Thomas Friz - Lomir ale singen - Jiddische Lieder (1987)

Today is the 76th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp by the Soviet Army in 1945. The "Holocaust Memorial Day" is dedicated to the remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust. 

Thomas Friz is a German musician, born 5 March 1950 in Stuttgart. He was a member of the German folk duo Zupfgeigenhansel, one of the most successful groups to emerge on the German folk scene in the 1970s. It consisted of Erich Schmeckenbecher and Thomas Friz. The group was named after the collection of folk songs of the same name, which was published in 1909.

The group started playing in folk-clubs, mainly in southern Germany, in 1974. They then started appearing on the radio programme Liederladen of the Südwestfunk broadcasting station. They released their first album, Volkslieder I for the Pläne record company in 1976, and later in the year their second album, Volkslieder II. In 1978 they received the award of "Artists of the Year" in one of the categories of the German Phonoakademie. They disbanded in 1985.

Together with the guitaris Gerhard Graf, Thomas Friz brought a program with jewish songs and poems on stage in 1986. This programm is featured on the 1987 release "Jiddische Lieder", re-released in 1998 as "Lomir ale singen - Jiddische Lieder".

Tracklist:
1. Schpil-Sche Mir A Lidele In Jiddisch 2:45
2. Lomir Ale Singen 3:25
3. Amol Is Gewen A Majsse 3:56
4. A Chassn Oif Schabbes 3:17
5. Kinderjorn 3:25
6. Awreml 4:52
7. Beltz 3:55
8. Achtzik Er Un Sibetzik Si 3:46
9. 's Brennt 1:56
10. Mojde Ani 2:05
11. Slof, Majn Kind, Majn Trejst 5:04
12. Der Becher 3:09

Thomas Friz - Lomir ale singen - Jiddische Lieder (1987)

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Sparifankal - Bayern-Rock (1976, vinyl rip)

"Sparifankal" was a very unique rock group from Bavaria. In 1972 the Bavarian anarchist rock band "Sparifankal" developed and practised the so-called "ruebel-music", together with musical laymen, children and "patients", as a kind of harmonic/disharmonic therapy. "Sparifankal" utilized genuine Bavarian lyrics which differ drastically from higher German. With this approach, the band developed a new concept: political rock music sung in Bavarian language.

During 1976 the band recorded their first vinyl "Bayern Rock" (Bavarian Rock). It was released under Trikont/Schneeball/April, the first German independent label founded by several German underground bands such as Embryo, Missus Beastly, Ton Steine Scherben and Checkpoint Charlie to be independent from the record industry.

"Sparifankal" toured mainly in southern Germany, but also found time to perform at several large festivals all over the country. The band released two more albums, the acoustic "Huraxdax Drudnhax", which set new standards in traditional German music, and the 2LP-album "Negamusi", which helped to bring the band international exposure. But during 1981 SPARIFANKAL played their final concert... In 1999 the members of SPARIFANKAL came together again to do a punk-benefit-concert for a former member of the group. The band found that this reunion concert was too much fun not to reunite.

After very successful concerts at some larger festivals in southern Germany the band found it necessary to record an album with the new songs. During the hot summer of 2003 "Dahoam Is Wo Andas" (Home is Somewhere Else) was recorded on an analog machine without any "frickelfrackel" by William Faendrich in Huglfing. It is still real "Bayern Rock", and totally different and opposed to all that polished global-touristic Alpinyodelrock.

Carl-Ludwig Reichert, Bavarian lyricist extra-ordinaire, who rocked the cradle of Bavarian poetry (under the alias "Benno Hoellteufel") and was a memeber of Sparifankal, remembers: "Das war im Kafe Kult und da haben wir dann halt gespielt, es waren schon ein paar Leute da und die haben sich köstlich amüsiert und gleich den Pogo getanzt und ich hab gedacht, die verarschen uns jetzt, die haben da die größte Gaudi. Und dann spiel ich das zweite Stück, der 'braune baaz', und das war schon irgendwie ein Erlebnis, wenn da so zehn Irokesen vor dir stehen und das mitsingen. Die kannten das auswendig, ich hab‘ gedacht, ich werd nicht mehr! Witzigerweise hat uns ja schon Anfang der 70er Jahre der Roman Bunka von Embryo als Punks bezeichnet. Das ist im Englischen einfach ein Schimpfwort, so eben wie Sparifankal "ungezogenes Kind" oder "Teufel" auf Bayerisch heißt. Punk heißt "ungezogener Typ", "Penner", und so weiter."

Sparifankal disbanded in summer 2005. but somehow it comes back now resurrected as
"Sparifankal 2", a spontaneous freak group starting in september 2009 - louder and heavier than ever!

