Reverend Gary Davis – Children Of Zion (Reverend Gary Davis In Concert)

Reverend Gary Davis, also Blind Gary Davis (born Gary D. Davis, April 30, 1896 – May 5, 1972), was a blues and gospel singer who was also proficient on the banjo, guitar and harmonica. Born partially blind, Davis lost what little was left of his sight at a young age. Self-taught on the guitar, he assumed a unique multi-voice style produced solely with his thumb and index finger, playing not only ragtime and blues tunes, but also traditional and original tunes in four-part harmony. 

"Children Of Zion" is long out of print on vinyl and a wonderful live album by Reverend Gary Davis, singing great blues and gospel songs that were Inspiration for many other artist.

Tracklist:

A1 I'm Going To Sit Down On The Banks Of The River 3:20
A2 Twelve Gates To The City 4:15
A3 (I Heard The) Angels Singing 4:00
A4 Twelve Sticks 2:30
A5 Long Way To Tipperary 3:32

B1 When The Train Comes Along (Meet You At The Station) 4:22
B2 Come Down And See Me Sometime 4:52
B3 Buck Dance 2:12
B4 Soldier's Drill 7:35


Reverend Gary Davis – Children Of Zion (Reverend Gary Davis In Concert)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Bullwackies All Stars ‎- Black World Dub (1979)

"Black World" came out originally in 1979, on the Wackies’ imprint Hardwax. It’s a tough album, with Sibbles guiding the selection as well as sharing bass duties - there are versions of his classic composition "Guiding Star" and stylish Wackies heavyweight, This World; and "Tribute To Studio One" reworks Heptones "Gonna Fight / Hail Don D." as modern steppers, with the kit-drums - as throughout this album - supplemented effectively by the latest electronic innovation from Japan. Drifter and Skylarking put in appearances; and two full Joe Auxumite vocals from the solo album scheduled for release around this time, but abandoned when most of the tapes were lost. A dub version of Delroy Wilson’s "Rain From The Skies" rounds out proceedings.

Tracklist:

A1	Recording Connection	3:50
A2	Skylarking	4:22
A3	Troubled Land	3:46
A4	Morning Star	3:40
A5	United Rock	4:24
B1	Black World	4:28
B2	Simple Little Woman	5:10
B3	Tribute To Studio One	2:01
B4	Shining Star	3:01
B5	Rain From The Cloud	3:27

Bullwackies All Stars ‎- Black World Dub (1979)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Jim Kweskin - Side By Side (1979)

Jim Kweskin (born July 18, 1940, Stamford, Connecticut) is most notable as the founder of the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, also known as Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band, with Fritz Richmond, Geoff Muldaur, Bob Siggins and Bruno Wolfe. They were active in Boston in the 1960s. Maria D'Amato, known after her marriage to Geoff Muldaur as Maria Muldaur, formerly with the Even Dozen Jug Band, joined the band in 1963. During the five years they were together, the jugband successfully modernized the sounds of pre–World War II rural music. Kweskin released six albums and two greatest hits compilations on Vanguard Records between 1963 and 1970; Jim Kweskin's America on Reprise Records in 1971; and four albums on Mountain Railroad Records between 1978 and 1987. Kweskin is probably best known as a singer and bandleader, but he is also known for his guitar stylings, adapting the ragtime-blues fingerpicking of artists like Blind Boy Fuller and Mississippi John Hurt, while incorporating more sophisticated jazz and blues stylings into the mix. In 2013, the band held a reunion tour that included Jim Kweskin, Maria Muldaur, Geoff Muldaur, Richard Greene, Bill Keith, Cindy Cashdollar and Sam Bevan, most of whom were amongst its original members.

"Side By Side" is an entertaining collection of ragtime songs from Jim Kweskin, finding the folk singer running through familiar songs by Benny Goodman, Johnny Mercer, the Sons of the Pioneers, Fats Waller and Somethin' Smith & the Redheads. There's an endearing sense of good humor to Kweskin's versions that makes the record a charming delight.        


Tracklist:

1	The Preacher And The Bear
2	Papa's On The Housetop
3	On The Sunny Side Of The Street
4	Ain't Misbehavin'
5	Sweet Sue, Just You
6	Goody Goody
7	Side By Side
8	It's A Sin To Tell A Lie
9	Cielito Lindo
10	Tumbling Tumbleweeds

Jim Kweskin - Side By Side (1979) 
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Dave Van Ronk - Ragtime Jug Stompers (1960, vinyl rip)

Guitarist, singer, songwriter, and native New Yorker Dave Van Ronk has inspired, aided, and promoted the careers of numerous singer/songwriters who came up in the blues tradition. Most notable of the many musicians he's helped over the years is Bob Dylan, whom Van Ronk got to know shortly after Dylan moved to New York in 1961 to pursue a life as a folk/blues singer.Van Ronk's recorded output over the years is healthy, but he's never been as prolific a songwriter as some of his friends from that era, like Dylan or Tom Paxton. Instead, the genius of what Van Ronk does lies in his flawless execution and rearranging of classic acoustic blues tunes.

This wild and unrestrained collection of blues, jazz and blues standards makes Van Ronk's "Red Onion" album sound positively subdued. The rave-up of "Everybody Loves My Baby" is an acoustic equivalent of garage bands-to-come for sheer energy. You can tell that he loves these tunes; and in the notes, Van Ronk says he had been planning to start a jug band for a while, since 1958. In any case, it's a record brimming with an energetic spirit.

"As for the jug band, that came about more or less by accident. One weekend Max Gordon, the owner of the Village Vanguard, was in Cambridge for some reason, and he walked by the Club 47 and saw this huge line of people waiting to get in to see the Jim Kweskin Jug Band. In his mind's eye he transposed this queue to 7th Avenue South, where he had his room, and visions of sugarplums started dancing in his head. So when he got back to New York, he called Robert Shelton and said, "Are there any jug bands around town?" Bob said, "Well, yeah, but what you really ought to do is get hold of Dave Van Ronk and have him put one together."

