Art Bears - Hopes And Fears (1978)

The first album from Dagmar Krause, Chris Cutler, and Fred Frith's post-Henry Cow project is one of the art rock masterpieces of the 1970s. It's as politically potent as Henry Cow's more strident work, but couched in more poetic and provocative terms.

Opening with Bertolt Brecht's "On Suicide," with Krause declaiming the playwright's bitter lyrics in her semi-operatic style to the wheezing accompaniment of Frith's harmonium, the album continues in that uncompromising vein.

Although most of the other members of Henry Cow guest, with reeds player Lindsay Cooper and keyboardist Tim Hodgkinson playing on a majority of the 13 songs, "Hopes and Fears" is considerably more focused and powerful than that group's often scattershot albums. The songs are built on Cutler's impressively varied drumming (often on electronically modified instruments), and the amazing variety of sounds Frith is able to coax out of a battery of electric and acoustic guitars, but there's enough space in the music for Krause's unique vocals to shine. Highlights include the epic, multi-part "In Two Minds," parts of which are as close as the Art Bears ever come to conventional rock music (which is to say, not very close at all, but there's an electric guitar solo), and the puckish instrumental, "Moeris Dancing."     

Tracklist:
01. On Suicide
02. The Dividing Line
03. Joan
04. Maze
05. In Two Minds
06. Terrain
07. The Tube
08. The Dance
09. Pirate Song
10. Labyrinth
11. Riddle
12. Moeris Dancing
13. Piers


Art Bears - Hopes And Fears (1978)
(320 kbps, cover art included)         

The Newport Folk Festival 1960 (Elektra Records, 1960)

The festival is renowned for introducing to a national audience a number of performers who went on to become major stars, most notably Joan Baez by her appearance as an unannounced guest of Bob Gibson in 1959, and Bob Dylan, in turn a guest of Baez at the 1963 festival. Not strictly limited to folk performers, in the 1960s Johnny Cash, Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf all performed. The festival also included many musicians of the pre-World War II country blues who figured as influences to the American folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s where artists "lost" since the 1940s were "rediscovered."

Vanguard released two volumes with recordings from the 1960 festival, posted on this blog a few days earlier. This one is kind of a volume 3 to this series, even if it is only named "The Newport Folk Festival 1960" and was released on Elektra Records, EKS 7189.

Tracklist:

Oscar Brand: Talking Atomic Blues

Oscar Brand: Great Selchie Of Shule Skerry

Oscar Brand: Horse With A Union Label

Will Holt: Three Jovial Huntsmen

Will Holt: Edward Ballad

Will Holt: MTA

Oranim-Zabar Troupe: Bukhara

Oranim-Zabar Troupe: Russian Spoof

Oranim-Zabar Troupe: Ayil Ayil (The Ram)

Theodore Bikel: Al Harim (On the Mountains)

Theodore Bikel: Mi Caballo (My Horse)

Theodore Bikel: Three Jolly Rogues

Theodore Bikel: Eres Alta (You Shan't Tell)

Theodore Bikel: Galveston Flood

The Newport Folk Festival 1960 (Elektra Records)
(192 kbps, front cover included)

Augustus Pablo - Rockers Meets King Tubby In A Firehouse

Rockers Meets King Tubby In a Firehouse, is a dub album by Augustus Pablo and King Tubby, released in 1980. "Rockers" was a commonly used nickname given to Pablo. It features Mickey "Boo" Richards, Leroy Wallace and Albert Malawi on drums, Robbie Shakespeare on bass guitar, and Earl "Chinna" Smith on guitar. The backing band is credited as the "Rocking All Stars".

Pablo produced the album and played piano, organ and melodica. The album was recorded at King Tubby's Studio. "Fire House" is a reference to the Waterhouse section of Kingston, where King Tubby's studio was located. Prince Jammy also made contributions to this album but goes uncredited.

On this collection, Pablo's sound predominates: his eerie melodica lines snake in and out of the mix, and the gentle-but-firm grooves that always typify a Rockers production are in full force. King Tubby contributes the special element of dubwise alchemy that was his own trademark, administering echo and delay at judicious intervals and keeping the general atmosphere mysterious and seductive. Because of the nature of the music and its consistently high quality, highlights are a bit difficult to pick out, but they include the very dread "Zion Is a Home" and the equally fine "Dub in a Matthews Lane Area," which could be used as a master class in dub technique.

Originally released in 1980, this edition includes 4 bonus tracks (tracks 10 to 13) not included on the original album release but come from rare contemporaneous singles.           

Tracklist:

1	Rockers Meet King Tubbys In A Fire House
2	Short Man Dub
3	Zion Is A Home
4	Dub In A Matthews Lane Arena
5	Jah Say Dub
6	Son Of Jah Dub
7	Simeon Tradition
8	Selassie I Dub
9	Jah Mouly Ital Sip
10	Son Of Man Dub
11	Rasta To The Hills
12	Twin Seal Dub
13	House Of Dub Version

Augustus Pablo - Rockers Meets King Tubby In A Firehouse
(256 kbps, cover art included)

Patti Smith - Live In Paris, 1978

Punk rock's poet laureate, Patti Smith ranks among the most influential female rock & rollers of all time. Ambitious, unconventional, and challenging, Smith's music was hailed as the most exciting fusion of rock and poetry since Bob Dylan's heyday.

