Chumbawamba – I Never Gave Up (12``, 1992)

Formed in a squat in Leeds, England, in 1982, Chumbawamba released their first single, "Revolution", in 1985. Up to a point they self-released most of their material on labels they ran themselves, such as Sky & Trees and Agit Prop. Their musical style has changed through the years, initially a shouting punk band, later recording some folk songs, then, with the "Jesus H Christ" album, they discovered electronic music.

One of their best-ever songs (from Slap!) in two pretty great remixes, followed by a remix of another great song (the title track from Shhh, here retitled "Laughing"). The first "I Never Gave Up" remix feels more like a single edit (though it only reduces the seven minute original to six minutes) than a particularly exciting remix, while the second is clubby without being anonymous (making excellent use of the original's imitation funk wah-wah guitar). "Laughing" is a relatively brief, bass-heavy but still breezy bit of pop that turns "Shhh" into an utterly different, and possibly better-than-it-was, song. Very nice.

Tracklist:

A I Never Gave Up (Rondo Mix)
B1 I Never Gave Up (Cass Mix)
B2 Laughing (Never Stopped Mix)

Chumbawamba – I Never Gave Up (12``, 1992)

(192 kbps, cover art included)

Brühwarm & Ton Steine Scherben – Mannstoll (1977)

Ton Stein Scherben were formed in 1970 by the vocalist, guitarist and frontman Rio Reiser, R.P.S. Lanrue, Kai Sichtermann (bass guitar), Wolfgang Seidel (drums). They are considered to be among the most notorious German kraut polit-rock next to bands such as Floh de Cologne. During the 70's the band was known for their social and political critics but also for their amazingly challenging live performances.They were engaged in the German gay-movement,


"Brühwarm" was a German political theatre troupe from Hamburg, active in the gay scene, who sought the aid of Ton Steine Scherben for musical backing. So they released two LPs in cooperation with Ton Steine Scherben. This album features the recordings from the "Brühwarm"-Show "Mannstoll" and was recorded in 1977 at the "David Volksmund Studio" in Fresenhagen. 



Tracklist:

A1 Männercharme 2:38
A2 Immer Wieder Ficken 4:41
A3 Ich Freu' Mich Schon Auf Dienstag 3:53
A4 Mitten Drin Im Jugendrausch 3:07
A5 Fummelrock 2:18
A6 I Stand On You 3:18
B1 Kommen Sie Schnell 4:30
B2 Geistersongs 3:21
B3 Boogie Anal 1:45
B4 Zimt Und Schweiß 2:15
B5 Wir Müssen Ja Nicht 1:45
B6 Ach Müder Mann 2:46
B7 Tango 2:08

Brühwarm & Ton Steine Scherben – Mannstoll (1977)

(256 kbps, cover art included)

Die Erde - Leben den Lebenden (1990)

Tobias Gruben was born on the 28th of July 1963 in Athens, Greece and raised in Starnberg, Germany. His first band was "4 Kaiserlein" with Christoph Schlingensief, who would go on to become a famous director for film and theatre as well as an author and actor. Gruben then relocated to Hamburg and formed "Cyan Revue" in 1984. The band released three albums and toured with Alien Sex Fiend before disbanding in 1987.

After this, he formed "Die Erde" with Horst Petersen. The group released two albums - one studio and one live - and toured alongside Einstürzende Neubauten, but split up in 1991 due to personal and musical differences.

Also in 1991, Gruben joined the band Heroina alongside Katrin Achinger and Matthias Arfmann of Kastrierte Philosophen, but the group dissolved that same year. He then worked on private projects until meeting Felix Huber in 1994. The pair released a 7" as "Sol (23)" before changing their moniker to "Die Erde II". An album was planned for release in 1997 but was cancelled following Gruben's death from a heroin overdose on November 2nd 1996.

A class mate of Nick Cave and Einstürzende Neubauten, Gruben's "Die Erde" should not be missed!


