On The Banks Of The Old Tennessee: Mr. & Mrs. J.W.Baker

Victor 20863-A

Recorded on August 3rd, 1927. Bristol, Tennessee (Bristol Sessions)
Flora Harris Baker (autoharp/vocals) J.W.Baker (guitar) J.E.Green (fiddle) J.H.Holbrook (banjo)

I Wasn't Born To Rock'n Roll: Roland White 1976

Tompkins Square TSQ-2400

Format: CD, Reissue, Album
Country: US
Released: 2010
Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style: Bluegrass
[Tracklist]
01 Kansas City Railroad Blues (1:37)
02 The Storms Are On The Ocean (3:40)
03 I'm Head Over Heels In Love With You (2:47)
04 Door Step Of Trouble (3:17)
05 If I Should Wander Back Tonight (2:47)
06 Texas Gales (1:28)
07 I Saw Your Face In The Moon (2:56)
08 Prisoner's Song (3:44)
09 Marathon (7:38)
     Love Come Home
     Nine Pound Hammer
     Shackles And Chains
     Live And Let Live
     Doin' My Time
     Sitting On Top Of The World
10 Same Old Blues Again (2:45)
11 Powder Creek (2:30)
12 Can't You Hear Me Calling (2:56)
13 She's Her Own Special Baby 2:22)
[Credits]
Roland White (mandolin/vocals) Alan Munde (banjo/guitar) Kenny Wertz (guitar/vocals) Dave Ferguson (fiddle) Roger Bush (bass)
[Notes]
Mandolinist Roland White is a bluegrass lifer. As a youth, he rounded up his siblings, including younger brother Clarence, to start the Kentucky Colonels, who helped spearhead the West Coast bluegrass revival in the ‘60s. Guitar hero Clarence went on to make country-rock with the Byrds, while Roland played with legends like Bill Monroe and Lester Flatt, as well as Country Gazette and the Nashville Bluegrass Band. But while White has released a few latter-day solo albums, his 1976 outing, I Wasn't Born to Rock ‘n Roll, remained in the shadowy world of lost vinyl for 34 years before finally being reissued. It's a solidly old-school effort, where White takes on tunes like Flatt & Scruggs' "If I Should Wander Back Tonight" and the Carter Family's "The Storms Are on the Ocean," as well as an epic-length (for bluegrass, anyway) medley entitled "Marathon," which includes pieces of everything from Jimmie Davis' "Shackles & Chains" to Merle Travis' "Nine Pound Hammer." There's a fresh, spontaneous feel to it all that's absent from too much 21st century bluegrass; while White never goes for any showy licks, he sings and plays with what sounds like every ounce of his heart and soul. He was on the front lines alongside some of the men who invented bluegrass, and he doesn't treat these trad tunes like museum pieces, but rather like urgent messages about the raw emotions at the center of American roots music. Of course, he probably felt closest to the lone original tune here, the minor-key instrumental "Powder Creek," written in the ‘60s with Clarence, who was killed when both brothers were hit by a car in 1973. -- AllMusic Review by James Allen

Pack Up Your Sorrows: The Bergerfolk

Folkways Records FTS-32420

Format: Vinyl, LP
Country: US
Released: 1978
Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style: Folk
[Tracklist]
A1 Pack Up Your Sorrows (2:20)
A2 Until It's Time For You To Go (3:25)
A3 Times Are Gettin' Hard Boys (2:20)
A4 Handsome Molly (2:00)
A5 Loving Hannah (3:00)
A6 Jesse James (2:01)
A7 Roll On Columbia (2:30)
A8 The Rivers Of Texas (3:10)
B1 Banks Of The Ohio (4:00)
B2 Ode To America (1:40)
B3 Universal Soldier (2:35)
B4 Fair Beauty Bride (2:00)
B5 Three White Gulls (2:25)
B6 This Land Is Your Land (3:05)
B7 The Old Man´s Courtship (2:00)
B8 Amazing Grace (3:12)
[Credits]
Steve (banjo), Phoebe, Claudia, Jennifer Anne, Margaret Louise, Jonathan Glenn and Emily-Kate Berger
[Notes]
In 1978, the folk singing family band The Bergerfolk recorded their fourth and final album for Folkways. Steve and Phoebe Berger, along with four of their children, perform their interpretation of 16 traditional and modern folk songs. The Bergerfolk open with Richard Farina’s "Pack Up Your Sorrows" and close with the 18th-century hymn "Amazing Grace." In between are traditional folk songs such as "Banks of the Ohio" and "Jessie James," and songs written by Woody Guthrie ("Roll On, Columbia" and "This Land Is Your Land") and by Buffy Sainte-Marie ("Until It’s Time for You to Go" and "Universal Soldier"). Lyrics, songwriting credits, and instrumentation for all tracks are included in the liner notes.