If that hybrid remained distinctly uncommercial for much of her career, it wasn't a statement against accessibility so much as the simple fact that Smith followed her own muse wherever it took her - from structured rock songs to free-form experimentalism, or even completely out of music at times. Her most avant-garde outings drew a sense of improvisation and interplay from free jazz, though they remained firmly rooted in noisy, primitive three-chord rock & roll. She has a powerful concert presence, singing and chanting her lyrics in an untrained but expressive voice, whirling around the stage like an ecstatic shaman delivering incantations.

The Stooges may have defined the sound and attitude of punk rock, and the New York Dolls lent it some style, but Patti Smith gave it its substance. Imbued with an all-consuming passion for the verse of Arthur Rimbaud and the grit of early rock ‘n’ roll, Patti combined simplicity and intellect to help forge the most vital and honest musical form of the 20th century.After humble beginnings in Chicago and chasing her muse to Paris, Patti Smith eventually found her way to the artistic circles of New York in the early ‘70s. Her readings at St. Mark’s Poetry Project lead to performances including musicians like rock historian and guitarist Lenny Kaye and pianist Richard Sohl, who would later comprise her fully fledged rock band and contribute to a series of records that were as aggressive and daring as they were beautiful.

Here´s a bootleg called "Live In Paris, 1978". The sound quality is excellent. All but the last 5 tracks were recorded live in Paris in 1978 - performance is fair to good. This show from March of 1978 was a sort of spiritual homecoming for the woman that had once busked on the streets of the City of Light, immersed in the environs that had created her favorite poems. But the cobbled alleyways needn’t have served as her theatre this time around; the punk scene Patti helped nurture was in full swing and the recent release of the album Easter yielded her highest charting hit, “Because the Night,” co-written by Bruce Springsteen. The band is in top form as the rattle through a brief set, book-ending their palpitating version of Them’s “Gloria” with newer material that is just as transcendent - listen for a room full of raucous French fans chanting, “pah-TEE, pah-TEE!!”

The first 4 of the last 5 tracks were from "The Mike Douglas Show" in 1976 - performance is excellent. The very last track is from "The Today Show" in 1978 - Patti sounds a little bit worn out. The cover shows a picture of Patti's back (in Vietnam jacket) and pink cartoon hands with paintbrush and pen nib on index fingers.

Tracklist:

Ask The Angels 2:57
25th Floor 5:29
High On Rebellion 3:28
Till Victory 3:13
Set Me Free 3:37
Because The Night 3:18
Gloria 7:00

Ask The Angel
Free Money 3:43
I Was Working Real Hard 2:12
Keith Richard Blues 1:35
I Was Working Real Hard (Reprise) 2:26

Patti Smith - Live In Paris, 1978
(192 kbps, front cover included)

Mahalia Jackson - Newport 1958

General critical consensus holds Mahalia Jackson as the greatest gospel singer ever to live; a major crossover success whose popularity extended across racial divides, she was gospel's first superstar, and even decades after her death remains, for many listeners, a defining symbol of the music's transcendent power. With her singularly expressive contralto, Jackson continues to inspire the generations of vocalists who follow in her wake; among the first spiritual performers to introduce elements of blues into her music, she infused gospel with a sensuality and freedom it had never before experienced, and her artistry rewrote the rules forever.

"Newport 1958"  is a wonderful album with recordings of the Newport Jazz Festival 1958.

Jackson was at the peak of her career, and she gave a stunning performance at this show, lifting such songs as "He's Got the Whole World In His Hands," "Lord's Prayer," "Evening Prayer," "I'm on My Way," "Walk over God's Heaven" and "His Eye is on the Sparrow" to glorious heights. It's not only one of the great live gospel albums, it's simply one of the great gospel albums.

Mahalia Jackson - Newport 1958
(256 kbps, cover art included)

Patti Smith - Exodus

This bootleg features excerpts from Patti Smith's performance at the Pavillion de Paris on 26 March 1978, with some material from TV shows also included.

All but the last 5 tracks were recorded live in Paris in 1978 - the performance is fair to good. The next track is from "The Today Show" in 1978, with Patti sounding worn out, and the last four tracks are from "The Mike Douglas Show" in 1976, with an excellent performance. It contains the same tracks as the superior "Fighters by Day, Lovers by Night", with the space between the songs silenced. The cover has a photograph of some sort of castle or rock formation, black and white on the front and smaller and full colour inside and on the back. The back cover mentions the following: "digital remixed and remastered recording which was originally realised by a member of the audience; produced by Raul Lavi, reprocessed by Cindy Wilde, picture by Robert M.Laue, artwork by R. Lavi. 1994 CDM digital audio".

