Fifty Sail on Newburgh Bay: Pete Seeger and Ed Renehan

Folkways Records FH 5257

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: US
Released: October 1976
Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style: Folk
[Tracklist]
A1 Kayowjajineh (1:17)
A2 Fifty Sail On Newburgh Bay (2:08)
A3 The Burning Of Kingston (2:32)
A4 The Phoenix And The Rose (3:46)
A5 The Old Ben Franklin And The Sloop Sally B. (1:27)
A6 The Moon In The Pear Tree (2:33)
A7 The Erie Canal (1:49)
A8 Yankee Doodle (1:18)
B1 This Is A Land (1:08)
B2 Big Bill Snyder (3:12)
B3 Tarrytown (3:43)
B4 The Hudson Whalers (3:19)
B5 Follow The Drinking Gourd (3:15)
B6 Hudson River Steamboat (1:32)
B7 The Knickerbocker Line (2:08)
B8 Of Time And Rivers Flowing (2:55)
[Credits]
Pete Seeger (banjo/vocals) Edward Renehan (guitar/vocals)
Designer: Ronald Clyne
[Notes]
Cleaning up the badly polluted Hudson River and its environs has long been a cause that Pete Seeger has devoted himself to, even organizing the building of a sloop--the Clearwater--to promote the effort. Here he devotes a recording to songs relating to the river, which played a major role in the commercial life and early history of New York State, including the Revolutionary War. Both traditional and newly composed songs are included. Folk singer Ed Renehan (born 1956), who was a member of the board of the Clearwater, sings and plays guitar along with Seeger. William Gekle, who wrote the lyrics for five of the songs, also wrote the liner notes, which detail the context of each song and provide the lyrics.

Dick Fariña & Eric Von Schmidt

Folklore Records F-LEUT/7

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Limited Edition, Mono
Country: UK
Released: 1963
Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style: Folk
[Tracklist]
A1 Johnny Cuckoo (4:24)
A2 Jumping Judy (3:52)
A3 Glory, Glory (2:36)
A4 Old Joe's Dulcimer (2:52)
A5 Wobble Bird (2:41)
A6 Wildwood Flower (1:53)
A7 Overseas Stomp (2:41)
B1 Lonzo N'Howard (3:29)
B2 You Can Always Tell (3:04)
B3 Xmas Island (3:15)
B4 Stick With Me Baby (3:30)
B5 Riddle Song (1:09)
B6 Cocaine (4:00)
B7 London Waltz (3:16)
[Credits]
Dick Fariña (dulcimer/harmonica/vocal) Eric von Schmidt (guitar/vocal) Bob Dylan as Blind Boy Grunt (backup voca/harmonica) Ethan Signer (fiddle/mandolin/vocal)
Designer: Eric Von Schmidt, Liner Notes: Dick Fariña, Producer: Tom Costner, Engineer: Don Sollash
[Notes]
This obscure album, recorded in January 1963 at Dobell's record shop in London, is known primarily for a very famous session musician playing under a pseudonym. Blind Boy Grunt, aka Bob Dylan, contributed harmonica and backup vocals to half a dozen of the tracks (using that pseudonym, most likely, as he was under contract to a different label at the time). Fariña and Von Schmidt, already noted performers in the American coffeehouse folk scene, are the principal figures on this pretty typical '60s folk revival LP. The material and delivery are rooted in traditional folk forms, including jug band, blues, and Appalachian music, and are neither too dry nor too exciting. Certainly Fariña, the more talented of the front line pair, shows few flashes of the first-rate songwriting and arrangements that would flower on the albums he did in the mid-'60s with his wife Mimi Fariña. The one vivid flash of that brilliance is on the instrumental "Old Joe's Dulcimer," in which he unveils his considerable talents on the instrument. With its almost Indian-like drones, it could just about fit as one of the instrumentals on the Richard & Mimi Fariña albums, although the absence of Mimi Fariña's guitar accompaniment creates (if only in retrospect) a sonic gap. "Wobble Bird" (derived from the standard "Cuckoo") and "Wildwood Flower" (a vocal number which has some dulcimer) aren't bad, but really this is just another folk album of its time, notable primarily as a collector's item. If you're picking this up just for Dylan's contributions, be advised that those are pretty low-key; he doesn't contribute any songwriting or lead vocals. Also lending a hand on these sessions is Ethan Signer of the Original Charles River Valley Boys. (AllMusic Review by Richie Unterberger)