Tracklist:

Leben den Lebenden 4:43
Eis 3:43
Enough 2:50
Maria durch den Dornwald Ging 1:55


Die Erde - Leben den Lebendigen (1990)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Pete Seeger - American Favorite Ballads Vol. 3 (1959)

Having recorded two volumes of "American Favorite Ballads", Pete Seeger still had many familiar American folk songs to choose from in assembling a third volume. Yet he (or Folkways Records producer Moses Asch) seems to have expanded the concept of what songs were acceptable for inclusion. Maybe that explains this album's subtitle, "Tunes and Songs", which would seem to cover just about anything.

Beginning with the pre-Civil War tribute to the famed militant abolitionist, "John Brown's Body," Seeger also sings spirituals ("Oh, Mary Don't You Weep," "Swing Low Sweet Chariot"), blues (W.C. Handy's "St. Louis Blues"), and minstrel songs (Stephen Foster's "Swanee River" and "Camp Town Races"), along with more traditional folk fare. He also presents a banjo instrumental ("The Girl I Left Behind Me"), and he draws from the repertoire of the group from which he has now departed, including his solo versions of the Weavers' "Goodnight Irene," "My Good Man," and "Wimoweh."

The last selection is perhaps the oddest in the set, first because, as Seeger freely acknowledges, it comes from South Africa, not America. (Of course, having been a U.S. pop hit, it can rightly be called an "American favorite," anyway.) The second curious aspect of its inclusion is Seeger's evident discomfort in singing it by himself. He begins as if he's conducting an instruction record on group singing, telling listeners how they can join in on the recording and acknowledging that the song will sound odd with only his solo part. Then he sings his solo part. This may not be a Seeger live album, but even alone in the recording studio, he expects an unseen audience to sing along on one of his greatest hits, American or not.         

Tracklist:

John Brown's Body
The Girl I Left Gehind Me
Oh, Mary Don't You Weep
St. Louis Blues
My Good Man
Clementine
Dink's Song
New River Train
Swanee River
Camptown Races
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
Goodnight Irene
Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child
Wimoweh
The Farmer's Curst Wife
When I First Came To This Land

Pete Seeger - American Favorite Ballads Vol. 3 (1959)
(320 kbps, cover art included)     

V.A. - That´s Why we Were Marching - World War II and the American Folk Song Movement (1996)

Fifteen of the 25 tracks on this 71-minute disc are previously unreleased and the rest are not easily available. That's no reflection on their quality, but it is a clue to their limited typicality: these are songs written and recorded in the first half of the 1940s in response to world events before and during World War II; after the war, they dated fast. In fact, some of them became obsolete even before the U.S. entered the war. The earliest songs are three tracks by the Almanac Singers (who included Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and others) from the spring of 1941 decrying the actions of the Franklin Roosevelt Administration that inclined the country toward the war. When the songs were recorded, they expressed a commonly held sentiment. But only a couple of months later, when Germany invaded the Soviet Union, the singers themselves repudiated their sentiments, and another six months later, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, they seemed positively treasonous. The rest of the album's songs are patriotic, pro-war expressions of the need to overcome Hitler and win the war. But even amid such mainstream sentiments, the left-wing folksingers slip in lyrics in support of unions and civil rights, more long-standing views for them. They also find space to praise U.S. ally the Soviet Union in songs that became politically unacceptable after the war. Fifty years later, of course, all of this makes for a musical, historical curiosity, and a listener's primary interest is likely to be the opportunity to hear previously unissued music by Guthrie, Seeger, Leadbelly, Josh White, Burl Ives, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, and a host of other excellent folksingers.

Few people have heard these songs composed and sung from 1940 to 1945 by artists primarily known for their influence on American folk music after 1945. Both the protest songs and the pro-war songs are assembled for the first time in this historic compilation; they present the conflicts, the hopes, and the way songs were used to raise morale during World War II. 