Patti Smith: vocals
Richard Sohl: piano
Ivan Kral: guitar, bass
Lenny Kaye: lead guitar
Jay Dee Daugherty: drums

Tracklist:

1. Because The Night3:18
2. Gloria7:00
3. Set Me Free3:36
4. Ask The Angels2:56
5. High On Rebellion3:27
6. 25Th Floor5:29
7. Till Victory3:13
8. Free Money3:43
9. I Was Working Real Hard2:11
10. Keith Richards Blues1:34
11. I Was Working Real Hard (Reprise)2:25
12. Ask The Angels (Words And Music)3:04

Patti Smith - Exodus
(192 kbps, cover art included)

Claire Waldoff - Wer schmeißt denn da mit Lehm

Claire Waldoff, the chanson and cabaret singer with the snappish voice, has been an entertainment star for more than three decades. She never made a secret of her love to Olga von Roeder - they were inseparable for 40 years. Even today, her hits like ”Hermann heeßt er“ (His name is Hermann), “Wer schmeißt denn da mit Lehm?“ (Who’s throwing clay?) or “Hannelore“ are a pleasure to listen to - and worth (re-) discovering.

Being the 11th child out of sixteen made it financially impossible for Claire Waldoff to study medicine, which was her wish. So she decided to go for drama instead. At the age of 19, she got her first role in Bad Pyrmont and Kattowitz. In 1907 she went to Berlin, and focused on cabaret, where she became a star. Claire characterized the last decade of the German Emperor Wilhelm II and the beginning roaring '20s in Berlin. She specialized herself in German "Gassenhauer", "Schlager" and chansons. Her stage performance was characterized by her maverick appearance in wearing a tie, shirt and a rust red bob. She also smoked and cursed on stage. Her most famous songs in the early part of her career were "Morgens willste nicht und abends kannste nicht" [At Morning You Won't, and in the Evening You Can't] (1910), "’ne dufte Stadt ist mein Berlin" [A Groovy City is My Berlin], "Nach meine Beene is ja janz Berlin verrückt" [Entire Berlin Is Crazy 'bout My Legs] (both 1911), "Hermann heeßt er" [He's Called Hermann] (1913) or "Jott, wat sind die Männer dumm" [Gee, How Stupid Men Can Be] (1917). These titles became favorite turns of expression for the following decades. Her height of popularity was in the mid 1920s. She appeared on stage at two of the biggest cabarets in town: Scala and Wintergarten. She toured through Germany and stood on stage with young Marlene Dietrich.

But another fact made her a role model for modern people these times: together with her partner in life she was the epicenter of lesbian Berlin. In political songs she postulated "Raus mir den Männern aus dem Reichstag" [Get Men Out of the Reichstag] (1926) and played a central role in "Zille's Berlin" performing songs like "Das Lied vom Vater Zille (= Sein Milljöh)" [Song of Father Zille (= His Milieu)](1930).

In 1933, the rising National Socialism created hard times for Claire Waldoff. First, she was banned because she performed in front of communists. Parting the "Reichskulturkammer" (an institution founded by Joseph Goebbels to bring German culture into line with national socialistic aspects) ended it. In 1936, the minister of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, prohibited Waldoff to perform at The Scala. She performed in front of German soldiers but found less and less engagements.

After the war she couldn't continue her career in Germany. The monetary reform of 1948 cost her all her savings and she was impoverished. The magistrate of Berlin granted a pension of honor to Waldoff for her 70th bitrhday. Claire Waldoff died in 1957 due to an apoplexy. It was her last wish to get buried together with her life companion Olga von Roeder. Her wish was fulfilled, and she lies in von Roeder's family grave at Pragfriedhof in Stuttgart.

Claire Waldoff - Wer scmeißt denn da mit Lehm
(192 kbps, full cover artwork included)

Theodore Bikel - Sings Yiddish Theatre And Folk Songs (1967)

A talented folksinger and actor, Theodore Bikel has carved out his place in the modern entertainment industry as a renaissance man. For over 50 years, Bikel has impacted film, the stage, and the arts, from his supporting role in The African Queen in 1951 to his appearance at the 1960 Newport Folk Festival to his appointment to the National Council for the Arts in 1977. Although he was born in Austria, he has lived in Israel, England, and the United States and speaks five languages. Bikel has recorded for Elektra, Columbia, and Reprise, published Folksongs & Footnotes, and served as a vice president of the American Jewish Congress.

Bikel was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1924, but his family fled to Palestine in 1938, where they became British subjects. Bikel wanted to study language and become a teacher, so he worked at a communal farm to help pay expenses. Drawn to the theater, however, he left the farm in 1943 to study at the Hamimah Theater in Tel Aviv. Later, Bikel and four other actors formed the Tel Aviv Chamber Theater. In 1946, he left Israel to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. While in England, he also began to take a serious interest in folk music and learn the guitar. In 1947, Bikel's acting skills were noticed by Sir Laurence Olivier, leading to a part in the London production of A Streetcar Named Desire.