Lamine Konté: La Kora Du Sénégal

Arion ARN 33179

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: France
Released: 1974
Genre:Folk, World, & Country
Style: African, Griot
[Tracklist]
A1 M'Besseyla (Air Afrocubain) (2:17)
A2 Casamance (3:58)
A3 Mama Tamba (Solo De Kora) (2:19)
A4 Moune Ma Ko (Rythme Afrocubain) Chant De La Dot (3:25)
A5 Diouala (Air De La Casamance) (3:02)
A6 Kaki Lambé (Danses De Possédés) Solo De Percussions (2:16)
B1 Africa (2:58)
B2 Ma Konon (2:50)
B3 Yobaléma (CHant Pour Danse Des Femmes Du Nord Du Sénégal) (2:51)
B4 Yarabi (Chant D'Amour Malinké) (3:27)
B5 Casa Saby (3:10)
B6 Chant Des Pilons (1:57)
[Credits]
Lamine Konté (kola/vocals) Yvan Labé Jofe (percussion)
Liner Notes: Ariane Ségal, Designer: Dominique Michellier, Engineer and Photographer: Claude Morel

Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerrard: Sing Me Back Home - The DC Tapes 1965-1969

Free Dirt Records DIRT-CD-0087

Format: CD, Album
Country: US
Released: September 21, 2018
Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style: Folk & Coutry
[Tracklist]
01 Bye Bye Love (2:51)
02 Tell Me That You Love Me (2:33)
03 Seven Year Blues (2:04)
04 Cannonball Blues (2:09)
05 This Little Light of Mine (1:57)
06 James Alley Blues (4:23)
07 Little Darling Pal of Mine (2:26)
08 Are You All Alone (2:08)
09 No One to Welcome Me Home (2:57)
10 Let Me Fall (2:03)
11 Will You Miss Me (3:11)
12 No Telephone in Heaven (2:39)
13 I'll Wash Your Love from My Heart (1:48)
14 Hard Time Blues (3:03)
15 Why Not Confess (2:02)
16 Bound to Ride (1:37)
17 Sing Me Back Home (3:25)
18 The First Whippoorwill (Bonus Track) (2:26)
19 In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad) (Bonus Track) (2:56)
[Credits]
Recorded by Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerrard, Liner Notes: Erica Haskell and Maureen Loughran, Designer: MacDonald Studios, Engineer: Joseph Dejarnette, Photographer: Betsy Siggins
[Notes]
Beloved bluegrass trailblazers Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerrard are revered as pioneers of the form, who challenged the norm at a time when bluegrass remained largely in the purview of men. Nowhere is this more clear than on a set of newly unearthed recordings, Sing Me Back Home: The DC Tapes, 1965-1969, out September 21 on Free Dirt Records. Sourced from Alice's private archive and digitized with help from the Southern Folklife Collection at UNC Chapel Hill, the recordings invite us to witness the creative process of these towering figures—just two voices and a handful of instruments working out arrangements at home. Across 19 tracks the duo sings the classic country of The Carter Family, The Louvin Brothers, and Jimmie Rodgers; contemporary hits of the 1960s penned by Dolly Parton and Merle Haggard; and barn-burning traditional standards that blur the line between old-time and early bluegrass. Sing Me Back Home is a raw, unfiltered listen to Hazel & Alice at the height of their collaborative energy.