So he did, and I did. I called up a bunch of friends, and we formed the Ragtime Jug Stompers. Sam Charters was back in town, so he was our Pooh-Bah and Lord High Everything Else—he sang, arranged, and played washtub bass, washboard, jug, and occasionally would lend a hand on guitar. Barry Kornfeld played banjo and guitar. Artie Rose was on mandolin, and also played some fine Dobro. Finally, Danny Kalb, who had been a student of mine, played lead guitar and some very nice harmonica. (We also made him sing bass on "K.C. Moan," because he was the youngest and none of us wanted to do it.) It was a very flexible band because the musicians were all good enough to double or triple on various instruments, plus it had all the possibilities offered by kazoos and that sort of thing, so it was capable of more than one kind of sound." - from: "The Mayor of Macdougal Street"

Tracks:

Side A

01 - Everybody Loves My Baby

02 - Stealin

03 - Saint Louis Tickle

04 - Sister Kate

05 - Take I Slow And Easy

06 - Mack The Knife

Side B

07 - Diggin' My Potatoes

08 - Temptation Rag

09 - Shake That Thing

10 - K. C. Moan

11 - Georgia Camp Meeting

12 - You'se A Viper

Dave Van Ronk - Ragtime Jug Stompers (1960, vinly rip)

(320 kbps, cover art included)

John Sebastian - In Concert - King Biscuit Flower Hour Presents

John Benson Sebastian (born March 17, 1944) is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and autoharpist. He is best known as a founder of The Lovin' Spoonful, a band inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.

Sebastian left the Lovin' Spoonful in 1968 although he and the original band reunited briefly to appear in the 1980 film One Trick Pony starring Paul Simon and Blair Brown. In December 1968 a musical for which he composed the music and lyrics, Jimmy Shine, opened on Broadway with Dustin Hoffman in the title role.

He embarked on a moderately successful solo career after leaving the Lovin' Spoonful in 1968. Sebastian was popular among the rock festival circuits. He had a memorable, albeit unscheduled appearance at Woodstock, appearing after Country Joe McDonald's set, playing songs such as "I Had A Dream," "Rainbows All Over Your Blues," "Darling Be Home Soon" and "Younger Generation," which he dedicated to a newborn baby at the festival. Sebastian also returned for Woodstock '94, playing harmonica for Crosby, Stills and Nash. Sebastian released his eponymous LP John B. Sebastian in 1970, which featured him accompanied by various L.A. musicians.

Sebastian played harmonica with The Doors on the song "Roadhouse Blues" (which was featured on Morrison Hotel album), under the pseudonym G. Puglese to avoid problems with his contract and to avoid association with Jim Morrison, who had been facing trial charges after the Miami concert incident at the time. He also played on "Little Red Rooster" on the live album Alive, She Cried and on seven songs on Live In Detroit. He also is credited with playing harmonica on Crosby Stills Nash & Young's "Déjà Vu" from the album of the same name.

In 1976 Sebastian had a number one single with "Welcome Back," the theme song to the sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter. His only top 40 solo hit, it found new life 28 years later when a sample from it became the hook for rapper Mase's 2004 hit "Welcome Back." More recently he played with John Sebastian and the J-Band, a jug band including Fritz Richmond from the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, Yank Rachell, an original jug-band leader, and Geoff Muldaur.

This Sept. 9, 1979 Long Island concert presents several sides of John Sebastian. Equally well-versed in blues, folk, and rock, he manages to straddle all three superbly.

The bluesy "Mobile Line" is followed by a stripped-down, reconsidered version of "Welcome Back," and a quartet of Lovin' Spoonful standards, "Nashville Cats," "Daydream," "Younger Generation," and "Darling Be Home Soon," all interspersed with a new song or two. He's in excellent voice - a little rougher than the late 1960s - and runs through blues and folk riffs with equal aplomb.     


Tracklist:

1	Mobile Line
2	Stage Comment
3	Welcome Back
4	Nashville Cats
5	Stage Comment
6	Link In The Chain
7	Freezin' From The Inside Out
8	Looking For Something Better
9	Younger Generation
10	She's A Lady
11	Don't You Run With Him
12	Red-Eye Express
13	Day Dream
14	Woodstock Toot
15	Stage Comment
16	Darling Be Home Soon

John Sebastian - In Concert - King Biscuit Flower Hour Presents
(256 kbps, front cover included)        

Jim Kweskin‎ – Whatever Happened To Those Good Old Days At Club 47 (1968)

Jim Kweskin may not have been a groundbreaking instrumentalist or a spectacularly gifted singer, but he certainly was an entertainer who knew how to get every bit out of his repertoire of American traditional music.

On this live album, the complete title of which is "What Ever Happened to Those Good Old Days at Club 47 in Cambridge Mass. With Jim Kweskin & His Friends", Kweskin is backed only by his faithful sideman Fritz Richmond and by Maria Muldaur on one track.

His autoharp may be slightly out of tune and his piano playing a bit shaky, but Kweskin grabs the audience's heart on the very first track and keeps it until the end of the album. The sound quality has its off moments too, but that doesn't matter either, because as long as Kweskin is bashing away on that old-time music, all's right with the world. If there was any doubt that Jim Kweskin was a great showman even with minimal accompaniment, this album would dispel it.    