By the early '50s, Bikel began to play Russian officers and German sailors in English and American films and in 1955, he moved to New York City. The move also coincided with the beginning of a career in folk music. He signed with Elektra Records in the mid-'50s and recorded Israeli Folk Songs in 1955. He became a co-founder of the Newport Folk Festival and performed at the event in 1960. Bikel's repertoire proved uniquely eclectic, including songs from Russia, Eastern Europe, and Israel. He played hundreds of dates in United States, from the Rainbow & Stars in New York to The Boarding House in San Francisco, and traveled broadly, performing in New Zealand, Australia, and throughout Europe.
  Over the next 40 years, Bikel continued his dual career in film and folk music. He received parts in The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming in 1966, See You in the Morning in 1989, and Shadow Conspiracy in 1997. He recorded Songs of the Earth for Elektra in 1967, A New Day on Reprise in 1970, and A Taste of Passover for Rounder in 1998. Bikel also involved himself in a number of political activities. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter appointed Bikel to the National Council for the Arts, a position he retained until 1982. He has also served with the Associated Actors and Artistes of America, Americans for the Arts, and the American Jewish Congress. In 1992, Bikel received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Hartford.

"Sings Yiddish Theatre & Folk Songs" was originally released in the '60s on Elektra. This also features the arrangements of master maestro Dov Seltzer.


Tracklist:

1 A Chasene Tants
2 Doina
3 Beygelach
4 Di Grine Kuzine
5 A Pintale
6 Dire-Gelt
7 A Finf-Un-Tsvantsiger
8 Got Fun Avrohom
9 Kalt Vasser
10 Dem Milner's Treren
11 Machatonim
12 Shabes Shabes
13 Machateyneste Belz
14 Mayn Shtetele Belz
15 Yossel Der Klezmer
16 A Kleyn Melamedl

Theodore Bikel - Sings Yiddish Theatre And Folk Songs (1967)
(256 kbps, cover art included)

Bunny Striker Lee - The Cool Operator

One of the most influential and prolific producers in reggae history, Bunny "Striker" Lee pioneered the art of the dub — expanding the parameters of studio technology like no Jamaican producer before him, he and his engineeer, the equally-legendary King Tubby, maximized the creative possibilities of each and every rhythm to generate a seemingly endless series of mixes spread across literally thousands of recordings.


Edward O'Sullivan Lee was born in Jamaica on August 23, 1941; he entered the music industry in 1962 via his brother-in-law, the great reggae singer Derrick Morgan, landing a job as a record plugger for Duke Reid's famed Treasure Isle label. By the mid-1960s, Lee was working with Ken Lack's Caltone imprint, producing his first record, Lloyd Jackson and the Groovers' "Listen to the Beat," in 1967. His first significiant hit, Roy Shirley's "Music Field," followed later that year on WIRL, and upon founding his own Lee's label, he reeled off a series of well-received sides including Morgan's "Hold You Jack," Slim Smith's "My Conversation" and Pat Kelly's "Little Boy Blue."
As the decade drew to its close, Lee was among the most successful producers in reggae, and by 1971 he was working side-by-side with engineer King Tubby, who almost singlehandedly invented dub by taking existing master tapes and — after cutting out vocals, bringing up the bass lines and adding and subtracting other instruments — creating new rhythm tracks for sound system DJs to voice over. Later adding delays, fades and phasing to his sonic arsenal, Tubby was already renowned throughout the Jamaican music industry by the time he began collaborating with Lee, but together, the duo produced the finest music of their respective careers — unlike most of his producer peers, Lee recorded his celebrated studio band the Aggrovators with Tubby's remixing skills firmly in mind, crafting deep, dense rhythms strong enough to survive even the most strenuous studio reworking, and together they unleashed some of the most enduring dub versions ever cut. At the peak of his career — essentially the period from 1969 to 1977 — Lee produced thousands of records, forging a labyrinthine discography of vocal sides, DJ records and dub versions, each disc seemingly spun off from another. Among Lee's most influential projects was a 1974 collaboration with singer Johnny Clarke which yielded a series of roots-reggae classics including "None Shall Escape the Judgement" and "Move Out of Babylon"; that same year, he also helmed Owen Grey's smash "Bongo Natty," while the 1975 Cornell Campbell hit "The Gorgon" launched a number of like-minded "Gorgon rock" records. At one time or another, Lee also worked with everyone from Jackie Edwards to Alton Ellis to Ken Boothe, and for all of his experimental instincts, he also possessed a commercial flair equal to any of his contemporaries.

By the early 1980s, however, Tubby was running his own studio and producing his own records, and although they continued to collaborate on occasion, both the quality and quantity of Lee's recordings began to slide; he later purchased producer Joe Gibbs' former Kingston-area studio, making a few half-hearted attempts at working with digital technology but otherwise easing into retirement as the years passed, his place in reggae history assured.

Here we have a compilation with 20 tracks from the vaults of Bunny Lee. Containing hit upon hit & works from some the biggest and also finest names in 1970's reggae. Including Cornell Campbell's "The Gorgon" and U-Roy's "Gorgonwise" flipside. Also the battling 'Straight to Jazzbo Head" from I-Roy and later on Jazzbo's good humoured response "Straight to I-Roy Head". Another highlight is the wonderful "Mr Chatterbox" from The Wailers complete with a DJ intro from the man called Bunny Lee.

Bunny Striker Lee - The Cool Operator
(192 kbps, front cover included)

Otto Reutter - Gräme dich nicht - Akustische Aufnahmen 1909 - 1919

Otto Reutter (born Otto Pfützenreuter: April 24, 1870 in Gardelegen, Germany – March 3, 1931 in Düsseldorf, Germany) was a German comedian, coupletist, and singer.