When the Work's All Done This Fall: Ernest V. Stoneman 1926

Edison Blue Amberol: 5188 / Edison Record: 11054

Dubbed from Edison Diamond Disc matrix 11054.
Year of release from Blue Amberol records: a discography, 1912-1929 / Allan Sutton, 2005.
Special Coll., Performing Arts Cylinder 8115
Durable URL: http://www.library.ucsb.edu/OBJID/Cylinder8115

Ron Turner

Folkways Records FW-33583

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: US
Released: 1973
Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style: Folk
[Tracklist]
A1 Rollin' to the Border (3:17)
A2 The Bold Desperado (3:50)
A3 Leavin' You Behind (2:31)
A4 The Lily of the West (2:55)
A5 The Katy (3:31)
B1 Meet Me in the Roadhouse (Tonight) (2:59)
B2 Darlin' Billie (3:00)
B3 The Hills of Tennessee (3:36)
B4 Foggy Mountain Blues (2:36)
B5 Annie's Alley (2:19)
B6 The Ballad of Bill Guthrie (4:52)
[Credits]
Ron Turner (guitar/vocals)
Photographer: Jolly Robinson, Designer: Ronald Clyne
[Notes]
Modern country troubadour Ron Turner recorded his only album in 1973. These 11 original songs tinged with a western music flavor range in subject matter from traveling ("Rollin' to the Border" and "The Hills of Tennessee") and bad men ("The Bold Desperado") to trains ("The Katy") and the trials of romance ("Leavin' You Behind" and "Meet Me at the Roadhouse"). Turner closes with "The Ballad of Bill Guthrie," a song about Woody Guthrie's oldest son. The liner notes consist of a short story, but no recording information.

Doc Watson and Gaither Carlton

Smithsonian Folkways Recordings SFW-40235

Format: CD, Album
Country: US
Released: May 29, 2020
Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style: Folk, Old Time
[Tracklist]
01 Double File (1:26)
02 Handsome Molly (2:08)
03 He's Coming to Us Dead (2:50)
04 Corrina (2:26)
05 Brown's Dream (1:44)
06 Groundhog (Blind Lemon's version) (2:40)
07 My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountains (2:30)
08 Bonaparte's Retreat (1:53)
09 Willie Moore (3:57)
10 The Blue Ridge Mountain Blues (2:58)
11 Goin' Back to Jericho (2:09)
12 Billy in the Low Ground (1:35)
13 Reuben's Train (2:37)
14 The Dream of the Miner's Child (3:23)
15 Groundhog (F.O.T.M. version) (2:09)
[Credits]
Doc Watson (guitar/vocals) Gaither Carlton (fiddle/banjo)
[Notes]
Doc Watson and Gaither Carlton is a new album of old-time music produced from archival recordings by two legendary musicians. These largely unheard tapes were recorded at Doc Watson's two earliest concerts, presented at Blind Lemon's, Greenwich Village, New York City on October 12th and 18th in 1962. Those shows were among the rare appearances Doc's father-in-law, fiddler Gaither Carlton, made outside of North Carolina. The instrumental pieces, including Gaither's signature tune "Double File," include intricate musical interactions developed through years of family music-making. On the songs and ballads, Doc's instantly recognizable baritone voice is accompanied by his own guitar and Gaither's fiddle, or by the traditional combination of fiddle and banjo. Shortly after these recordings were made, Doc Watson embarked on a career as one of America's premier acoustic guitarists, earning the National Medal of Arts and eight Grammy Awards.

The Wild and Reckless Hobo: Cowan Powers 1926

Edison Blue Amberol: 5131 / Edison Record: 10624

Dubbed from Edison Diamond Disc matrix 10624.
Special Coll., Performing Arts Cylinder 1395
Durable URL: http://www.library.ucsb.edu/OBJID/Cylinder1395
Photo (L-R) Charlie, Ada, Opha Lou, and father Fiddlin' Cowan Powers.