For more info on them see "The crack in the cosmic egg".

Tracklist:

Bis zum nexdn Weidgriag... 4:24
Dees Land is koid... 6:23
Da braune Baaz 3:25
I mechd di gean amoi nackad seng 3:04
De Groskopfadn 4:10
Bluus fo da peamanentn Razzia 7:00
Wans ums farecka nimma ged 7:28
Aus is & goar is 6:10


Sparifankal - Bayern-Rock (1976, vinyl rip)
(224 kbps, cover art included)

VA - 15. Festival des politischen Liedes (1985)

The late 1960s and early 1970s saw attempts to integrate a wider range of musical tradtion into GDR culture. A generation of American folk musicians toured the GDR and breathed new life into the amateur music movement which had always been an important aspect of the East German tradition. On both sides of the Wall, the annual folk festivals such as the West´s "Burg Waldeck" (1964- 1969) and the "Festival des politischen Liedes" (1970-1990) in East Berlin provided venues for international singers and an opportunity for artistic innovation. Coupled with the APO and Student Movement, Burg Waldeck helped to reclaim the folk song from Third Reich distortion, and the political song of Brecht, Eisle and the Weimar cabaret from elimination, and hence to lay the foundations of an ew independent German popular music.

Beginning in 1970, the Festival des politischen Liedes, an East German festival focusing on political songs, was held annually and organized (until 1980) by the FDJ (East German youth association). Musicians from up to thirty countries would participate, and, for many East Germans, it was the only exposure possible to foreign music.

This albums features original recordings from the 15. Festival des politischen Liedes (09.02. - 17.02.1985, East Berlin).

Tracklist:

A1 –San Francisco Mime Troupe - Standing With The Union (An der Seite der Gewerkschaft)
A2 –Samuel Munguambe -  Mundlerere
A3 –Quilapayún - Luz Negra (Schwarzes Licht)
A4 –Urszula und Budka Suflera - Auschwitz 45
A5 –Leoncarlo Settimelli - In Principio Era L'uomo (Am Anfang war der Mensch)
A6 –Kinvara - Mouth Music / Reel
A7 –Dick Gaughan - Which Side Are You On (Auf welcher Seite stehst du?)
B1 –Eric Bogle und Wacholder - Es ist an der Zeit
B2 –Silvio Rodríguez Und Afro-Kuba - Cuando Digo Futuro (Wenn ich Zukunft sage)
B3 –Meridian - Du meine Hoffnung
B4 –Cutumay Camones - Commandante Clelia
B5 –Maurício Tapajós und Marcus Vinicius - Mudando De Conversa (Wechseln wir das Thema)
B6 –Oktoberklub - Gib deine Hand in meine Hand

VA - 15. Festival des politischen Liedes (1985)

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Arik Brauer - Liederbuch (1973) - Rest in peace!

The Austrian artist and Holocaust survivor Arik Brauer died yesterday at 92. Rest in peace!

Arik Brauer (4 January 1929 – 24 January 2021) was an Austrian painter, printmaker, poet, dancer, singer, and stage designer. He resided in Vienna and Ein Hod, Israel. Brauer was a co-founder of the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism, together with Ernst Fuchs, Rudolf Hausner, Fritz Janschka, Wolfgang Hutter and Anton Lehmden.

Born Erich Brauer in 1929 to a Jewish family that had emigrated from Russia to Vienna, he experienced the rise of National Socialism as a child. His father died in a concentration camp while Brauer himself survived the Holocaust by going into hiding.

After the war, Brauer studied art and music, dual passions he would pursue throughout his life. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna before moving to Paris with his wife, Naomi, where the pair made a living as singers.

Returning to Vienna in the mid-1960s, he became a prominent representative of the city's Fantastic Realism art movement. Despite the prevailing art-world taste for abstraction in the 1950s and early 1960s, Brauer's work successfully blended high craftsmanship and surrealism in ways that gained him international attention. In 1982, he had breakthrough solo shows in the United States.
While Brauer’s colorful art enjoyed international success, at home he was also widely known for his Austrian-German songwriting.



The double album "Liederbuch" was released in 1973 and combines his first two releases,  "Arik Brauer" (1971) and "Alles was Flügel hat, fliegt" (1974).