Born into a poor Catholic family, Reutter attended the Catholic school in Gardelegen and was then trained as a salesman's assistant. After completing his apprenticeship, he moved to Berlin and became active in theater and as a comedian. Afterwards he moved to Karlsruhe and became part of a troupe of tavern singers and comedians there.
In 1895, he first appeared as a "salon humorist", probably in Bern, Switzerland. The following year he had his breakthrough.

Particularly notable about Reutter was his ability to deliver original, amusing lyrics in a singsong manner, his persona full of irony and wit. After a successful appearance in the "Wintergarten Variety" of the Berlin Central Hotel, Reutter was hailed as a celebrity, and was considered in the following decades as one of the leading artists of the stage in Germany.

In the 1920s, Reutter wrote many of the songs for which he is still well known today, songs that have been sung by many well-known German artists. He wrote over a thousand Couplets, a German form of amusing cabaret song.

Overstressed and having suffered some personal setbacks, Reutter intended to retire as a millionaire in 1919, after a successful thirty-year career. He had invested his fortune in his house (known as Waldschnibbe) in Gardelegen, as well as in war bonds. As World War I came to an end and the German inflation struck, Reutter lost a good portion of this fortune and thus had to continue to support himself by delivering his songs on various small stages.
Hence, starting around 1919, his "mature work" began to appear: songs that were especially characterized by humor and melancholy, the wisdom of life, and a kind of weary sass and bite.
His songs didn't just foresee societal changes, but also presented their listeners with comfort in times that required great sacrifice. His songs tended to follow the taste of the times, as well as current events.

Sick and exhausted, Otto Reutter died during a guest appearance in Düsseldorf in 1931, and was buried in Gardelegen.

Tracklist:
01.  Das find´ ich reizend von der Frau
02. Wie die kleinen Kinder
03. Das ist mir ganz egal
04. Ja, die Natur, die lässt sich nichts befehlen
05. Nun g´rade nicht!
06. Aber keiner fängt an!
07. Nicht so laut!
08. Des Bürgermeisters Töchterlein
09. Wissen Sie, was der mir geantwort´t hat?
10. In dem Moment
11. Vergänglichkeit
12. Das gefährliche Alter
13. Dann merkst du gleich, der Mann ist aus Berlin!
14. Gräme dich icht!
15. Die Lorelei
16. Na, nu tun Sie man nicht so!
17. Kolossal!
18. Dei Liebesgabenkiste
19. Sei gescheit!
20. Laß´ sie hungern!

Otto Reutter - Gräme dich nicht - Akustische Aufnahmen 1909 - 1919
(256 kbps, cover art included)

Violeta Parra - Las Ultimas Composiciones (1966)

Violeta Parra was an amazing woman who nearly single-handedly launched a revolution in music, art and culture in Chile... and went on to inspire a political revolution as well. This album captures some of her last works. Bittersweet, sometimes angry, sometimes sorrowful, but alway masterful, it captures her sentiment not long before she committed suicide. This is a must-have for folk music lovers, Canciones Nuevas lovers, and lovers of political music. Victor Jara, Isabel and Angel Parra, Inti-Illimani, Rolando Alarcon, Quilapayun and many others owe Violeta so much. Listen and know why.

"Las Ultimas Composiciones" is an excellent collection of 14 songs ranging from sweet lyricism to driving resistance. It is the last recording issued in her lifetime and many of the songs include accompaniment by Alberto Zapican and Violeta's children, Isabel and Angel Parra. The version here of "Gracias a la Vida" is especially haunting.


Tracklist:

Gracias A La Vida - Canción
El "Albertio" - Rin, Danza
Cantores Que Reflexionan - Refalosa
Pupila De Aguila - Huayno
Run Run Se Fue Pa'l Norte - Canción
Maldigo Del Alto Cielo - Sirilla Canción
La Cueca De Los Poetas - Cueca
Mazurquica Modernica - Mazurka
Volver A Los 17 - Sirilla Canción
Rin Del Angelito - Rin Danza
Una Copla Me Ha Cantado - Lamento
El Guillatun - Danza Estilo Araucano
Pastelero A Tus Pasteles - Cueca
De Cuerpo Entero - Cueca


Violeta Parra - Las Ultimas Composiciones (1966)
(192 kbps, cover art included)

Judy Collins - A Maid Of Constant Sorrow (1961)

Judy Collins' debut LP shows her relying more on enthusiasm than subtlety in her singing, with a deeper, heavier style than anyone would be accustomed to from her. It's almost as though, lacking confidence, she tried too hard in various spots to make the songs (and her voice) sound profound and significant, and wasn't aware of what the strongest part of her range was. 

Occasionally, on "The Pickilie Bush" or "Wild Mountain Thyme" when she reaches for the high notes, listeners hear the future of Collins' sound, but much of what's here is more strident than listeners are accustomed to from her. Not that's it's bad -- she makes a good case for her renditions of those songs and Ewan MacColl's "Tim Evans (Go Down You Murderers)" within the context of their time. She is more relaxed on the sea shanties such as "Sailor's Life," and those tracks have a timelessness that is lacking in much of the rest. The whole album has value, however, both as an artifact of the early New York folk boom and the first effort of a major artist -- and "John Riley" could fit in on any career retrospective on Collins' work.