"A great slice of history...also a great musical performance." -- Daily News


Trackslist

1. Freedom Road Josh White 2:20
2. Talking Sailor (Talking Merchant Marine) - Woody Guthrie 3:03
3. The Ballad of October 16 - The Almanac Singers 2:49
4. Billy Boy - The Almanac Singers 2:23
5. Plow Under - The Almanac Singers 2:27
6. I'm Gonna Put My Name Down - Tom Glazer 3:04
7. What are We Waiting On? - Woody Guthrie 2:09
8. Citizen C.I.O. - The Union Boys 2:31
9. The Sinking of the Reuben James - Woody Guthrie And Cisco Houston 3:01
10. You Better Get Ready - The Union Boys 2:32
11. If You Want to Do Your Part - Lead Belly 2:56
12. Move Into Germany - The Union Boys 3:00
13. So Long, It's Been Good to Know You (War Version) - Woody Guthrie And Cisco Houston 2:47
14. The Martins and the Coys - The Union Boys 3:01
15. Hitler Song Lead Belly 4:34
16. Sally Don't You Grieve - Woody Guthrie And Cisco Houston 2:25
17. Jimmy Longhi Story Vincent "Jimmy" - Longhi 6:05
18. When the Yanks Go Marching In - Woody Guthrie, Cisco Houston, And Sonny Terry 2:46
19. Round and Round Hitler's Grave - The Almanac Singers 1:10
20. Fuhrer - Josh White 3:10
21. Miss Pavlichenko - Woody Guthrie 2:30
22. National Defense Blues - Lead Belly, Sonny Terry, And Brownie McGhee 3:14
23. Gee, But I Want to Go Home (Army Life) - Lead Belly 1:47
24. Looking for a Home - Pete Seeger 3:10
25. Now That's It's All Over (He'll Go Back to Selling Shoes) - Pete Seeger 2:09

VA - That´s Why we Were Marching - World War II and the American Folk Song Movement (1996)

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Pete Seeger - American Favorite Ballads, Vol. 1

The first in a series of five immensely popular Pete Seeger releases, "American Favorite Ballads, Vol. 1" was intended to gather together and set down songs that "everyone" knew (or seemed to know), in simple, unadorned musical settings, accompanied by his guitar or banjo, that adults and children could learn and sing together.

At the time, the albums were primarily aimed at schools and libraries, though one can bet that more than a few progressive-minded and left-leaning families bought them a well, even if these weren't the union and topical songs Seeger was loved for in those circles, if only as a statement against the blacklist that had hurt the artist's career; one also wonders, as a minor point, if the decision to include "Big Rock Candy Mountain" wasn't a little zing at Burl Ives, for whom the song had been something of a signature tune, and who had ended up on the opposite side of Seeger in the ideological wars of the 1950s (a hatchet that wasn't fully buried between them until the '80s).

Seeger's range on this album is stunning, from the gentle simplicity of "Skip to My Lou" to the rousing exuberance of "Oh Mary, Don't You Weep" - his voice is melodious and powerful across a range that may surprise listeners who only know the artist for the recordings done in his seventies and eighties - and while his guitar playing is fine, it's his banjo work that is the real treat across these songs. For a man who (supposedly) so resented the electrification of folk music, Seeger isn't shy about spinning some (admittedly acoustic) pyrotechnics out of his banjo when the song seems to call for it. Moe Asch's recording technology was more than good enough for Seeger and his instrument, and the tapes have held up across five decades. And as to the songs, they encompass folk, country, and gospel standards, and their sheer power is perhaps the most amazing aspect of this record (and its four follow-ups): the world and its so-called culture, popular or otherwise, have moved on so far (even in the late '60s, these seemed kind of hokey to kids who thought they knew better) that 50-plus years later, this record is still an education, as well as a rare treat.                