Tracklist:

A1	Mississippi Mud	2:28
A2	Buddy Bolden Blues	3:05
A3	Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home	2:34
A4	Ain't She Sweet	3:49
A5	La Bomba	2:40
B1	Good Morning, Little Schoolgirl	3:17
B2	I Had A Dream Last Night	3:13
B3	Five Foot Two, Eyes Of Blue	2:52
B4	Ella Speed	2:29
B5	Blues	2:35
B6	Sheik Of Araby	2:30

Jim Kweskin‎ – Whatever Happened To Those Good Old Days At Club 47
(256 kbps, front cover included)

Geoff & Maria Muldaur ‎– Pottery Pie (1968)

In the year 1964, Maria Muldaur joined the Jim Kweskin Jug Band and began an affair with singer Geoff Muldaur; the couple eventually married and had a daughter, Jenni, who would later become a singer in her own right. When the Kweskin band broke up in 1968, the couple stayed with their label (Reprise) and began recording together as Geoff & Maria Muldaur. They moved to Woodstock, New York to take advantage of the burgeoning music scene there and issued two albums - 1968's "Pottery Pie" and 1971's "Sweet Potatoes" - before Geoff departed in 1972 to form "Better Days" with Paul Butterfield, a move that signaled not only the end of the couple's musical partnership, but their marriage as well.               

One of just two albums to be released by the easier-going American equivalent of Richard & Linda Thompson (without the brooding gloom and biting irony), this set includes some virtuoso folk-blues performances, as well as the version of "Brazil" made famous in Terry Gilliam's movie of the same name.

Though the ten tunes here are all covers, Geoff & Maria Muldaur treat each as if molded from clay of their own making, just as they had old traditional numbers as members of the Jim Kweskin Jug Band. It's probably no coincidence that this album would eventually find its way to Joe Boyd's Hannibal label. It's a collection that suggests the Richard & Linda Thompson albums he would release throughout the '70s.

Although it's often difficult to find, many fans will find "Pottery Pie" more than worth the money and effort.  

Tracklist:

A1	Catch It	3:17
A2	I'll Be Your Baby Tonight	3:56
A3	New Orleans Hopscop Blues	2:45
A4	Trials, Troubles, Tribulations	4:44
A5	Prairie Lullabye	4:48
A6	Guide Me, O Great Jehovah	1:36
B1	Me And My Chauffeur Blues	6:21
B2	Brazil	4:17
B3	Georgia On My Mind	3:44
B4	Death Letter Blues	6:12

Geoff & Maria Muldaur ‎– Pottery Pie (1968)
(256 kbps, cover art included)

Jim Kweskin - Relax Your Mind (1966)

The fun side of folk music was explored by the Jim Kweskin Jug Band. During the five years they were together, the group successfully transformed the sounds of pre-World War II rural music into a springboard for their good-humored performances.

Released in 1966, "Relax Your Mind" finds Jim Kweskin taking a break from his jug band for a mellow solo effort. He's joined by harp player Mel Lyman and washtub bassist Fritz Richmond for what amounts to a stripped-down jug band on a dozen tracks.

Two of the tracks, "I Got Mine" and a long version of "Buffalo Skinners," were recorded live at Club 47 in Cambridge. Even stripped down, the arrangements of traditional songs like "The Cuckoo" are quite lively when placed side by side with the one-singer/one-guitar approach preferred by some revivalists. Kweskin's guitar and Richmond's bass keep time and fill in the background while Lyman adds asides and flourishes to Mississippi John Hurt's "My Creole Belle" and Grandpa Jones' "Eight More Miles to Louisville." Richmond helps out on the vocal of "Guabi Guabi," an African folk song recorded a couple years earlier by Ramblin' Jack Elliott, and Marilyn Kweskin sings a fine lead on "I Ain't Never Been Satisfied."

Overall, "Relax Your Mind" is a subdued recording, and lacks the irresponsible hijinks fans had come to expect from the Jim Kweskin Jug Band. Compared to other more traditional folk with barebones arrangements, however, "Relax Your Mind" is a lively affair. The album also shows that good folk recordings continued to be made after Dylan supposedly pulled the plug on the folk revival in 1965.

Jim Kweskin - Relax Your Mind (1966)
(224 kbps, front cover included)

VA - Wild Paarty Sounds Vol. 1 - On-U Sound Compilation (1981)

Pretty sure that this is the very first ONU Sound compilation LP, licensed to Cherry Red.

The prolific and prodigious output of the Adrian Sherwood from the late 70s right up to the dawning of Acid House to me presents the clearest stating of aims, ideals and sounds of the crossover between Punk and Reggae. With big Reggae fans on the early Punk scene such as John Lydon and Joe Strummer and the Rebel stance of Roots musicians it was always to be the case that osmosis would occur eventually. Adrian Sherwood was right in the midst of it. He started out with his productions during 1978 and as time went on he mixed up musicians from both of those separate fields to great effect, producing a vast catalogue of music all engineered with his idiosyncratic stamp. Although fame would beckon as he came to remix many big names over the years this would be his crowning achievement…


Tracklist:

A1 –Jah Woosh - Woodpecker Sound
A2 –Machine Gun Hogg & Co. - Bed Bound Saga
A3 –Prince Far I & Creation Rebel - Quanté Jubila
A4 –The Chicken Granny - Quit The Body
A5 –Alan Pellay - Parasitic Machine
A6 –London Underground - Dreams Are Better
B1 –Suns Of Arqa - Asian Rebel
B2 –Alan Pellay - Demonic Forces
B3 –The Mothmen - Afghani Dub
B4 –Jeb Loy & The Oil Wells - Things That Made U.S.
B5 –New Age Steppers - Yipee I Aah
B6 –Judy Nylon - The Dice

VA - Wild Paarty Sounds Vol. 1 - On-U Sound Compilation (1981)

(ca. 320 kbps, cover art included)

Mark Stewart & Maffia - Learning To Cope With Cowardice

The Pop Group split in 1981, with Stewart and two other members heading off to London to hook up with the emerging On-U Sound "conspiracy of outsiders" as part of the New Age Steppers.