Tracklist:

A1 A Maid Of Constant Sorrow 2:35

A2 The Prickilie Bush 3:25

A3 Wild Mountain Thyme 2:30

A4 Tim Evans 2:51

A5 Sailor's Life 2:41

A6 Bold Fenian Men 2:44

B1 Wars Of Germany 3:10

B2 O Daddy Be Gay 2:34

B3 I Know Where I'm Going 1:50

B4 John Riley 3:30

B5 Pretty Saro3 :03

B6 The Rising Of The Moon 4:07

Judy Collins - A Maid Of Constant Sorrow (1961)

(256 kbps, cover art included)

Ernst Toller - Eine Jugend in Deutschland

Ernst Toller, (born Dec. 1, 1893, Samotschin, Ger.—died May 22, 1939, New York, N.Y., U.S.), dramatist, poet, and political activist, who was a prominent exponent of Marxism and pacifism in Germany in the 1920s. His Expressionist plays embodied his spirit of social protest.

Toller studied at Grenoble University in France but went back to Germany in 1914 to join the army. Invalided after 13 months at the front during World War I, Toller launched a peace movement in Heidelberg. To avoid arrest he fled to Munich, where he helped lead a strike of munition workers and was finally arrested. In 1919 Toller, an Independent Socialist, was elected president of the Central Committee of the revolutionary Bavarian Soviet Republic. After its suppression he was sentenced to imprisonment for five years. A scheme to get him shot in the prison yard was frustrated by a kindly old guard, who routed him away from the gunmen.

In confinement Toller wrote Masse-Mensch (1920; Man and the Masses, 1923), a play that brought him widespread fame. Books of lyrics added to his reputation. In 1933, immediately before the accession of Hitler, he emigrated to the United States. Also in that year he brought out his vivid autobiography, Eine Jugend in Deutschland (I Was a German, 1934).

In Hollywood Toller had a brief, unhappy stint as a scriptwriter. Impoverished, convinced that his plays were passé, and separated from his young wife, he committed suicide in his Manhattan hotel.

 'Eine Jugend in Deutschland', (1933, translated into English 'I was a German') is his biography, detailing the turbulent years of the Weimar Republic, Hitler's rise to power and his experiences.  I would recommend 'Eine Jugend in Deutschland' to anybody interested in German history of that era.

Ernst Toller - Eine Jugend in Deutschland
(Audiobook, German language)

Nina Simone - Folksy Nina (1964)

Like the 1963 LP "Nina Simone at Carnegie Hall", this was recorded at Carnegie Hall on May 12, 1963, but duplicates little of the material found on that prior album. It isn't just unworthy leftovers, but a strong set in its own right, concentrating on material that could be seen as traditional or folk in orientation.

It's not exactly strictly folk music, in repertoire or arrangement (which includes piano, guitar, bass, and drums, though not every tune has all of the instruments); "Twelfth of Never" (which had also appeared on the Carnegie Hall LP) certainly isn't folk music. However, there was also an uptempo piano blues, Leadbelly's "Silver City Bound"; covers of the Israeli "Erets Zavat Chalav" and "Vanetihu" which served as further proof that Simone's eclecticism knew no bounds; and the stark, moody, spiritually shaded ballads at which she excelled ("When I Was a Young Girl," "Hush Little Baby"). "Lass of the Low Country" is as exquisitely sad-yet-beautiful as it gets.

Tracklist

A1	Silver City Bound	5:08
A2	When I Was A Young Girl	5:57
A3	Erets Zavat Chalav	4:25
A4	Lass Of The Low Country	6:15
B1	The Young Night	5:25
B2	Twelfth Of Never	3:33
B3	Vanetihu	2:27
B4	You Can Sing A Rainbow / Hush Little Baby	7:11

Nina Simone - Folksy Nina (1964)
(320 kbps, cover art included)
             

King Tubby‎– King Tubby's "Rastafari Dub" (1974 - 1979)

King Tubby didn't make any bad records in the '70s. Even his less appreciated digital era isn't worthy of the scorn it receives.

"Rastafari Dub" is another classic '70s dub album in the impressive Clock Tower catalog. On this record, King Tubby works his effects magic on the vocals of the era's best singers.

Johnny Clarke's "King of the Arena" opens the album with small tastes of smooth vocals echoed, reverbed, and dropped in to create the thick King Tubby sound. Those who enjoyed Jacob Miller's vocals on "King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown" will appreciate Rastafari Dub for its up-front use of the original vocal tracks.

The production is in the finest roots tradition, and only falls short of "King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown" because the originals don't have the godlike perfection that Augustus Pablo and Jacob Miller brought.

"Rastafari Dub" is King Tubby at his best, working behind the boards with the best material available to him at the time. The album has no shortcomings other than its former obscurity. The Clock Tower catalog is so deep with talent and gems...