Tracklist:

A1 Oho Halalali
A2 Die Jause
A3 Sie hab'n a Haus baut
A4 Wie a Hund
A5 Warum ist er so Dumm
A6 Sein Köpferl im Sand
B1 Reise nach Afrika
B2 Der Surmi Sui
B3 Der Spiritus
B4 Rostiger die Feuerwehr kommt
B5 Serenade
B6 Dschiribim - Dschiribam
C1 Platz da Pest
C2 Der Lindenbaum
C3 Der Buba
C4 Alles, was Flügel hat, fliegt
C5 Wiegenlied für Erwachsene
C6 Die Spinnerin
D1 Auto unser, das du bist
D2 Froschermandl
D3 Salomon, der Weise, spricht
D4 Metamorfosalasumbalalei
D5 Schwarz und weiß
D6 Ja, ja, die Freiheit


Arik Brauer - Liederbuch (1973)

(ca. 192 kbps, cover art included)

Richie Havens - The Great Blind Degree (1971)

Richie Havens' career benefited enormously from his appearance at the Woodstock festival in 1969 and his subsequent featured role in the movie and album made from the concert in 1970. His first album after that exposure, "Alarm Clock", made the Top 30 and produced a Top 20 single in "Here Comes the Sun." These recordings were Havens' commercial high-water mark, but by this time he had become an international touring success. By the end of the '70s, he had abandoned recording and turned entirely to live work. Havens came back to records with a flurry of releases in 1987: a new album, "Simple Things"; an album of Bob Dylan and Beatles covers; and a compilation. In 1991, Havens signed his first major-label deal in 15 years when he moved to Sony Music and released "Now". "Nobody Left to Crown" was issued by Verve Forecast in 2008. Havens died of a heart attack at his home in Jersey City, New Jersey in April 2013; he was 72 years old.

A key strength of Havens, despite having emerged from the 1960s Greenwich Village folk scene, is that his oeuvre -- covers and all -- transcends the broadside tradition of forebears like Woody Guthrie and Phil Ochs to arrive at something infinitely more personal and soulful.

Tracklist:

What About Me 6:11

Fire & Rain 6:23

Tommy 1:28

In These Flames 3:52

Think About The Children 4:20

Fathers & Sons 6:45

Teach Your Children 3:45

What Have We Done 4:26

Richie Havens - The Great Blind Degree (1971)

(192 kbps, cover art included)

The Fugs - Songs From A Portable Forest (1990)

This compilation is a ‘best of' highlighting recordings from the ‘80s reincarnation of the Fugs. Along for the ride are founding members Tuli Kupferberg and Ed Saunders. Although this disc doesn't contain any previously unissued material, there are a few tracks from "Star Peace" -- which is currently out-of-print on CD. 

"Songs From A Portable Forrest" also gathers key tracks from "Refuse To Be Burnt-Out" and "No More Slavery". The ‘80s Fugs remained an amalgam of Dadaist beat poetry and reckless abandon garage rock with a message promoting all that is sensually pleasurable. Perhaps due to the sheer volume of new compositions Saunders added to the ‘80s cannon, "Songs From A Portable Forrest" is a bit heavier on his, rather than Kupferberg's contributions. That said however, two of Tuli's finest are included here. "If You Want To Be President" from "Refuse To Be Burnt-Out" as well as an adaptation of "Dover Beach from "No More Slavery" -- which was actually written by 19th Century Oxford poet Matthew Arnold. Kupferberg's bold touch can be heard in the unique arrangement that couples the poem with a traditional Jewish melody. Chief among Saunders compositions are works incorporating pivotal motifs during the initial revival of the Fugs name and spirit. "Keeping The Issues Alive" and "Refuse To Be Burnt-Out" -- the latter of which is an apt cenotaph to "those guys in the Fugs who have since died," according to Saunders. Speaking of the past, only a revamped "Nova Slum Goddess" is offered on this collection from the ‘60s Fugs repertoire. While "Songs From A Portable Forrest" is a good launch pad, enthusiasts keen on hearing more should also be aware of the 1995 live release "The Real Woodstock Festival" -- which also features guest appearances by "Country" Joe McDonald and Allen Ginsberg.

Tracklist:
1 No More Slavery 4:07
2 Cold War 3:50
3 Dreams Of Sexual Perfection 11:14
4 Dover Beach 3:31
5 Liberty Not War (Hands Reach Out) 3:38
6 Technology (Is Going To Set Us Free) 2:30
7 What Would Tom Paine Do? 2:48
8 World Wide Green 4:40
9 If You Want To Be President 2:35
10 Nova Slum Goddess 3:26
11 Refuse To Be Burnt Out 4:17
12 Keeping The Issues Alive 7:08

The Fugs - Songs From A Portable Forest (1990)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Pete Seeger - Goofing-Off Suite (1954)

Pete Seeger has been the subject of such controversy during his career that surely some people have wished that he would just shut up and play his banjo. If so, those people may be pleased by "Goofing-Off Suite", which is largely an album of instrumentals.

