The Winding Stream - The Carters, The Cashes And The Course Of Country Music

Omnivore Recordings – OVCD-150

Format: CD, Soundtrack, Compilation
Country: US
Released: 2015
Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style: Bluegrass, Folk, Country
[Tracklist]
01 Bear Creek Blues: John Prine (4:27)
02 Lord, I'm in Your Care: Grey Delisle and Murry Hammond (1:39)
03 Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow Tree: The Original Carter Family (2:56)
04 Single Girl, Married Girl: The Original Carter Family (2:48)
05 Worried Man Blues: George Jones (3:14)
06 Hello Stranger: Carolina Chocolate Drops (2:46)
07 Keep on the Sunny Side: The Original Carter Family (0:29)
08 Cannon Ball Blues: The Original Carter Family (1:49)
09 I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes: The Original Carter Family (3:02)
10 Wildwood Flower: Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters (2:43)
11 Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Johnny Cash and the Carter Sisters (3:20)
12 In the Shadow of Clinch Mountain: Murry Hammond (2:57)
13 Sweet Fern: Maybelle and Sara Carter (2:38)
14 Gold Watch and Chain: The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band With Kris Kristofferson (4:07)
15 Step Light Ladies: Home Folks, Joe Carter and John McCutcheon (2:59)
16 The Winding Stream: Rosanne Cash (4:33)
[Notes]
The Winding Stream is a story about the family at the heart of American roots music, the Carters and the Cashes. Starting with the Original Carter Family–A.P., Sara and Maybelle–the film traces the trio’s early musical success, the transformation of the act into The Carter Sisters, June Carter’s marriage to legend Johnny Cash, and the efforts of the present-day Carter family to keep the music alive. A favorite at SXSW and Lincoln Center’s Sound + Vision Festival, this award-winning documentary features Johnny Cash, Sheryl Crow, Mike Seeger, Rhiannon Giddens, and many more.

Carolina Chocolate Drops: Leaving Eden

Nonesuch 7559-79627-1

Format: Vinyl, LP, CD, Album
Country: US
Released: 2012
Genre: Rock, Blues, Folk, World, & Country
Style: Country, Piedmont Blues, Folk
[Tracklist]
01 Riro's House (2:02)
02 Kerr's Negro Jig (1:09)
03 Ruby, Are You Mad At Your Man? (3:46)
04 Boodle-De-Bum-Bum (4:03)
05 Country Girl (3:22)
06 Run Mountain (2:01)
07 Leaving Eden (4:36)
08 Read 'Em John (1:54)
09 Mahalla (1:54)
10 West End Blues (3:02)
11 Po' Black Sheep (3:21
12 I Truly Understand That You Love Another Man (2:34)
13 No Man's Mama (4:00)
14 Briggs' Corn Shucking Jig / Camptown Hornpipe (2:54)
15 Pretty Bird (4:04)
[Credits]
Rhiannon Giddens (banjo/fiddle/vocals) Hubby Jenkins (banjo/guitar/mandolin/vocals) Adam Matta (bass/beatbox/tambourine/vocals) Dom Flemons (banjo/drums/guitar/jug/quills/vocals) Leyla McCalla (cello/vocals)
Producer: Buddy Miller, Managers: Dolphus Ramseur, Chris Colburn, Timothy Duffy, Designers: Al Quattrocchi, Jeff Smith, Photographers: Bill Steber, Leyla Mccalla, Engineers: Mike Poole, Gordon Hammond, Robert C. Ludwig
[Notes]
The Carolina Chocolate Drops, a contemporary string band trio who, under the watchful eye of mentor Joe Thompson, re-created the look, feel, and sound of a 19th century black North Carolina string, fiddle, and jug band ensemble, crafted their first studio recordings into perfect facsimiles of the group's influences. The Drops were always at their best on-stage, however, where the gospel stomp of those mountain rhythms and the kinetic energy the band gave off completed the feel of a living, breathing history lesson. Those old string bands could turn on a dime, and the Chocolate Drops reproduced that art, turning their live sets into a black string band revival show. The studio albums felt like they were a bit encased in glass compared to the live performances. For this outing, however, the Chocolate Drops found the perfect producer in Buddy Miller, who recorded the band live in a single room, and the result is a wonderfully immediate album that feels like a Saturday night house party-- complete with moonlight, dust flying from the carpet under the feet of dancers, and crickets and night bird calls out the open windows. The sound breathes, and the Drops shine. Traditional pieces like "Po' Black Sheep" become stomping revivals, born again in a new century. "Ruby, Are You Mad at Your Man?" becomes a clawhammer banjo-driven mountain blues, with Rhiannon Giddens' vocal making it seem like Janis Joplin just wandered into the party, a feat she repeats with the album's marvelous last track, "Pretty Bird" (complete with crickets in the background). The Carolina Chocolate Drops may be intent on reproducing a sound from over a century ago, but they do an amazing job of translating it into the 21st century without diminishing it. This set feels like a Saturday night throwdown under the summer stars. It almost seems timeless, perhaps because it defies time. (AllMusic Review by Steve Leggett)

Rhiannon Giddens: Freedom Highway

Nonesuch 558805-2

Format: CD, Album
Country: US
Released: Feb 24, 2017
Genre: Jazz, Blues, Folk, World, & Country
Style: Bluegrass, Gospel, Folk, Celtic
[Tracklist]
01 At The Purchaser's Option (4:16)
02 The Angels Laid Him Away (2:31)
03 Julie (4:28)
04 Birmingham Sunday (6:13)
05 Better Get It Right The First Time (3:23)
06 We Could Fly (4:53)
07 Hey Bébé (3:19)
08 Come Love Come (5:20)
09 The Love We Almost Had (4:17)
10 Baby Boy (4:29)
11 Following The North Star (1:56)
12 Freedom Highway (4:47)
[Credits]
Design: Jeri Heiden, Executive Producer: David Bither, Co-producer: Rhiannon Giddens and Dirk Powell, Management: John Peets, Recorded by: Eric Adcock and Nolan Thies, Mastered by: Bob Ludwig and Robert C. Ludwig
[Notes]
Freedom Highway, Grammy Award–winner Rhiannon Giddens' follow-up to her highly praised debut album Tomorrow Is My Turn, is out today on Nonesuch Records.

David Holt’s State of Music: Series Preview

David Holt's State of Music: Series Preview from Will & Deni Films on Vimeo.

David Holt & Rhiannon Giddens

Masters of traditional music share tunes and stories with four-time Grammy winner David Holt on location in the Southern mountains. Featured artists: guitar phenom Bryan Sutton, multi-faceted musician and ballad singer Carolina Chocolate Drops, breakout star Rhiannon Giddens of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, fiddle virtuoso Bruce Molsky, African-American gospel torch bearers Lena Mae Perry and Wilbur Tharpe (performing as The Branchettes), and bluegrass supergroup Balsam Range. “David Holt’s State of Music” premiered on North Carolina's statewide public television network, UNC-TV, in January of 2015. It has since been re-broadcast by UNC-TV and also by Blue Ridge Public TV in Virginia. It was re-edited as a series of three half-hour episodes, and the series was broadcast by UNC-TV on successive Sundays in September. More episodes are being shot in the fall of 2015 and spring of 2016. “David Holt’s State of Music” will be distributed for broadcast nationally by PBS in March of 2016.