English, European, and American spiritual and carol songbooks. "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," an old English carol, as is often performed, as is the Wassailing song, and the Weavers had popularized "Go Where I Send Thee," but most of "The Last Month of the Year" would've been unfamiliar to 1960 audiences, as it would be to modern listeners. This may have doomed the album to obscurity but it's a remarkable record, one that's canny in its construction and heartfelt in execution.

"The Last Month of the Year" celebrates the deep history of the holiday while showcasing the trio's warm harmonies and sensitive, savvy interpretative skills. It may not have made many waves at the time but it remains one of the most distinctive - and best - holiday records.     

Tracklist:                           

A1	Bye, Bye, Thou Little Tiny Child	2:55
A2	The Snows Of Winter	2:34
A3	We Wish You A Merry Christmas	1:34
A4	All Through The Night	2:14
A5	Goodnight My Baby	1:53
A6	Go Where I Send Thee	2:28
B1	Follow Now, Oh Shepards	2:42
B2	Somerset Gloucestershire Wassail	1:47
B3	Mary Mild	2:50
B4	A Round About Christmas	1:30
B5	Sing We Noel	2:00
B6	The Last Month Of The Year	2:35

The Kingston Trio - The Last Month Of The Year (1960) 
(256 kbps, cover art included)   

The Brothers Four - Song Book (1961)

A pleasant if not necessarily adventurous collection of 12 songs, beginning with versions of "Rock Island Line" and "Goodnight Irene." Those are followed by a handful of traditional songs with new words added (helpful in securing copyright), including "The Tavern Song" (aka "Tavern in the Town"), "Lady Greensleeves," "Ole Smokey," etc.

It's all sweetly sung and easy enough to listen to - so much so that this album could qualify as an "easy listening" selection - but not terribly ambitious. Indeed, next to these guys on this album, the Kingston Trio of the same era sounds like Bob Dylan and the Band.   

Tracklist:                           

A1	Rock Island Line	2:31
A2	Goodnight Irene	2:30
A3	The Tavern Song	2:15
A4	Lady Greensleeves	3:03
A5	The Drillers's Song	2:45
A6	Nobody Knows	3:00
B1	Viva La Compagnie	1:40
B2	Ole Smokey	3:00
B3	Tarrytown	2:18
B4	Come For To Carry Me Home	3:14
B5	Summer Days Alone	2:13
B6	Frogg No 2	4:10

The Brothers Four - Song Book (1961)   
(256 kbps, cover art included)   

The Kingston Trio - String Along (1960)

"String Along" has the most unusual sound of any Kingston Trio album, mostly by virtue of the crisp mixing and voicing of the instruments - guitars and banjo all appear in very high relief, matching the attention usually reserved for the voices on the Kingston Trio's records.

The result is a somewhat quieter record, without much presence of the familiar unified group sound, as the individual members are relied upon more than the ensemble singing on many of the songs. One of the few exceptions is "Buddy Better Got On Down the Line," which has the sound that one associates with past trio recordings. But it's a true exception on an album that has other highlights such as oddities like the trio's surprisingly strong rendition of Ray Charles' "Leave My Woman Alone."

Though no one could have realized it at the time, "String Along" was very close to the tail end of the original Kingston Trio's history - Dave Guard was losing interest in arguing over the direction of the group; and although their albums were still selling well and steadily, "String Along" (which hit number one) would yield the original group's last two charting singles. "Bad Man's Blunder," which also opens this album, became the original Kingston Trio's final Top 40 single; it was cut by the trio and issued as a single as a favor to composer Cisco Houston who was in the hospital and terminally ill. Other songs were done for more mundane reasons - according to Benjamin Blake, Jack Rubek, and Allan Shaw in their book "The Kingston Trio on Record", the English folk-style "The Escape of Old John Webb" was featured on the album in the hope of helping to persuade EMI Records in England to promote the trio's albums more vigorously.     