Seeger, the son of a composer and a violinist, took a detour from the family business into folk music, but here he returns to Bach, Beethoven, Stravinsky, and Grieg, albeit as played on the banjo. He also turns to show music for Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies" and, inevitably, mixes these tunes in with various folk themes. He can't quite keep his voice silent during the "suite," however, as he whistles, yodels, hums, and even sings a line or two of German during "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring." Then, as of the 12th track, "Time's A-Getting Hard," it seems that Folkways Records ran out of Seeger instrumentals, and the disc starts to turn into a regular Pete Seeger folk album, complete with his tenor vocals on traditional folk songs and his own original (co-written with erstwhile Almanac Singers/Weavers partner Lee Hays), "Empty Pocket Blues" (aka "Barrel of Money Blues"). "Sally My Dear" finds Seeger playing the flute-like chalil in between a cappella verses. One more instrumental closes the album out, Woody Guthrie's "Woody's Rag," which sounds like a guitar overdubbed by a mandolin. The concept of having Seeger make an LP's worth of his banjo arrangements of the classics is a good one, and he and Folkways might as well have carried through with it all the way.                

"Originally released as 10-inch albums...Corey and Goofing-Off Suite helped launch a generation of pickers and singers.... Grand testimony to the breadth and variety of American folk song and style.... Wonderful vintage examples of that curious mix of casual personability and determined virtuosity that have made Pete Seeger our most respected—and best liked—folk personality for over half a century." — New England Folk Almanac   


Pete Seeger - Goofing-Off Suite (1954)
(256 kbps, cover art included)

Floh de Cologne - Rotkäppchen (1977, vinyl rip)

Floh de Cologne were formed in 1966 as a political and anarchic collective of students from the University of Cologne.
"Rotkäppchen" is a fairy-Tale by Jewgenij Schwarz, a Soviet writer and playwright, with a lot of rock and pop music "for young and old people".

Floh de Cologne collaboreted on this album with some folks being part of the german subcultre scene of these days, for example Christiane Knauf, Fredrik Vahle, Franz Josef Degenhardt, Fasia Jansen, Perry Friedman, Hanns Dieter Hüsch, Dieter Süverkrüp and Hannes Wader.
"Rotkäppchen" was released in 1977 on the Pläne label.

Tracks:
A1 Rotkäppchen-Lied (Guten Tag, auf Wiedersehn)
A2 Halt, Rotkäppchen, halt!
A3 Fuchs-Lied (Durch das Dickicht schleiche ich)
A4 Lied Vvom Naschen (Selber naschen, das macht fett)
A5 Hasen-Lied (Ach, ich kann es gar nicht fassen) 21:25
B1 Wolfs-Lied (Bin der Wolf und habe Pläne)
B2 Lied vom weissen Hündchen
B3 Hasen-Marsch (Hoch die Löffel, Brüder Hasen!)
B4 Fuchs-Lied (Ríeche ich den Braten, muß ich ihn verraten)
B5 Omas Tango (Da muß man doch, eins, zwei, drei)
B6 Förster-Lied (Ich Sitz' Auf Meinem Hochstand)

B7 Hasen-Marsch (Dem Förster wird der Marsch geblasen)

B8 Lied von der Freundschaft (Fuchs und Wolf sind nun besiegt)

Floh de Cologne - Rotkäppchen (1977, vinyl rip)

(224 kbps, cover art inlcuded)

Pete Seeger - Darling Corey (1950)

Folksinger and banjoist Peter Seeger has made other recordings, including as a member of the Almanac Singers in 1941-1942, but "Darling Corey" is his first solo album. He devotes it to traditional folk songs, some of which were introduced to him by folklorist Alan Lomax, who employed him at the Archive of American Folk Song, part of the Library of Congress, in 1939-1940, and who penned the annotations for this collection.

There are songs about long-lost loves who come back to their beloveds ("John Riley") and about "no good" wives who get their heads cut off by their husbands ("I Had a Wife"). The title song is about a moonshiner and his woman, and "East Virginia Blues," which begins, "I was born and raised in East Virginia," is a romantic lament. Lomax acknowledges in his notes that Seeger himself was born in New York City, the son of a musicologist and a "longhair" violinist, and attended Harvard. It is not surprising that he makes no attempt to affect the kind of rural accent that might be expected in these songs. Instead, he picks his banjo steadily and renders the songs in a clear, direct manner, as if in the aural version of a musicologist's transcription. In so doing, he preserves some valuable musical folklore.                


Tracklist                           

A1	John Riley
A2	Risselty-Rosselty
A3	Devilish Mary
A4	Come All Fair Maids
A5	East Virginia Blues
A6	I Had A Wife
B1	Skillet Good And Greasy
B2	Darling Corey
B3	Banjo Pieces
B4	Jam On Jerry's Rocks
B5	Penny's Farm
B6	Danville Girl
B7	Get Along Little Dogies

Pete Seeger - Darling Corey (1950)
(256 kbps, front cover inlcuded)

Maria Muldaur - Waitress In A Donut Shop (1974)

Maria Muldaur (born September 12, 1943) is an American folk and blues singer who was part of the American folk music revival in the early 1960s. She recorded the 1973 hit song "Midnight at the Oasis" and continues to record albums in the folk traditions.