Tracklist:

A1	Down In The Valley
A2	Mary Don't You Weep
A3	The Blue Tail Fly
A4	Yankee Doodle
A5	Cielito Lindo
A6	Buffalo Gals
A7	The Wabash Cannon Ball
A8	So Long, It's Been Good To Know You Written-By – Woody Guthrie
B1	The Wagoner's Lad
B2	The Big Rock Candy Mountain
B3	The Wreck Of The Old '97
B4	On Top Of Old Smokey
B5	I Ride An Old Paint
B6	Frankie And Johnny
B7	Old Dan Tucker
B8	Skip To My Lou
B9	Home On The Range

Pete Seeger - American Favorite Ballads, Vol. 1
(256 kbps, cover art included)

Josh White - Folk Songs Sung By Josh White (1944, Asch International Stinson 358)

Most blues enthusiasts think of Josh White as a folk revival artist. It's true that the second half of his music career found him based in New York playing to the coffeehouse and cabaret set and hanging out with Burl Ives, Woody Guthrie, and fellow transplanted blues artists Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee.

What many people don't know is that Josh White was a major figure in the Piedmont blues tradition. The first part of his career saw him as apprentice and lead boy to some of the greatest blues and religious artists ever, including Willie Walker, Blind Blake, Blind Joe Taggart (with whom he recorded), and allegedly even Blind Lemon Jefferson. On his own, he recorded both blues and religious songs, including a classic version of "Blood Red River." A fine guitar technician with an appealing voice, he became progressively more sophisticated in his presentation. Like many other Carolinians and Virginians who moved north to urban areas, he took up city ways, remaining a fine musician if no longer a down-home artist. Like several other canny blues players, he used his roots music to broaden and enhance his life experience, and his talent was such that he could choose the musical idiom that was most lucrative at the time.

"Folk Songs Sung By Josh White" was a set of three singles released in 1944 by Asch Records with the following tracks:

- Motherless Children
- St. James Infirmary Blues

- No. 12 Train
- Joshua Fit De Battle Of Jericho

- Trouble
- Jerry

Josh White - Folk Songs Sung By Josh White (1944, Asch)

(192 kbps, front cover included)

Violeta Parra - Canciones (Casa de las Américas, Cuba, 1971)

The roots of nueva canción trace to the late 1950s and early ’60s, a notably restive era in Latin American history. Many countries were saddled with ineffective or authoritarian governments, and the gap between the wealthy and the impoverished was widening. Moreover, European and North American cultural influence was becoming increasingly palpable, with musical tastes in particular molded to a significant degree by the commercial-music industry of North America. In that milieu two notable singer-songwriters in neighbouring countries embarked on crusades to reclaim what they perceived as the crumbling social and cultural integrity of their homelands: Violeta Parra in Chile and Atahualpa Yupanqui in Argentina.

Much of the work of Parra and Yupanqui involved collecting old songs from the countryside and reworking - or rejuvenating - them to become “new songs” in a more contemporary, broadly accessible format. Parra commonly cast her song in well-established local poetic forms, and, perhaps most significant, she introduced Andean instruments into the accompanying ensemble. Meanwhile, Yupanqui’s semisung lyrics, intoned atop expressive guitar playing, vividly evoked the hardships of life in the Andes. By developing and promoting a body of popular songs that were grounded in local traditions and that addressed the experiences and concerns of ordinary people, both Parra and Yupanqui helped democratize music in their countries; their songs spoke both to and for the populace.

Tracklist:
01. - Gracias a la vida - 4:26"
02. - Qué dirá el Santo Padre - 2:47"
03. - Hace falta un guerrillero - 3:34"
04. - Arauco tiene una pena - 2:48"
05. - A la una - 3:15"
06. - La jardinera - 2:53"
07. - Y arriba quemando el Sol - 2:45"
08. - La carta - 2:48"
09. - Paloma ausente - 3:06"
10. - Según el favor del viento - 2:18"
11. - Maldigo del alto cielo - 3:47"

Violeta Parra - Canciones (Case de las Americas, Cuba, 1971)
(256 kbps, cover art included)

Quilapayún - Basta (1969)

"Basta" ("That’s enough!/Das genügt!") is an album that was released by Quilapayún in 1969. It brings together popular and folk songs from Latin America, the former USSR, and Italy. This album included "La muralla"/"The wall" - one of the most popular folk songs in Latin America - based on the text of a poem by the Cuban poet Nicolás Guillén.