Helen Gene Purdy: The Laundry Story and the Bakery Story

Scholastic Records SC 7671

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: US
Released: 1960
Genre: Children's, Folk, World, & Country
Style: Story, Folk
[Tracklist]
The Laundry Story
A1 Checking Our List (2:02)
A2 Question And Answer Song (2:10)
A3 Sorting Song (1:00)
A4 Washer Song (0:50)
A5 Tumbler Song (1:13)
A6 Sheet Roller Song (1:13)
A7 Wrapping Song (0:48)
A8 Laundry Song (0:39)
The Bakery Story
B1 Bakery Song (2:21)
B2 Cupcake Song (1:24)
B3 Everything Is White (0:39)
B4 So Much - So Big (1:00)
B5 Dough Rising Song (1:21)
B6 Proofer Song (1:36)
B7 Oven Song (2:21)
B8 Cake Decorating Song (0:54)
B9 Dough Song (0:36)
[Credits]
Helen Gene Purdy (narration/vocals)
[Notes]
This recording is a follow-up to The Downtown Story with children’s storyteller Helen Gene Purdy. Alternating between speaking and singing, Purdy tells two stories involving a mother and her young child (girl in the first, boy in the second) in two common scenarios: sending clothing to the laundry to be cleaned and visiting the bakery. Purdy describes the several aspects of laundry preparation, such as sorting clothes by color, using the washer, and wrapping laundry for delivery. On a visit to the bakery, Purdy sings about the equipment frequently used for baking, including the proofer, the oven, and tubes used for decorating cakes. Complete lyrics and musical notation are included in the liner notes.

Cumberland Mountain Folksongs Sung by Paul Clayton

Folkways Records FP 2007

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: US
Released: 1957
Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style: Folk
[Tracklist]
A1 The Hustling Gamblers (2:53)
A2 Lord Bateman (2:57)
A3 Floyd Collins (3:28)
A4 Mush Toodin (0:48)
A5 The House Carpenter (2:18)
A6 Sugar Baby (1:44)
B1 Spotty and Dudie (1:19)
B2 Pretty Polly and False William (3:46)
B3 Once I Courted a Pretty Little Girl (1:16)
B4 Kathy Fiscus (1:55)
B5 Walk, Tom Wilson, Walk (0:43)
B6 Cold Winters Night (2:43)
B7 Texas Rangers (2:32)
[Credits]
Paul Clayton (guitar/dulcimer/vocals)
Illustration: Rosenhouse, Producer: Kenneth S. Goldstein
[Notes]
Collector Paul Clayton performs the songs and ballads he collected in the Cumberland Mountains of Virginia and Kentucky in the 1950s—a repertoire that includes both old English and Scottish ballads and recently-composed songs about events such as the cave-in that trapped and killed Floyd Collins in Kentucky’s Sand Cave in 1925.

Pete Seeger: American Industrial Ballads

Folkways Records FH 5251

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: US
Released: 1956
Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style: Folk
[Tracklist]
A01 Peg And Awl (2:29)
A02 The Blind Fiddler (1:17)
A03 Buffalo Skinners (2:44)
A04 Eight Hour Day (1:00)
A05 Hard Times In The Mill (2:16)
A06 Roll Down The Line (3:15)
A07 Hayseed Like Me (1:16)
A08 The Farmer Is The Man (1:43)
A09 Come All You Hardy Miners (2:00)
A10 He Lies In The American Land (2:01)
A11 Casey Jones (2:20)
A12 Let Them Wear Their Watches Fine (3:41)
A13 Weave Room Blues (0:40)
B01 Cotton Mill Colic (1:41)
B02 Seven Cent Cotton and Forty Cent Meat (1:58)
B03 Mill Mother's Lament (1:37)
0B4 Fare Ye Well, Old Ely Branch (2:11)
B05 Beans, Bacon And Gravy (2:56)
B06 The Death Of Harry Simms (2:14)
B07 Winnsboro Cotton Mills Blues (1:48)
B08 Ballad Of Barney Graham (1:48)
B09 My Children Are Seven In Number (3:59)
B10 Raggedy, Raggedy Are We (2:32)
B11 Pittsburgh Town (1:30)
B12 60% Parity (1:00)
[Credits]
Pete Seeger (banjo/guitar/vocals)
Recorder & Producer: Moses Asch, Liner Notes:Irwin Silber, Engineer: Alan Yoshida, Designer: Carol Hardy
[Notes]
Songs of struggle which emerged from the coal mines, textile mills and acres of farmland, and spoke of issues important to the American laborer. Twenty-four songs written about the unprecedented industrialization of the 19th century, including Peg and Awl, The Farmer is the Man, and Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues. Irwin Silber's notes provide a history of labor folk song and its role in American popular music. "Seeger's straightforward, sincere singing is accompanied by sparse, effective banjo and guitar...an important reissue." — Sing Out