She was the wife of musician Geoff Muldaur and is the mother of singer-songwriter Jenni Muldaur.

Maria Muldaur's follow-up to her gold-selling debut album includes her second (and final) hit single "I'm a Woman" and presents a pleasant folk-blues mixture of material including everything from contemporary songs by Wendy Waldman and Anna McGarrigle to Skip James blues tunes and Fats Waller's "Squeeze Me," all given Muldaur's earthy, enthusiastic treatment.


Tracklist:

A1 Squeeze Me
A2 Gringo En Mexico
A3 Cool River
A4 I'm A Woman
A5 Sweetheart
B1 Honey Babe Blues
B2 If You Haven't Any Hay
B3 Oh Papa
B4 It Ain't The Meat It's The Motion
B5 Brickyard Blues
B6 Travelin' Shoes

Maria Muldaur - Waitress In A Donut Shop (1974)

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Floh De Cologne - Lieder aus der Rock-Oper Koslowsky (Amiga, 1982)

Floh de Cologne’s anarchic politics and free-form musical experimentations evoke The Fugs, Beefheart, Lothar And The Hand People and Frank Zappa, while visually resembling something concocted by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Krautrock meets political theater in Floh de Cologne’s anti-capitalist rock n’ roll.

The album "Lieder aus der Rock-Oper Koslowsky" ("Songs from the Rock Opera Koslowsky") was originally released on the Pläne label in 1980 in West Germany and re-released as a license on the Amiga label in the German Democratic Republic two years later.

Floh De Cologne - Lieder aus der Rock-Oper Koslowsky
(256 kbps, cover art included)

VA - Ska Ba Dip - The Essential King Edwards (1989)

More than a half century has gone by and there is still a steady stream of books, films, articles and even academic studies devoted to Jamaican music of the 60s. Some of these accounts touch briefly on the preceding decade, a crucial period when Jamaican music incubated and the sound systems arose. But it’s hard to find much detail. The reason is simply the passage of time. The original cohort of musical pioneers was small and the best known have passed on; even the youngest participants, were they still alive would now be well into their 80s. 

Vincent Edwards and his brother George operated King Edwards The Giant sound system, which in the late 50s ranked with Sir Coxsone’s Downbeat and Duke Reid The Trojan as the most popular sets in Jamaica. 

"Ska Ba Dip" is a compilation of killer original early ska from the likes of Roland Alphonso, Baba Brooks, Bobby Aitken, The Upsetters, Shenley Duffus and many more.


Tracklist:

1. Upsetters - Scandalizing
2. Baba Brooks - Musical Workshop
3. Bobby Aitken - Together
4. Shenley Duffus - Digging A Ditch
5. Higgs & Wilson - Gone Is Yesterday
6. Roland Alphonos - Shuffle Duck
7. Charmers - You Don't Know
8. Upcoming Willows - Red China
9. Shenley Duffus - Heariso
10. Lloyd Briscoe - Jonah (The Master)
11. Eric Morris - Ungodly People
12. Patrick & Edwards All Stars - Iron Curtain
13. Andy & Clyde - We Have To Part
14. Roy & Cornell - Salvation

VA - Ska Ba Dip - The Essential King Edwards

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Oktober-Klub Berlin - Unterm Arm die Gitarre (Amiga, 1968)

"Singe-Bewegung" and "Oktoberklub" in East Germany, part 4.

East Germans born between 1945 and 1960, who came into their teens between the erection of the Berlin wall and the mid-’70s, were known as the “integrated generation”, for they identified to a fairly high degree with the German Democratic Republic.

In the main, they regarded socialism as a matter of course, they undertook the “long march through the institutions” and pinned their hopes on a “changing party elite” (as it was called in the West). Some of the politically and culturally active young people sympathized strongly with the anti-capitalist, emancipatory protest of the left wing in the West and the international culture of protest music. This enthusiasm certainly had quixotic qualities, and the crisis-ridden trend of state socialism increasingly undermined its credibility.

But when Stefan Wolle in his book Die heile Welt der Diktatur (The Perfect World of Dictatorship) characterizes the Singing Movement and the Political Songfest as manifestations of an “officially tolerated ersatz protest culture” that availed itself of the “poses and accessories of Western protest movements”, he is oversimplifying the many different facets of this phenomenon.