On-U became a focal point of a diverse set of networks - punks, reggae players from both the UK and Jamaica and free-jazzers. Mark Stewarts first post-Pop Group release was as 'Mouth 2', the 1982 single "Who's Hot". Two releases followed with On-U associates under the name 'Mark Stewart & The Maffia' - the "Jerusalem EP" in 1982, and the 1983 album "Learning to Cope with Cowardice".

While "Learning to Cope with Cowardice" was no less confrontational than some of the Pop Group's work, it left behind the harsh, frenetic avant-funk of the Bristol band to foray into more experimental, dub-oriented territory. The standout track is the cut-up version of "Jerusalem," the English hymn (using William Blake's visionary words) that has come to stand almost as an unofficial national anthem. Stewart's "Jerusalem" embodies the multiple sonic facets of this album, juxtaposing jarring electronics, hectoring vocals, and heavy beats with more expansive layers of melody. Here, Stewart mixes his own strident declamation of Blake's verses with samples of a traditional arrangement of the hymn and with echo-heavy dub textures in such a way as to craft a complex meditation on issues of race, class, and tradition in Thatcher-ite Britain.

Mark Stewart & Maffia - Learning To Cope With Cowardice

(192 kbps, cover art included)

VA - Befreit! Lieder und Texte nach dem 8. Mai

Victory Day or 9 May marks the capitulation of Nazi Germany to the Soviet Union in the Second World War. It became the end of the Great Patriotic War for the USSR, which lost about 25 million citizens in the four years of fighting. Victory Day was first inaugurated in the fifteen republics of the Soviet Union, following the signing of the surrender document late in the evening on 8 May 1945 (after midnight, thus on 9 May, by Moscow Time). The Soviet government announced the victory early on 9 May after the signing ceremony in Berlin.

Interestingly, until its 20th anniversary (May 9, 1965), Victory Day was not a major holiday, unlike, for instance, May 1, and was considered a work day. Apart from the anniversaries in 1965 and 1985, Victory Day celebrations in the Soviet Union did not feature a military parade. This tradition started in 1995.

In communist East Germany, 8 May was officially known and celebrated as "Liberation Day" and was a public holiday between 1950 and 1966, and again on the 40th anniversary in 1985. In 1975 a Soviet-style "Victory Day" was celebrated on the 9 May. Since 2002, the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern has observed a commemoration day known as the "Day of Liberation from National Socialism, and the End of the Second World War".

The album "Befreit! Lieder und Texte nach dem 8. Mai" ("Free - songs and lyrics after May 8") reflects in many ways the historical events of the Liberation Day. It features artists like Konstantin Wecker, Peter Sodann, Rolf Hochhuth, Maurenbrecher and Diether Dehm.

VA - Befreit! Lieder und Texte nach dem 8. Mai
(256 kbps, front cover included)

In celebration of Victory Day: VA - Im Treptower Park (NOVA, 1975)

Victory Day or 9 May marks the capitulation of Nazi Germany to the Soviet Union in the Second World War (also known as the Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union and most post-Soviet states).

It was first inaugurated in the fifteen republics of the Soviet Union, following the signing of the surrender document late in the evening on 8 May 1945 (after midnight, thus on 9 May, by Moscow Time). The Soviet government announced the victory early on 9 May after the signing ceremony in Berlin.

This day is still celebrated to commemorate the 28 000 000 (according to various estimates) children, parents, spouses and friends killed in Soviet Union during II World War for independence from Nazi Germany.

To celebrate todays "Victory Day" here´s "Im Treptower Park", a compilation released in 1975 on the NOVA label in memory of the 30th anniversary of the capitulation and the end of the fascist regime in Germany.

The album collects the Ernst Busch recordings of  "Der heilige Krieg" (original lyrics by Wassili Lebedew-Kumatsch) and "Wart auf mich" (original lyrics by Konstantin Simonow), an excerpt of Hanns Eislers "Winterschlacht-Suite", "Die Glocken von Buchenwald" and "Meinst du, die Russen wollen Krieg" with Helga de Wroblewsky and "Im Treptower Park" and "Vor dem Mausoleum" by the wonderful Reinhold Andert - a former member of the "Oktoberklub", which is represented by the song "Tatschanka" on this compilation.

Tracklist:

A1	–Ernst Busch	Der Heilige Krieg
A2	–Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester Berlin	Schluß-Melodram "Das war die Division"
A3	–Oktoberklub	Tatschanka
A4	–Ernst Busch	Wart auf mich
A5	–Helga De Wroblewski	Die Glocken von Buchenwald
A6	–Instrumentalgruppe Rainer Böhm	Das Lied vom Lindenbaum
A7	–Reinhold Andert	Im Treptower Park
B1	–Gerhard Neef	Das Lied
B2	–Reinhold Andert	Vor dem Mausoleum
B3	–Instrumentalgruppe Rainer Böhm	Im Mausoleum
B4	–Helga De Wroblewski	Meinst du, die Russen wollen Krieg
B5	–Chor der Staatsoper Dresden	Dank an die Sowjetarmee

VA - Im Treptower Park (NOVA, 1975)
(256 kbps, cover art included)

Ernst Busch - Roter Oktober - Chronik in Liedern, Kantaten und Balladen 2

Following the unconditional surrender of Germany, on May 8th, 1945, the Second World War came to an end in Europe.
Warfare, expulsion, occupation, crimes against humanity, as well as death and destruction on a level previously unknown to humankind left an indelible mark on the world, visible to this day.

For Germany, Europe and the rest of the world, the year 1945 represents a turning point, on a socio-political and personal level.
Sadly to say that not all parts of the contemporary German society are conscious of the shadow cast by the years of National Socialist rule and the Second World War.