The vocal arrangements reach their peak in “Bella Ciao”, “Por montañas y praderas” and “Patrón.” This album – as "X Vietnam" - shows the internationalism of Nueva Cancion Chilena/ New Chilean Song.

The liner notes below are from the original "Basta" album release in 1969 and in the re-edition of the album in Italy in 1974, but may not appear with more recent editions:

"The importance of the role that art has to play for the revolutionary movements of our people was addressed for the first time in our country by a historical letter - that serves as an introduction to this recording - that was signed by the first leader of the proletariat cause in Chile, Luis Emilio Recabarren.

Since its inception our group has defined its work as committed with the interests of the proletariat, and hasn’t concealed, nor will it ever conceal, its political aims. This is born of a need to remain forever loyal to the nascent truth that impels and mobilizes our people towards the hour of its authentic historical realization.

All artists that have the opportunity to give their work to the revolutionary cause should do so, and in that manner not only do they fulfill their responsibility with the working class but also with art itself. Given that in an era of exploitation and misery, of subjugation, of cruel and unjust wars, of unrestrained egoism and selfishness, of repression that violate the will of the people, which seek to liberate themselves from imperialism and capitalism; artists that remain on the fence and profit from their privileged position within society – which in a thousand ways aims to bribe and alienate them – betray the very essence of art.

An essence, which yearns to liberate, to educate, to elevate mankind.

Bourgeois society wants art to be another factor contributing to social alienation; we artists should transform it into a revolutionary weapon, until the contradiction that actually exists between art and society is finally surpassed.

This surpassing is called revolution and its motor and fundamental agent is the working class. Our group, loyal to the ideals of Luis Emilio Recabarren, sees its work as a continuation of what has already been achieved by many other popular/folk artists. This side of the trenches has been occupied by artists whose names are forever linked to the revolutionary struggle of our people; the first Luis Emilio Recabarren, the latest: Violeta Parra and Pablo Neruda. The example they have given us is the light that guides us."

Tracklist:

1. ”A la mina no voy” (I won’t go back to the mine) (Colombian folklore)
2. ”La muralla” (The wall) (Nicolás Guillén - Quilapayún)
3. ”La gaviota” (The gull) (Julio Huasi – Eduardo Carrasco)
4. ”Bella ciao” (Goodbye, my beautiful) (Italian folk - Italian partisans Hymn)
5. ”Coplas de baguala” (Verses of Baguala) (Argentinian Folk)
6. ”Cueca de Balmaceda” (Cueca dance for Balmaceda) (Popular)
7. ”Por montañas y praderas (Over mountains and prairies) (Soviet Red Army Hymn)
8. ”La carta” (The letter) (Violeta Parra)
9. ”Carabina 30-30" (A commonly used rifle) (from the Mexican Revolution)
10. ”Porqué los pobres no tienen...” (Why don’t the poor have...) (Violeta Parra)
11. ”Patrón” (Landlord) (Aníbal Sampayo - Uruguayan folk)
12. ”Basta ya” (Enough, already!) (Atahualpa Yupanqui)

Quilapayún - Basta (1969)

(256 kbps, cover art included)

Atahualpa Yupanqui - El Poeta De La Guitarra (2006)

Atahualpa Yupanqui (22 January 1908 - 23 May 1992) was an Argentine singer, songwriter, guitarist, and writer.

Yupanqui was born Héctor Roberto Chavero Haram in Pergamino (Buenos Aires Province), in the Argentine pampas, about 200 kilometers away from Buenos Aires. His family moved to Tucumán when he was ten. In a bow to two legendary Incan kings, he adopted the stage name Atahualpa Yupanqui, which became famous the world over.

In his early years, Yupanqui travelled extensively through the northwest of Argentina and the Altiplano studying the indigenous culture. He also became radicalized and joined the Communist Party of Argentina. In 1931, he took part in the failed uprising of the Kennedy brothers and was forced to seek refuge in Uruguay. He returned to Argentina in 1934.