"Unterm Arm die Gitarre" was the name of a Radio DDR programm produced in cooperation with the Oktober-Klub Berlin.  The album with the same name celebrates the first two years of the Oktober-Klub with a recording of a concert at the Kongresshalle Berlin, February 25s, 1968.

Oktober-Klub Berlin - Unterm Arm die Gitarre (Amiga, 1968)
(128 kbps, front & back cover included)

To be continued...

Lin Jaldati - Jiddische Lieder (Amiga, 1982)

...another album produced by Charly Ocasek.

Lin Jaldati was sent to concentration camps when the Nazis occupied Holland. She didn't speak Yiddish, but learned Yiddish songs from her fellow prisoners. Jaldati survived Auschwitz; being a communist, she came to East Germany to help establish a socialist German state. She married Eberhard Rebling, a German Gentile communist who later became a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, and started to perform Yiddish songs for a German audience with Rebling accompanying her on piano. Later they were joined by their daughters Katinka and Jalda. Lin Jaldati dedicated her art and her life to communist East Germany. This didn't prevent her from being banned from performing in the late sixties; the hysteria had gone so far that even performing Yiddish songs was interpreted as a pro-Israel statement. For a long time Lin Jaldati, who was highly accepted by what later became the East German Yiddish and klezmer scene, was the only Yiddish performer in East Germany.

 

In the GDR there was no connection to the world centers of Yiddish culture. Israel was seen as an aggressor and song collections, for example from New York, were exchanged among friends but could not be found in any libraries. There were a few recordings by the Leipziger Synagogue choir, mainly religious songs, symphonically arranged. And the well known singer Lin Jaldati: she had survived Auschwitz. Occasionally, official politics made use of her good name. In 1966, she was allowed to release her interpretations of Yiddish resistance and folk songs on one side of a record, and in 1982 an entire record was released. This album, "Jiddische Lieder", with orchestra conducted by Martin Hoffmann, catches her in the last decade of her career. She can be heard intoning, speaking, shouting, and occasionally approximating notes amid the mostly world-weary singing.

Tracklist:

1. As der Rebe Elimelech
2. Dem Milners Trern
3. Nisim fun Rabejim
4. Hungerik Dajn Ketsele
5. Rabojsaj
6. Schwartse Karschelech
7. In Kamf
8. Jome, Jome
9. Schustersche Wajbelech
10. Ojfn Bojdem
11. Tsip Tsapekl
12. A Semerl
13. Dort bajm Breg fun Weldl
14. S' brent

Lin Jaldati - Jiddische Lieder (Amiga, 1982)

(192 kbps)

Oktoberklub - Das Beste - Charly Ocasek R.I.P.!

Karl Heinz "Charly" Ocasek was a german music producer. He was born in 1939 in Riesa and died last December - Rest in peace!

Charly was active in the GDR "Singebewegung" and became a member of the "Oktoberklub" - a political activist's song group in the GDR from 1966 to 1990.

For the Amiga label he produced folk, world and pop music. In the 1990s he founded the "BARBArossa Musikverlag" and published the recordings of Ernst Busch.

In honour of Karl Heinz "Charly" Ocasek here´s a compilation with songs by the "Oktoberklub".

Tracklist:

1 Sag Mir, Wo Du Stehst 2:32

2 Hoch Die Gläser 2:19

3 Wo Ist Die Freiheit 2:03

4 Lied Vom Vaterland 2:55

5 Christiane B. 4:03

6 Was Wollen Wir Trinken 4:16

7 Hier, Wo Ich Lebe 2:52

8 Unter Einen Hut3:05

9 Wir Über Dreißig 4:06

10 Verbesserungsvorschlag 2:51

11 Partisanen Vom Amur 1:54

12 Lied Von Der Friedlichen Welt 2:10

13 Lied Vom CIA 3:07

14 Oktobersong 2:35

15 Mann Der Arbeit 2:31

16 Gebt Keinen Euresgleichen Auf 1:52

17 Revolutionslied 2:21

18 Helle Wasser, Dunkle Wälder 3:04

19 Da Sind Wir Aber Immer Noch 3:09

20 Der Tag Der Grossen Arbeit 2:01

Oktoberklub - Das Beste
(ca. 192 kbps, cover art included)

Joan Baez - Live At Newport (1963 - 1965) - Happy 80th birthday!

This album draws tracks from Joan Baez’s appearances at the 1963, 1964, and 1965 Newport Folk Festivals, a time period in which she was the very epicenter of the folk scene.

With her clear, strong, and bell-like soprano, Baez brought together traditional-folk materials with some of the best songs of the then-emerging songwriters of the so-called folk revival (she was the introduction for many to the work of Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Richard Farina, and others), projecting a thematic unity between the old and the new that was instrumental in the success of the 1960s folk boom.