Tracklist:
                           

A1	King Of The Arena Dub	3:16
A2	No Partial Dub	2:33
A3	Crazy Bald Head Dub	3:29
A4	A Living Dub	5:54
A5	Rastafari Dub	3:12
A6	Heartless Dub	3:12
B1	A Yard Dub	3:43
B2	Destroy Dub Style	2:54
B3	Book Of Numbers Dub	3:28
B4	Natty Roots Man Dub	3:53
B5	A Sunny Dub	4:17
B6	Jam Style Dub	3:57

King Tubby‎– King Tubby's "Rastafari Dub" (1974 - 1979)
(192 kbps, cover art included)

Paul Graetz - Heimweh nach Berlin

In the late 1920s, Berlin was the world´s third-largest city and a metropolis of culture and science with a vibrantly diverse population comprised of immigrants and native Berliners. In the aftermath of the Nazi regime´s rise to power in 1933 and the terror of the 1938 November Pogroms, an appalling number of men and women who had contributed to the diversity of Berlin´s cultural and social landscapes were persecuted and driven into exile - many others were deported and murdered.

As the "most quintessential of Berlin´s comedians", Paul Graetz was among the most popular German cabaret performers in the years before 1933.

Graetz, who was a Jewish artist and had warned against the threat posed by the Nazis, fled Germany after the Reichstag fire.

After working in London as an actor, he emigrated to New York and then to Hollywood, where he died in 1937, "heartbroken at the loss of his native Berlin", as a fellow-artist reported.

Tracklist:

Paul Graetz • Heimweh nach Berlin : Chansons und Texte von Walter Mehring, Kurt Tucholsky u.a.

1-1 Heimat Berlin / Mit der Hand übern Alexanderplatz 2:15
1-2 Wenn der alte Motor wieder tackt 5:31
1-3 Der Schlafwagenschaffner 5:53
1-4 Das ist der Herzschlag, der zusammenhält 6:04
1-5 Sonntagvormittag 2:53
1-6 Berliner Bilderbogen 12:42
1-7 Wo kommen die Löcher im Käse her? 5:33
1-8 Ich hab ein Häuschen am Wald und am See 3:01
1-9 Schuster Pinne vor Gericht 3:09
1-10 Mensch, ick bin Type 3:21
1-11 Das ist bei mir so 3:19
1-12 Lied des Kellermann [Aus "Der Studentenprinz"] 2:56
1-13 Bi-bi-bitte sehr [Aus "Hoffmanns Erzählungen"] 3:13
1-14 Augen in der Großstadt 3:16
1-15 Über den Dächern von Berlin 3:16
1-16 Uns kann keener 2:00
1-17 Bei Muttern 3:03
1-18 Berlin 2:54

'Und wo hab ick Murmeln jespielt?' : Vom Heimweh des Schauspielers Paul Graetz • Feature von Volker Kühn

2-1 Tausend Worte Berlinisch
2-2 Über den Dächern von Berlin
2-3 Paule - Eine Berliner Instanz
2-4 Bei Muttern
2-5 Anfänge als Schauspieler
2-6 Das Kabarett "Schall und Rausch"
2-7 Wenn der alte Motor wieder tackt
2-8 "Graetz - Das ist wirklisches Brettl!"
2-9 Tucholskys Lieblings-Interpret
2-10 Heimat Berlin
2-11 Bekannt von Bühne, Film, Funk und Schallplatte
2-12 Max Reinhardts "Cochenille"
2-13 Von den Nazis vertrieben
2-14 "Berlin - Hier bin ick zuständig!"
2-15 Emigration in die USA
2-16 Tod in Hollywood
2-17 Berlin

Paul Graetz - Heimweh nach Berlin
(192 kbps, front cover included)

"Und wo hab ick Murmeln jespielt?" - Feature von Volker Kühn

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Katja Ebstein - Laßt euch nicht verführen (Bertolt Brecht)

Katja Ebstein is a german pop vocalist, most famous in the 70s with a lot of popular german pop songs.

She was activ in the 60s student movement and began performing in the Berlin cabaret scene at the end of the 60s with Insterburg & Co.
In the 70s she was married with her manager and producer Christian Bruhn, who wrote a lot of german pop hits for her.

Today she is performing chansons and poems by Heinrich Heine, Kurt Tucholsky and Bertolt Brecht. She was and is active in social movements, for example against nucelar weapons and for the rights of children and women.

Here is a programm by Katja Ebstein singing and reciting songs and poems by Bertolt Brecht.
Tracks:

Jetzt wachen nur noch Mond und Katz
Der Bilbao Song
Die Auswanderung der Dichter
Über die Bezeichnung Emigranten
Das Lied von der Moldau
Vom armen B.B.
Gegen Verführung (Vers. 1)
Mögen andere von ihrer Schande sprechen
Das Lied vom SA Mann
Gegen Verführung (Vers. 2)
Lied einer deutschen Mutter
Intervention
Gegen Verführung (Vers. 3)
Kälbermarsch -Kindermarsch
Gegen Verführung (Vers. 4)
Bitten der Kinder
Das Lied von der Judenhure Maria Sanders
Kinderhymne
Das Lied von der Unzulänglichkeit menschlichen Strebens
Lob des Lernens
Das Lied von der harten Nuss
Jugend
Das Lied von der Suppe
Surabaya Johnny
Der Nachgeborene
Ein bitteres Liebeslied
Wechsel der Dinge
Erinnerungen an Marie A
Ih möchte mit dem gehen
Der Pflaumenbaum
Die Liebenden
Die Kellerassel
Wenn ich auf zuberischen Karussellen
Das Pferd
An die Nachgeborenen
Das Lied der Seeräuber Jenny
Ich benötige keinen Grastein
Alles wandelt sich

Katja Ebstein - Laßt euch nicht verführen (Bertolt Brecht)
(256 kbps, small front cover included) 

Stockholms Anarkafeministkor - I Sparen Av Kampande Systrar (2002)

 Thanks a lot to Bob for sharing this album with us. It´s a pleasure!