In recognition of the 70th anniversary of German capitulation and the end of the National Socialist regime, we will post some music with relation to the Second World War and the Holocaust.


A lifelong communist, Busch fled Nazi Germany in 1933 with the Gestapo on his heels, eventually settling in the Soviet Union. In 1937 he joined the International Brigades to fight against the Nationalists in Spain. His wartime songs were then recorded and broadcast by Radio Barcelona and Radio Madrid. After the Spanish Republic fell to General Franco, Busch migrated to Belgium where he was interned during the German occupation and later imprisoned in Camp Gurs, France and Berlin. Freed by the Red Army in 1945, he settled in East Berlin where he started his own record label and worked with Bertolt Brecht and Erwin Piscator at the "Berliner Ensemble". A beloved figure in the German Democratic Republic, he is best remembered for his performance in the title role of Brecht's Life of Galileo and his recordings of workers songs, including many written by Hanns Eisler.

The compilation "Roter Oktober", the second edition in the "Chronik in Liedern, Kantaten und Balladen" series with reissues of his "Aurora"-production - 44 EPs in 28 issues under the title "Eine Chronik in Liedern, Balladen und Kantaten aus der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts - collects some of his famous recordings referring to the history of the Soviet Union and the war against Nazi Germany: "Der heimliche Aufmarsch" (Eisler, 1930), "Der Heilige Krieg" (Busch does an overdub in german language on the Alexandrow-Ensemble recording - an angry symbol of the fight against the German aggressor) and "Danke euch, ihr Sowjetsoldaten".

Yesterday we posted Eislers music for the "Winterschlacht" by Johannes R. Becher with the vocals of Ekkehard Schall. The album "Roter Oktober" contains Buschs version of the final scene ("Winterschlacht um Moskau). He played the commander of the Red Army in the premiere of "Winterschlacht" at the Berliner Ensemble in 1955.

Three years after the german capitulation, in August 1948, the Alexandrow Ensemble (Song and Dance Ensemble of the Red Army) performed on the steps of the destroyed "Deutscher Dom" at the Gendarmenmarkt (Berlin) in front of ten thousend listeners. As a tribute to this historic event, this album contains an original recording of "Kalinka", one of Ernst Busch favourits of the Alexandrow Ensemble songs.

Ernst Busch - Roter Oktober - Chronik in Liedern, Kantaten und Balladen 2
(256 kbps, cover art included)

VA - The Little Red Box Of Protest Songs

The Little Red Box Of Protest Songs is a truly outstanding release: 3 CDs (and - not in this post -  a
DVD) full of some of the finest protest folk music from the USA of the early 20th century.

Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the publication of the first American protest song book, "The Little Red Song Book", and Pete Seegers's 90th birthday this collection traces the roots of protest song in the US from the first half of the last century up to the Fifties illustrating how the stage was set for the Folk protest giants of the Sixties such as Bob Dylan and Phil Ochs. Featuring classic performances by Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Josh White, Leadbelly, The Almanac Singers, The Weavers and many more.

Releases such as this set almost make the modern day listener feel uneasy, such is the convenience of purchasing a collection that encompasses such a breadth of human experience. Each of these songs stands tall and strong, could be (and no doubt have been) lived in and lived by. There are songs as familiar as nursery rhymes, others that surprise the first-time listener and demand repeated plays.
Though this is nominally referred to as folk music, it really covers jazz, blues and soul, with soul in particular permeating. It’s in the ghostly harmonies of The Union Boys, the humour of Carl Sandburg’s The Boll Weevil and the stand-up dignity of Woody Guthrie songs that pepper the set.
Such is the nature of the protest song, this is an intense listen and perhaps best absorbed in short bursts, given the amount of material collected.


Tracklist:

Disc One - THE HOUSE I LIVE IN

Banks are Made of Marble - Pete Seeger
Chain Gang Bound - Josh White & His Carolinians
Joe Hill - Earl Robinson
This Land is Your Land - Woody Guthrie
Jim Crow - The Union Boys
Farmer's Letter to the President - Bob Miller
The Strange Death of John Doe - Almanac Singers
Southern Exposure - Josh White
Talking Atom - Pete Seeger
We've Got a Plan - Tom Glazer & Josh White
Bank Failures - Bob Miller
The House I Live In - Earl Robinson
Round & Round Hitler's Grave - Almanac Singers
Eisenhower Blues - J.B Lenoir
Unity Rhumba - Goodson & Vale
Dear Mr. President - Almanac Singers
Pastures of Plenty - The Weavers
The Bosses' Gang - Mara Alexander & Others
Freedom Road - Josh White
The Scottsboro Boys - Leadbelly

Disc Two - PATRIOTIC DIGGERS

Voting Union - Pete Seeger
Talking Sailor - Woody Guthrie
The Roosevelt Song - Leadbelly
The Boll Weevil - Carl Sandburg
The Preacher & the Slave - Seeger, Glazer, Wood & Gilbert
Nine Foot Shovel - Josh White & His Carolinians
High Price Blues - Brownie McGhee
Hold On - The Union Boys
Miner's Song - Woody Guthrie
Pity the Downtrodden Landlord - Bob Hill (Fred Hellerman)
Jim Crow Train - Josh White
Patriotic Diggers - John Allison
Farm Relief Blues - Bob Miller
Worried Man Blues - Woody Guthrie
Trouble - Josh White & His Carolinians
UAW-CIO - The Union Boys
Mr. Hitler - Leadbelly
No More Blues - Tom Glazer & Josh White
Plow Under - Almanac Singers
Told My Cap'n - Josh White & His Carolinians