This collection isn’t quite as striking as her other live albums from this period, although only by degree, and there are several interesting tracks here, including the opener, a live version of Dylan’s beautiful “Farewell Angelina”. A duet with Mary Travers on “Lonesome Valley” is another highlight, as is an audience singalong on “Johnny Cuckoo”.

The final two tracks, “It Ain’t Me Babe” and “With God on Our Side,” are duets with Dylan, and while these performances may have strong historical value, the truth is that Baez and Dylan didn’t sing well together at this point in their association, with both singers dragging the song in two different directions at once, almost as if it were a battle for dominance, which, time suggests, it may well have been.

Track List:
01. Farewell Angelina – 3:41
02. Long Black Veil – 3:10
03. Wild Mountain Thyme – 4:48
04. Come All Ye Fair and Tender Maidens – 4:05
05. Lonesome Valley (Duet w/Mary Travers) – 3:38
06. Hush Little Baby (Duet w/Peter Yarrow) – 1:07
07. Te Ador/Te Manha – 3:57
08. All My Trials – 4:37
09. It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue – 3:54
10. The Unquiet Grave – 3:02
11. Oh, Freedom – 3:15
12. Satisfied Mind (Duet w/Lilly Brothers) – 3:12
13. Fennario – 3:47
14. Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright – 3:37
15. Johnny Cuckoo – 4:28
16. It Ain’t Me Babe (Duet w/Bob Dylan) – 4:45
17. With God On Our Side (Duet w/Bob Dylan) – 6:37

Joan Baez - Live At Newport
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Phil Ochs - Live At Newport

"Live at Newport" features a dozen songs from Phil Ochs' performances at the 1963, 1964, and 1966 Newport Folk Festival. Four of these cuts were previously available on the "Newport Broadside 1963" and "Evening Concerts, Vol. 1" anthologies, but the rest were previously unreleased. While all of these songs are available on his studio albums, Ochs was in good form for these shows, so these are good supplementary versions. 

Especially noteworthy are the 1966 tracks; four of the five songs would appear in far more elaborately produced arrangements on his "Pleasures of the Harbor" and "Tape from California" albums. These solo acoustic performances are interesting contrasts, putting the voice and the lyrics at the forefront, in the best unplugged tradition. Ochs' singing on "Cross My Heart" is painfully flat, but the sincerity of the words and their importance to him carry the performance. Additionally, the version of "Half a Century High" (sung as "Half a Century Wise") included here runs over seven minutes, and contains several verses that never made it into the official studio recording of this song. The differences point to the tragic side of Ochs' career, in that he sacrificed chunks of his message and his art, and one of his best and most personal songs, in pursuit of commercial success and stardom.


Tracklist:

1 Introduction Peter Yarrow 0:56
2 Ballad Of Medgar Evers 2:44
3 Talking Birmingham Jam 3:22
4 Power & The Glory 2:11
5 Draft Dodger Rag 2:23
6 I Ain't Marching Anymore 2:36
7 Links On The Chain 5:05
8 Talking Vietnam Blues 3:42
9 Cross My Heart 4:44
10 Half A Century High 7:06
11 Is There Anybody Here 3:11
12 The Party 8:11
13 Pleasures Of The Harbour 6:25

Phil Ochs - Live At Newport
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Joni Mitchell - Newport Folk Festival 1969

Here´s a recording from Joni Mitchells evening concert at the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island, July 19, 1969. Sounds like a good soundboard stereo recording, excerpt of track 9 which is of lesser quality from a different source.

Joni Mitchell also participated in an afternoon songwriters workshop at the Newport Festival,  along with Leonard Cohen, Judy Collins, Janis Ian, David Blue, Mike Settle, Tom Paxton, and Eric Andersen.


"THE LADY IN NEWPORT  By Lachlan MacLearn

In the summer of 1966 [sic, should be 1967] a relative unknown walked onto the stage at the Newport, Rhode Island Folk Festival, after being introduced by Judy Collins. It was a breezy summer's evening and the crowd was restless. I remember thinking that this newcomer, whoever she was, was stepping into some serious company. I can't recall the exact lineup. Probably Tim Hardin, Fred Neil, Odetta, Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton, and the like. As I said, `serious company...' She appeared to be carrying a tiny Martin Triple-0, but I couldn't be sure. She wore a long dress. I was too far back to decipher the face.
There was a round of light applause when she was introduced. A tentative strum rolled from the huge PA, then another, and she was beginning her opening number.
The song was 'Michael from Mountains'. And by the end of the first verse, the crowd had gone from bordering-rude to pin-drop silence. I was riveted.
When the song ended, the strangest thing occurred. For at least five seconds (look at your watch...try to imagine it) the place was dead-silent - ten or fifteen thousand people - dead silent - and then a huge release of cheers and applause.
The short set included `Chelsea Morning', and I think she played `The Circle Game' before leaving the stage to a tumultuous and prolonged standing ovation.
I remember feeling so grateful for this amazing new talent and feeling equally sorry for anyone unfortunate enough to be going onstage after her."