Tracklist:

A1	Bad Man Blunder	2:37
A2	The Escape Of Old John Webb	2:28
A3	When I Was Young	2:24
A4	Leave My Woman Alone	2:18
A5	This Mornin', This Evenin, So Soon	3:06
A6	Everglades	2:18
B1	Buddy Better Get On Down The Line	2:19
B2	South Wind	3:00
B3	Who's Gonna Hold Her Hand	2:37
B4	To Morrow	2:37
B5	Colorado Trail	2:49
B6	The Tattooed Lady	1:43

The Kingston Trio - String Along (1960)         
(256 kbps, cover art included)

Dick Justice - Cocaine and other recordings

 

Dick Justice (born Richard Justice in 1906, died September 12, 1962), was an influential blues and folk musician who hailed from West Virginia, United States. He recorded ten songs for Brunswick Records in Chicago in 1929. On four of the ten sides he recorded, he play back guitar to the fiddle of Reese Jarvis.

Unlike many contemporary white musicians, he was heavily influenced by black musicians, particularly Luke Jordan who recorded in 1927 and 1929 for Victor Records. Justice's "Cocaine" is a verse-for-verse cover of the Jordan track of the same name recorded two years earlier. The song "Brownskin Blues" is also stylistically akin the much of Jordan's work but stands on its own as a Justice original. As Jordan hailed from around Lynchburg, Virginia it is perhaps worth speculating that the two may have been associates. Justice is also musically related to Frank Hutchison (with whom he played music and worked as a coal miner in Logan County, West Virginia) and The Williamson Brothers. His recording of the traditional ballad 'Henry Lee' is the opening track of Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music.

Here’s a one-hour compilation posted originally on http://oldweirdamerica.wordpress.com/ that includes all of Dick Justice’s recordings, a few tracks from his friend Frank Hutchinson and four tracks by Luke Jordan. Check out this really interesting blog using the Folkways Anthology as a roadmap to explore american folk music. Thanks a lot for all your great work!

Tracks list:
1.Henry Lee (Dick Justice)
2.Old Black Dog (Dick Justice)
3.Little Lulie (Dick Justice)
4.Brown Skin Blues (Dick Justice)
5.Cocaine (Dick Justice)
6.One Cold December Day (Dick Justice)
7.Guian Valley Waltz (Dick Justice/Reese Jarvis)
8.Poor Girl’s Waltz (Dick Justice/Reese Jarvis)
9.Poca River Blues (Dick Justice/Reese Jarvis)
10.Muskrat Rag (Dick Justice/Reese Jarvis)
11.The Miner’s Blues (Frank Hutchison)
12.Logan County Blues [1927] (Frank Hutchison)
13.The Chevrolet Six (Frank Hutchison)
14.Cumberland Gap (Frank Hutchison)
15.The Deal (Frank Hutchison)
16.K.C. Blues (Frank Hutchison)
17.Pick Poor Robin Clean (Take 1) (Luke Jordan)
18.Cocaine Blues (Luke Jordan)
19.Won’t You Be Kind (Luke Jordan)
20.My Gal’s Done Quit Me (Luke Jordan)

Dick Justice - Cocaine and other recordings

(192 kbps)

Nico - The Marble Index (1968)

The quirky, orchestrated folk-rock of Nico's 1968 debut album, "Chelsea Girl", in no way prepared listeners for the stark, almost avant-garde flavor of her 1968 follow-up, "The Marble Index". The chanteuse presented an uncompromisingly bleak, gothic soundscape on her second album.

Dominated by spare harmonium and Nico's deep, brooding vocals, this album unveiled her singularly morose songwriting (her first record featured none of her compositions). Owing more to European classical and folk music than rock, it found little favor with 1968/1969 audiences. But like the work of the Velvet Underground, it proved to be quite influential in the long run on a future generation of black-clad goth rockers.     

Tracklist:                                                       

1	Prelude	0:50
2	Lawns Of Dawns	3:12
3	No One Is There	3:36
4	Ari's Song	3:20
5	Facing The Wind	4:52
6	Julius Caesar (Memento Hodie)	4:57
7	Frozen Warnings	4:00
8	Evening Of Light	5:33
9	Roses In The Snow	4:06
10	Nibelungen	2:44

The original album was released in November 1968, tracks 9 and 10 are bonus tracks, mixed and engineered at Skyline Studios, NYC, May, 1990.

Nico - The Marble Index (1968)    
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Sun Ra And His Solar Arkestra - Visits Planet Earth (1958)

"Sun Ra Visits Planet Earth" is a classic Saturn LP from the Chicago period.

It was recorded in two sessions, one in late 1956 and the other in 1958. The first four tracks (from the 1956 sessions) are firmly grounded in bop and swing.