Disc Thee - WE SHALL BE FREE

Strange Fruit - Josh White
The Bourgeois Blues - Leadbelly
C For Conscription - Almanac Singers
Citizen C.I.O. - Tom Glazer & Josh White
Ship in the Sky - Woody Guthrie
Jerry - Josh White & His Carolinians
The Rich Man & The Poor Man - Bob Miller
In Washington - Priority Ramblers
A Dollar Ain't a Dollar Anymore - Seeger, Glazer, Hays & Wood
Atomic Energy - Sir Lancelot
Black, Brown & White - Brownie McGhee
Uncle Sam Says - Josh White
Ragged Hungry Blues (Pt. 1) - Aunt Molly Jackson
Ragged Hungry Blues (Pt. 2) - Aunt Molly Jackson
We're Keeping Score In '44 - Earl Robinson
Goin' Home Boys - Josh White & His Carolinians
I've Got a Right - Laura Duncan
The Hammer Song - The Weavers
I'm On My Way - Ernie Lieberman
We Shall Be Free - Woody Guthrie

The Little Red Box Of Protest Songs
(192 kbps, front cover included

Nina Simone - At Town Hall (1959)

It was said of Nina Simone that she performed "with heart at all times", and that is none more evident than on "Nina Simone at Town Hall". Only her fourth album, it was recorded mostly live at the prestigious New York venue in September 1959, with three songs – "The Other Woman", "Cotton Eyed Joe" and "Wild Is the Wind" – cut in a studio in the city a month later. It captures the 27-year-old at one of her early pinnacles.

The show was her New York concert debut. Simone later wrote how, after years playing clubs, that it was one of the first times that she’d played somewhere where people had arrived simply to listen to her. Recorded when she was only toying with popular music in order to fund her continued studies into classical piano, it shows her formal background, evident in her confident, on-stage mastery.
Serious-minded but never po-faced, Simone’s joy is evident by her squeals of delight at the end of several numbers; this is an artist clearly enjoying herself as much as her audience. Although only occasionally singing her own material, the authority and sincerity she brought to other’s work made their songs her own – George Gershwin’s "Summertime", Dimitri Tiomkin’s "Wild Is the Wind" and Billie Holiday’s "Fine and Mellow" are here captured as if they couldn’t have been written for anyone else than Simone.

Supported by Jimmy Bond on bass and Al ‘Tootie’ Heath on drums, her grasp of the spectrum of popular music is astonishing. From traditional ballads such as "Black Is the Colour of My True Love’s Hair" to light and airy cabaret renditions of "Exactly Like You" to intense ruminations on being the wronged woman ("You Can Have Him"), Simone treats each piece with similar weight and respect.
The reviews for the show, as Simone later wrote, "were the best I ever had. I was a sensation. An overnight success, just like in the movies." Simone’s gravitas and strong self-belief made for an enthralling performance. Artists frequently bandy about the words "soul" and "passion" to compensate for their blatant lack of either. Few had both like Nina Simone, and "…at Town Hall" is one of the greatest examples of her unique style.

Nina Simone - At Town Hall (1959)
(256 kbps, cover art included)     

Illapu - Morena Esperanza

Illapu are a Chilean folk and andean musical ensemble that was formed in 1971 in Antofagasta, in northern Chile, by the brothers José Miguel, Jaime, Andrés and Roberto Márquez Bugueño. A later addition to the group was Osvaldo Torres.

Their name comes from the Quechua word meaning "Lightning Bolt". That same year they performed in the Festival del Salitre ("Saltpeter Festival") in María Elena (a mining precinct) and won the festival's prize after performing Quilapayún's "La Muralla". They were sharply criticized by the organiser of the musical event, Patricio Manns, for interpreting someone else's composition. That same year Pato Valdivia joined the ensemble.

In 1972 they moved to Santiago de Chile seeking more performance and recording opportunities. They recorded their first album, Música Andina, for the label DICAP. Shortly afterwards they won a prize at the Norte Andino Festival ("Andean North Festival") in Calama interpreting "Dale Mañungo", composed by the songwriter Nano Acevedo.

In 1973 they performed for the first time at the prestigious Festival Internacional de la Canción de Viña del Mar music festival. Their novel musical approach and aesthetics on stage gained them the recognition from music critics and praise from the general public. At this stage they began to be considered a new element in the Nueva Canción Chilena ("New Chilean Song") movement. The resources allocated to the arts and culture under the Popular Unity government of Salvador Allende also allowed Illapu to fully develop their artistic potential.


In 1981, because of the repression under the Pinochet regime, they were forced into exile - going first to France and later Mexico City. In 1988, due to the improved political climate, they returned to Chile. Their 1993 album En Estos Días, which contained the hit single "Lejos del Amor", won 7 platinum records.

The album Morena Esperanza was released in 1998.

Tracklist:

1	Bio Bio, Sueño Azul	4:40
2	Morena Esperanza	4:30
3	Dos Sobreviviendo	4:20
4	Tu Propia Primavera	4:25
5	Encuentro Con La Vida	3:14
6	Mama Aida	5:26
7	Isla Negra	4:40
8	El Loco Del Puerto	3:51
9	Por Si Algún Día	4:05
10	Caña Y Tambor	3:44
11	Cantor De La Calle	3:56

Illapu - Morena Esperanza 
(192 kbps, cover art included)

Gil Scott-Heron - 1974 – The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

Spanning 1970-1972, this superb collection takes us back to Gil Scott-Heron's early years, when he was working with jazz producer Bob Thiele - a man who had been in the studio with everyone from John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders to Coleman Hawkins.

But "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" isn't a jazz collection per se; it's a collection of innovative R&B and spoken poetry that contains jazz influences and finds Scott-Heron employing such jazz musicians as flutist Hubert Laws and bassist Ron Carter. Like the Last Poets, Scott-Heron has been described as "one of the first rappers" - and while he was hardly the first person to speak in rhyme to music, there are definitely parallels between angry sociopolitical poems like "Whitey on the Moon," "No Knock," and "Brother" and hip-hop commentary from the 1980s. Poetry, however, doesn't dominate this album - most of the selections illustrate Scott-Heron's excellence as a singer, including "Home Is Where the Hatred Is," "Did You Hear What They Said?," and the poignant "Save the Children."