It was recorded in 2002 in Sweden and features great vocal versions of some well knows political - antifascist, feminist - songs.

1 Kvinno-Internationalen
2 La Lega
3 Enhetsfrontsång
4 On The Day The Nazi Died
5 Sången Om Sexualmyterna
6 Nån Har Frågat Mig
7 Nån Har Frågat Mig
8 Vi Ska Gå Ut Tillsammans
9 Homophobia
10 Ända Sen En Tid Tillbaka Är Herrarna Rädda
11 Bella Ciao

12 Feminismen
13 Till Barrikaderna
14 Ay Carmela
15 Internationalen

Stockholms Anarkafeministkor - I Sparen Av Kampande Systrar (2002)

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Claire Waldoff - Es gibt nur ein Berlin

.From the mid-20s, Claire Waldoff celebrated her greatest successes, performed one-woman shows in the two largest Berlin Varietés, the Scala and the Wintergarten, and on all other renowned stages in Germany. The socially active artists became popular all over Germany through radio and disk recordings with record circulations. The coming into power of the Nazi regime meant a significant turning-point for Waldoff, however, not an abrupt ending of her career. Her living and working conditions in the Third Reich are surrounded by mystery.

Actually, the singer was subjected to a “political stage ban“ at the beginning of 1933 because she participated in events of the communist Red Aid. However, she returned to the stage after having presented her “Aryan proof“ and having joined Goebbel’s Reich’s culture chamber. The audience still loved her despite - or just because - her hallmarks - neck tie, shirt, and “bronze-red crackling page-boy cut" and sometimes “smoking and swearing like a dustman“ as declared her friend Heinrich Zille - she did not meet the type of women propagandised by the regime. Her cohabitation with Olga von Roeder also did not comply with the “popular sentiment“ of the Nazis. Her songs, to the extent known, also lacked anything nationalist and racist.

“I danced on the brink but nobody dared to throw me in", she states in her autobiography. Sometimes, however, much less frequent, she also performed in other German cities and in Berlin she amused her audience together with the dancer Lene Ludwig whom she got to know in the mid-30s. Lene Ludwigs performed parodist dances with masks of popular personalities, among them also Claire. Lene Ludwig told in 1992: ”This was a double success“. First, Claire came on stage with her songs and then I with the mask. The audience got wild and clapped. Claire was no beauty in the common sense, but she was amusing, she was full of ideas, and when she came on stage, she had an enormous charisma.“

There is proof of Claire Waldoff still performing at the beginning of 1943; in January 1942 even in Paris which had been occupied for one and a half year at that time. This served to spread high spirits among the soldiers. While Waldoff sang before the armed forces, Marlene Dietrich, her former friend and the "love of her life“, who turned her back on Nazi Germany and sang before American soldiers, soon was to move into the liberated Paris together with the allied forces..Arrests and stage bans are again and again implied.

Claire Waldoff - Es gibt nur ein Berlin (192 kbps)

Petros Pandis - Songs of the greek resistance (vinyl rip, 1974)

This is a compliation of songs from the greek resistance against the German nazis and Italian and Bulgarian fascists in the occupation during 1941 and 1944. Some of these songs were also sung during the civil war against Greek fascists in 1946 - 1949.
The composers are various and some of them are still unknown (if not noted in the tracklist below). All the songs were performed by Petros Pandis. This compilation was released in 1974.

Tracklist:

01 MAURA KORAKIA
02 O ANTARTIS TOU ELAS
03 PESATE THIMATA
04 ST ARMATA (N Karvouni-astrapogianou).mp3
05 BELOGIANIS (D.Renti-L.Chatzi).mp3
06 TO TRAGOUDI TOU ARI
07 PEDIA SIKOTHITE
08 SAN ATSALINO TEIXOS
09 MALIA SGOURA
10 TI TA THELOUME TA OPLA
11 IROES (S.Mpakalis).mp3
12 STOUS DROMOUS (A.Xenou-A.Spiliou).mp3
13 APOPSE THA PLAGIASOUME
14 I SIMAIA
15 TO TRAGOUDI TIS AGROTIAS
16 ANEMOI THIELLES
17 TI THELOUN OI EXTHROI MAS
18 I MANA TOU ANTARTI
19 FISA AGERA
20 AKRONAUPLIA

Petros Pandis - Songs Of The Greek Resistance (vinyl rip, 1974)

(256 kbps, front cover included)