Tracklist:
01 Chelsea Morning
02 Cactus Tree
03 Night In The City
04 For Free
05 Willy
06 The Fiddle and the Drum
07 Both Sides Now
08 Get Together
09 The Circle Game

Joni Mitchell - Newport Folk Festival 1969
(256 kbps, front cover included)

Pete Seeger - Clearwater Classics (1993)

Perhaps no single person in the 20th century did more to preserve, broadcast, and redistribute folk music than Pete Seeger, whose passion for politics, the environment, and humanity earned him both ardent fans and vocal enemies ever since he first began performing in the late '30s. His battle against injustice led to his being blacklisted during the McCarthy era, celebrated during the turbulent '60s, and welcomed at union rallies throughout his life. His tireless efforts regarding global concerns such as environmentalism, population growth, and racial equality earned him the respect and friendship of such political heroes as Martin Luther King, Jr., Woody Guthrie, and Cesar Chavez, and the generations of children who first learned to sing and clap to Seeger's Folkways recordings must number in the millions. Rising above all of Seeger's political ideals and his passion for authentic folk music was his clear voice and chiming banjo, both of which sang out with a clarity that rang true.

"Clearwater Classics" is an excellent pick-up for the casual Pete Seeger fan -- its 16 tracks assemble virtually all of the singer's most familiar recordings, including such perennials as "If I Had a Hammer," "Little Boxes," "Turn, Turn, Turn," "Guantanamera" and "We Shall Overcome."


Tracklist:
1 If I Had A Hammer 2:51
2 We Shall Overcome 4:40
3 Lolly-Too-Dum 3:29
4 Wimoweh (The Lion Sleeps Tonight) 1:45
5 John Henry 4:11
6 Barbara Allen 4:28
7 Little Boxes 1:52
8 Michael, Row The Boat Ashore 2:09
9 Where Have All The Flowers Gone 1:53
10 Turn, Turn, Turn (To Everything There Is A Season) 3:10
11 Darlin' Corey 2:45
12 Guantanamera 4:35
13 This Land Is Your Land 2:59
14 Hobo's Lullaby 4:12
15 The Erie Canal 1:40
16 Down By The Riverside 3:13

Pete Seeger - Clearwater Classics (1993)

(192 kbps, cover art included)

Willie Nelson - Red Headed Stranger - Happy 90th Birthday, Bobby Nelson!

Willie Nelson's "Red Headed Stranger" perhaps is the strangest blockbuster country produced, a concept album about a preacher on the run after murdering his departed wife and her new lover, told entirely with brief song-poems and utterly minimal backing. It's defiantly anticommercial and it demands intense concentration - all reasons why nobody thought it would be a hit, a story related in Chet Flippo's liner notes to the 2000 reissue. 

It was a phenomenal blockbuster, though, selling millions of copies, establishing Nelson as a superstar recording artist in its own right. For all its success, it still remains a prickly, difficult album, though, making the interspersed concept of "Phases and Stages" sound shiny in comparison. It's difficult because it's old-fashioned, sounding like a tale told around a cowboy campfire. Now, this all reads well on paper, and there's much to admire in Nelson's intimate gamble, but it's really elusive, as the themes get a little muddled and the tunes themselves are a bit bare. It's undoubtedly distinctive - and it sounds more distinctive with each passing year - but it's strictly an intellectual triumph and, after a pair of albums that were musically and intellectually sound, it's a bit of a letdown, no matter how successful it was.

Bobbie Lee Nelson (born January 1, 1931) is an American pianist and singer, the older sister of Willie Nelson and a member of his band, Willie Nelson and Family. She played piano on "Red Headed Stranger" - happy 90th birthday!

Tracklist:

Time Of The Preacher 2:24
I Couldn't Believe It Was True 1:32
Time Of The Preacher Theme 1:12
Medley: Blue Rock Montana/Red Headed Stranger 1:32
Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain 2:17
Red Headed Stranger 3:57
Time Of The Preacher Theme 0:25
Just As I Am 1:45
Denver 0:55
O'er The Waves 0:48
Down Yonder 1:53
Can I Sleep In Your Arms 5:22
Remember Me 2:50
Hands On The Wheel 4:20
Bandera 2:18

Willie Nelson - Red Headed Stranger - Happy 90th Birthday, Bobby Nelson!

(320 kbps, cover art included)