One of the collection's less political tracks is "Lady Day and John Coltrane," an R&B classic that articulates how easily jazz can lift a person's spirits. "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" isn't the last word on Scott-Heron's artistry - he recorded many more treasures after leaving Flying Dutchman for Arista in 1975. But it's one of the collections to acquire if you're exploring his artistry for the first time.

Tracklist:
01. The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
02. Sex Education – Ghetto Style
03. The Get Out Of The Ghetto Blues
04. No Knock
05. Lady Day And John Coltrane
06. Pieces Of A Man
07. Home Is Where The Hatred Is
08. Brother
09. Save The Children
10. Whitey On The Moon
11. Did You Hear What They Said
12. When You Are Who You Are
13. I Think I’ll Call It Morning
14. A Sign Of The Ages
15. Or Down You Fall
16. The Needle’s Eye
17. The Prisoner

Gil Scott-Heron - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
(192 kbps, front cover included)

Mikis Theodorakis - Mauthausen Trilogy - In Memoriam Of Liberation

Today we celebrate the 70th anniversary of May 8, 1945 - the the end of World War II in Europe, specifically the capitulation of Nazi forces to the Allies (the Soviet Union, Canada, France, United Kingdom, United States and other principal Allied nations) on May 8, 1945.

This is an opportunity to show our respect for the survivors of Nazi persecution and mass murder, and to listen to what they can tell us about the best and the worst of human behaviour.

"During the Second World War the poet Iacovos Kambanellis was a prisoner in Camp Mauthausen. In 1965 he wrote four poems about this period and asked the Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis to put them to music. The poems are now world-famous as the Mauthausen trilogy. Thanks to Maria Farantouri the trilogy has become very popular.

The recordings on this album date from 1995 and 1999. The four poems are sung in three different languages (Greek, Hebrew and English) by Farantouri, Elinoar Moav Veniadis and Nadia Weinberg respectively. You might think that it's boring to listen to the same songs over and over again, with only the languages varying, but that is not the case.

The Hebrew version has a very classical approach and has a completely different atmosphere than the English one, which is influenced by jazz, or the Greek one, which is very close to the original Farantouri recordings. The Hebrew part of the album surprised me most. Veniadis makes me want to cry. She gives such a power to the songs that I can feel the poems in every part of my body. The same applies to Farantouri when she is singing in her low voice, which is the opposite of Veniadis' voice.

The English version is nice because, as you understand the lyrics, you get a notion of what the songs are about - but that's all. Weinberg turns them into popular tunes, sung well technically but with little emotion."
(Eelco Schilder, FolkWorld CD Reviews)

"This is the most awesome CD of new classical music that I have heard in a long time. I am a long-time fan of Theodorakis' music in any event. This setting of four poems written by in Mauthausen by a survivor of the camp is a stirring testament to the triumph of humanity against fascism, and of course, for Jews, much more. The recording of the original cantata, live, at a memorial held at Mauthausen in July 1995, in Greek, features the amazing voice of Maria Farantouri who first recorded the piece in 1995. Additional recordings were made in Hebrew, and then in English between 1995 and 1999. The CD concludes with remarks by Simon Wiesenthal, also recorded at the Memorial at Mauthausen in 1995.
Well, that's the bones--the where and when. The power of the music amazes. The versions are mixed so that the album opens with Hebrew, then Greek. When the English version of "Song of Songs" makes the lyrics comes on, reprising the Hebrew that opened the album, the familiarity of the music makes the words all the more powerful, "Beyond the bleak and frozen square / Above the yellow linen star / No heart will ever beat again / Because the beautiful have lost their way to paradise...." But this is not a sad album, despite the words. It is an affirmation that life is strong, and continues, and that humanity's spirit is unquenchable. Indeed, the yearning, the loss of god, are grounded in the more immediate, as the military march sounds of "When the war is over" chime in Hebrew, one last time, as the album concludes with the English version of the poem: "Oh girl with fearful eyes come listen to me / Oh girl with frozen hands please hear my yearning / Forget me not when this cruel war is truly over."

I am unbearably moved and strengthened by this album. The lithe, almost carefree flute of "The Fugitive", The shock of the opening "Song of Songs," first in Hebrew, is followed by the more forceful Greek version, and the singer's reprise of words first sung 30 years earlier, as the audience makes the connection and claps in recognition. The gentle arrangements of the English, contrasting the more forceful Greek and the span of art song--as if of folk songs set for stage--in the Hebrew arrangement. The different arrangements, voices, the different languages, all strengthen the core poetry and give the music even more power. The translations are superb. The closing "When the war is over in Hebrew, "Simkhat olam bo'i la-sha'ar" (Joy of the world come to the gateway) is perfect (even better than the English, I think--it makes me wonder if the English, somewhat less evocative, is translated from the Greek or from the Hebrew). The song first is song as more of a gentle love song, and then acquires power and near-operatic weight, countered, suddenly, by the words, in German, by Simon Wiesenthal. The words are translated in the liner notes:

... If we were ever to forget, repress or falsify what happened, our past would return to us over and again, unvanquished, and would prevent us and our descendants from building our future, in a way that is right and worthy of man.
I say this to you as someone who survived the death block of Mauthausen as by a miracle.

This is a vital album. A "must have". " (from: http://www.klezmershack.com)

Mikis Theodorakis- Mauthausen Trilogy - In Memoriam Of Liberation
(256 kbps, small cover art included)

Lin Jaldati / Jalda Rebling / Eberhard Rebling - Für Anne Frank (LITERA 1981)

"The Diary of Anne Frank" is one of the most widely read books in the world but her time in hiding was just one part of this remarkable girl's short life.