 

The next three tracks are from the 1958 session, and find the Arkestra creating a more personal sound, with prominent tympani and elements of dissonance beginning to enter the picture.

Side A:

1. "Planet Earth" - (4.54)
2. "Eve" - (5.35)
3. "Overtones of China" - (4.21)

Side B:

1. "Reflections in Blue" - (5.55)
2. "Two Tones" (Patrick, Davis) - (3.36)
3. "El Viktor" - (2.28)
4. "Saturn" - (3.55)

The sides were switched for the Evidence reissue.


Sun Ra And His Solar Arkestra - Visits Planet Earth (1958)
(192 kbps, cover art included)

VA - Samba-Reggae - Musica Popular Bahiana

In 1988, almost a hundred years to the day after slavery was officially abolished in Brazil, prominent Brazilian artists where already prophesying radical changes within the "Musica Popular Brasileira". Salvador da Bahia, the sub-continent´s first capital city and major slave market, suddenly beace a focal point, as journalists from all over the country descended en masse, in search of new and interesting forms of black artistic expression. And what really turned them on was a brand new style called samba-reggae.

You haven't danced until you've heard Brasilian Axe Music...

Tracklist:
       1. Raiz Negra - Tupi Nago

2. Filhos Do Sol - Ze Paulo

3. Revolta Olodum - Leci Brandao

4. Samba Reggae - Jimmy Cliff

5. Froreggae - Luizinho Vieira

6. Raca Negra - Margareth Menezes

7. Vem Meu Amor - Olodum

8. Samba Reggae - Olodum

9. Batuque - Daniela Mercury

10. Africa - Ara Ketu

11. Ellegibo Uma Historia De Ifa-Ejigbo - Margareth Menezes

12. Conversa Fiada - Banda Mel

13. Bahiafrika - Luizinho Vieira

14. Crenca E Fe - Banda Mel

15. Inae - Tupi Nago

VA - Samba-Reggae - Musica Popular Bahiana
(256 kbps, small front cover included)

Tom Liwa - Private Collection

.
Yesterday an old friend stopped by with a good bottle of wine, some sentimental stories about his long lost love and his private compilation of Tom Liwa tracks, solo and with his band "The Flowerpornoes".

By the time the bottle was empty he agreed in sharing his compilaton with you, so here it is...

Tom Liwa was the frontman of one of Germany’s most influential but less known rock bands in the Eighties and Nineties, the "Flowerpornoes". Or rather is, as there were some new Flowerpornoe albums in the last years, after a long break. In the meantime we had the opportunity to witness some Tom Liwa solo albums.

Tom Liwa live gigs are always very special evenings: He is bringing along a lot of charisma and dry humour to make the sometimes long breaks between the songs very entertaining and a good counterpoint to his mostly very melancholic songs.

Tom Liwa is a great songwriter whose solo material invites the audience absolutely into his very personal world of thinking and triggers a lot of reflections.

 

Tom Liwa - Private Collection

(192 kbps, cover art included)

 

You like it? Please check out http://www.tomliwa.de/.

Mississippi John Hurt - Ain't Nobody's Business

No blues singer ever presented a more gentle, genial image than Mississippi John Hurt. A guitarist with an extraordinarily lyrical and refined fingerpicking style, he also sang with a warmth unique in the field of blues, and the gospel influence in his music gave it a depth and reflective quality unusual in the field. Coupled with the sheer gratitude and amazement that he felt over having found a mass audience so late in life, and playing concerts in front of thousands of people - for fees that seemed astronomical to a man who had always made music a sideline to his life as a farm laborer - these qualities make Hurt's recordings into a very special listening experience.

 

Tracklist:

 

01. Nobody's Business But Mine 

02. The Angels Laid Him Away 

03. Baby What's Wrong With You 

04. Casey Jones 

05. Candy Man 

06. Lonesome Blues 

07. My Creole Belle 

08. Make Me A Pallet On Your Floor 

09. Trouble I Had All My Days 

10. C H I C K E N Blues 

11. Coffee Blues 

12. Shake That Thing 

13. Monday Morning Blues 

14. Salty Dog 

15. Spike Drivers Blues 

16. Here Am I Lord Send Me 

17. Talking Casey 

18. Hot Time In The Old Town Tonight 

19. I'm Satisfied 

20. Richland Women Blues 

Mississippi John Hurt - Ain´t Nobody´s Business