In 1935, Yupanqui paid his first visit to Buenos Aires; his compositions were growing in popularity, and he was invited to perform on the radio. Shortly thereafter, he made the acquaintance of pianist Antonieta Paula Pepin Fitzpatrick, nicknamed "Nenette", who became his lifelong companion and musical collaborator under the pseudonym "Pablo Del Cerro".

Because of his Communist Party affiliation (which lasted until 1952), his work suffered from censorship during Juan Perón's presidency; he was detained and incarcerated several times. He left for Europe in 1949. Édith Piaf invited him to perform in Paris in June of that year. He subsequently toured extensively throughout Europe.

In 1952, Yupanqui returned to Buenos Aires. He broke with the Communist Party, which made it easier for him to book radio performances.

Recognition of Yupanqui's ethnographic work became widespread during the 1960s, and nueva canción artists such as Mercedes Sosa recorded his compositions and made him popular among the younger musicians, who referred to him as Don Ata.

Yupanqui alternated between houses in Buenos Aires and Cerro Colorado, Córdoba province. During 1963-1964, he toured Colombia, Japan, Morocco, Egypt, Israel, and Italy. In 1967, he toured Spain, and settled in Paris. He returned regularly to Argentina, but these visits became less frequent when the military dictatorship of Jorge Videla came to power in 1976.

Yupanqui died in Nimes, France in 1992 at the age of 84; he was buried in the Cerro Colorado Cementery.

"El Poeta De La Guitarra" is a compilaton with recordings von RCA Victor Argentina from 1942 to 1944, Antar Telefunken Uruguay from 1957 and RCA Victor España from 1969.

Tracklist:

Una canción en la montaña (RCA 1944)
Camino a Los Valles (RCA 1942)
El Kachorro (RCA 1944)
Piedra y camino (RCA 1944)
La vidala del silencio (RCA 1942)
Me Voy (RCA 1944)
Huajra (RCA 1942)
Carguita de tola (RCA 1942)
La viajerita (RCA 1944)
Baguala del pobrecito (Antar 1957)
El Pintor (Antar 1957)
Guitarra dímelo tú (Antar 1957)
Duermete changuito (Antar 1957)
La finadita (Antar 1957)
Canciónes del abuelo 2 (RCA 1969)


Atahualpa Yupanqui - El Poeta De La Guitarra (2006)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

The Chad Mitchell Trio – Mighty Day: The Chad Mitchell Trio Reunion

If there were any liner notes to this album, they might explain that this is a recording of a reunion concert that the Chad Mitchell Trio taped for PBS in 1987, though the copyright date is 1992 and this audio version was issued in 1996. 

In any case, the trio proves to be in good voice and good humor after 22 years apart, singing many of the songs that its audiences loved in the early '60s, including "The John Birch Society" and "Lizzie Borden." 

Since many of the Chad Mitchell Trio's original recordings were also live performances, they have a better right than many veteran acts to re-record their well-known numbers. The added attraction here is the appearance on one track of John Denver, who replaced Mitchell in the group in 1965. After the Chad Mitchell Trio's recordings had been out of print for decades, the year 1996 brought new CD compilations from Vanguard and Varese Vintage that better represent the group than this later one. But that doesn't keep it from being an enjoyable show.

Tracklist:

1 Mighty Day 2:10
2 Four Strong Winds 3:04
3 Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound 3:09
4 The Great HIstorical Bum (The Bragging Song) 3:39
5 Fyve-io 3:14
6 The John Birch Society 3:51
7 Johnny 4:39
8 The Ballad Of The Greenland Whalers 2:53
9 Which Hat Shall I Wear? 3:34
10 The Sinking Of Reuben James 3:02
11 An African Song 2:19
12 Maladyozhenaya 2:33
13 Lizie Borden 3:12
14 For Baby (For Bobbie) 3:53
15 Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream 2:19

The Chad Mitchell Trio – Mighty Day: The Chad Mitchell Trio Reunion

(192 kbps, cover art included)