Anne Frank is famous for the diary that she kept from 12 June 1942 until 4 August 1944.
She was born on 12 June 1929 in Frankfurt, Germany, and was the second daughter of Otto Frank and Edith Frank-Hollander. Her sister Margot was three years older. She enjoyed four happy years growing up in Frankfurt until the Nazi's came to power.

Of German Jewish descent, she and her family moved to Holland in 1933, where her father set up a business. By 1934, Edith and the two girls were living in Amsterdam, where they both attended school. From a young age, Anne showed an aptitude for reading and writing, while her outspoken and energetic personality shone through. When Holland was occupied by the Nazis in 1940, their heritage put the family under threat.

The family were subjected to the same rules as German Jews, namely Jewish children could only attend Jewish schools, they faced curfews, were not allowed to own a business and were forced to wear a yellow star. Otto transferred his shares in his company to a friend and resigned as director leaving the family with enough income to survive.

On her 13th birthday, Otto gave Anne an autograph book bound with white and red checked cloth and closed with a small lock. She proceeded to use this as her diary, with the first entries detailing how her family were segregated and discriminated against. In July 1942, her sister Margot received a call up notice from the Central Office of Jewish Emigration ordering her to report for a relocation to a work camp. This made the family move into hiding earlier than planned.

On 6 July 1942, Anne, her sister Margot and her parents went into hiding, along with four other families. Their hiding place, the annexe, was in a specially prepared space above the offices of their business.

Whilst in hiding, they were supported by a group of friends, who brought them food as well as anything else they needed.

Anne started each diary entry 'Dear Kitty' and what followed was an incredibly candid and eloquent account of her life in confinement. It expresses her fear, boredom and confusion at the situation she found herself in.

As well as giving the reader an insight into of what it was like to live under such extreme circumstances, it also shows Anne struggling with the universal problem of growing up.
Her diary ends in 1944 when the annexe was raided by the Nazi authorities. Anne and Margot were first sent to Auschwitz and then to Bergen-Belsen where they died of typhoid in 1945.

She was survived only by her father Otto. Anne's diary was kept safe by the family friend, Miep Gies, who gave it to Otto when he returned to Holland. When Anne was still alive she had expressed interest in having her diary published as a record of her experience. After her death, her father edited it, and it was first published in 1947.

'The Diary of Anne Frank' is an exceptionally popular and well known piece of writing. It has been translated into 67 languages and is especially popular with young people.

The album "Für Anne Frank" mixes songs, readings and documentary parts, performed by Lin Jaldati, Jalda Rebling and Eberhard Rebling and recorded live in 1980.

Lin Jaldati was a Dutch Jewish Communist Yiddish singer, who survived the Holocaust and was the last person to see Anne Frank alive. After the war, she and her husband, Eberhard Rebling, moved to East Berlin where she became the Yiddish diva of the Communist world, including a 1965 concert including Yiddish music in North Korea, and a 1983 concert in Yad Vashem, where she was a representative of her adopted home in East Germany. While primarily in Yiddish, the Yad Vashem concert included German-language anti-fascist songs by Hans Eisler, the first time German music was heard in the hallowed halls of Israel's Holocaust memorial.

Songs on the album:

Amol is gewen a jidele
Schejn bin ich, schejn
Motele
Schtiller, schtiller
's ls nischto kejn nechtn
's Dremlen fejgl ojf di zwajgn
Sog nischt kejnmal
Her nor, du schejn mejdele
Dos lid fun scholem
Ich bezeuge (Worte Pablo Neruda, Musik: Paul Dessau)

Lin Jaldati / Jalda Rebling / Eberhard Rebling - Für Anne Frank (LITERA 1981)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Various‎– Canti Della Resistenza Europea / Songs Of The European Resistance

With this music and songs we want remember at those who fought against fascism and Nazism. This set of three albums war originally released in 1963 in Italy. It was re-relaesed in 1973 on the "I Dischi Dello Zodiaco" label.

The set features songs from the european resistance movement - there are songs from Spain, Italy, Hungary, France, Germany, Rumania, Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, Greece, Poland, Portugal, Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia.

Album 1:
La nostra citta' brucia
Echeggiano i monti
Marcia della 20. brigata
Fratelli delle citta'
Canto di Breendonck
Una nebbia spessa e' scesa
Ehi, Balcani
Un partigiano si prepara per la lotta
La campagna di Krivansko
Gli slavi si sono ribellati
Il canto della liberazione
Quelli del Maquis
Lamento del partigiano
Canto del fronte unico
Chiedono di mio padre
In terra di Spagna
La colonna Thaelmann



Album 2:
GRECIA: Tuona l'Olimpo, Del piccolo paese, Avanti, Elas, La schiavitù
JUGOSLAVIA: All'assalto, Sofferenza, La mitragliatrice, Sul monte Konjuh
ITALIA: Portiamo l'Italia nel cuore, Più forti di prima, Badoglieide, Dongo
POLONIA: Stormirono le fronde dei salici, Il cuore nello zaino
PORTOGALLO: Madre povera, Canto di pace






Album 3:
ROMANIA: Giovanni il Grande, Manti di Caravan
SPAGNA: Dimmi dove vai bella bruna, Gallo nero e gallo rosso, Colomba della pace, Alla memoria del compagno J. Grimau, Strofette dello sciopero
UNGHERIA: I tre fiumi, Bela Kun non ha soldati
URSS: Nebbie mie nebbie, Canto dei partigiani di Briansk, Canzone di Zoia Cosmodemianskaia, Guerra giusta









VA - Canti Della Resistenza Europea / Songs Of The European Resistance 
(192 kbps, cover art included)