Hand Me Down My Walking Cane: Ernest V. Stoneman 1927

Edison Blue Amberol: 5297 / Edison Record: 11481

Ernest V. Stoneman (guitar/harmonica/vocals) Bolen Frost (banjo) Kahle Brewer (fiddle)
Edison Blue Amberol: 5297. Dubbed from Edison Diamond Disc matrix 11481.
Year of release from Blue Amberol records: a discography, 1912-1929 / Allan Sutton, 2005.
Special Coll., Performing Arts Cylinder 7362

My Old Kentucky Home: Edison Male Quartette 1902

Edison Gold Moulded Record: 2223

Notes:	An established title from the brown wax series (1896-1901)
	made over by the gold moulded process
	Year of release from "Edison Cylinder Records, 1889 - 1912" by Allen Koenigsberg, second edition (1987)
Collection:	Todd collection
Personal Name:	Foster, Stephen Collins, 1826-1864
Subjects:	Popular music 1901-1910 Vocal quartets
Original Item:	Special Coll., Performing Arts Cylinder 2488
Durable URL:	http://www.library.ucsb.edu/OBJID/Cylinder2488

Old Time Banjo Project

Elektra EKS-7276

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Stereo
Country: US
Released: 1964
Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style: Bluegrass, Folk
[Tracklist]
A01 Old Molly Hare (1:51)
A02 John Booker (2:01)
A03 Ramblin' Hood (1:19)
A04 Old Jimmy Sutton (2:36)
A05 Brighter Day (1:39)
A06 Waterbound (2:26)
A07 Chicken Reel (1:25)
A08 Pateroller Song (1:18)
A09 Johnson & Dixon (2:48)
A10 Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star (1:02)
A11 Skillet Good And Greasy (2:11)
A12 Reuben's Train (1:27)
B01 Mississippi Swayer (1:50)
B02 Spanish Fandango (0:52)
B03 Bill Mason (2:33)
B04 Colored Atristocracy (1:42)
B05 Soldier's Joy (1:13)
B06 John Johanna (3:18)
B07 John Henry (1:13)
B08 Don't You Cry Melinda (2:36)
B09 Banging Breakdown (0:58)
B10 I Don't Reckon That'll Happen (2:31)
B11 Last Chance (1:17)
B12 Paddie On The Turnpike (2:23)
[Credits]
John Cohen (banjo/guitar/vocals) Allan Block (fiddle/vocals) Bob Siggins (banjo/vocals) Peter Siegel (banjo/vocals) Bill Vanaver (banjo) Hank Schwartz (banjo) Winnie Winston (banjo) Ralph Smith (harmonica/dulcimer) Walter Gundy (harmonica) Penny Cohen (guitar) Rory Block (guitar) Eric Thompson (guitar) Jerome Martin (artwork)
[Notes]
Rare album featuring John Cohen, Hank Schwartz, Peter Siegel, Bob Siggins, Bill Vanaver, and Winnie Winston. This is an unplayed first pressing mono on the gold label, and other than a cut out hole bottom left corner and the barely visible residue from a price tag on the back.

Ry Cooder: My Name Is Buddy

Nonesuch 79961-2

CD, Album, Hardbound
Country: US
Released: 2007
Genre: Latin, Blues, Folk, World, & Country
Style: Country Blues, Country, Folk
[Tracklist]
01 Suitcase In My Hand (2:54)
02 Cat And Mouse (5:03)
03 Strike! (5:08)
04 J. Edgar (2:38)
05 Footprints In The Snow (3:07)
06 Sundown Town (2:57)
07 Green Dog (7:34)
08 The Dying Truck Driver (4:56)
09 Christmas In Southgate (3:28)
10 Hank Williams (4:09)
11 Red Cat Till I Die (3:08)
12 Three Chords And The Truth (5:02)
13 My Name Is Buddy (3:13)
14 One Cat, One Vote, One Beer (4:16)
15 Cardboard Avenue (4:34)
16 Farm Girl (3:55)
17 There's A Bright Side Somewhere (4:49)
[Credits]
Ry Cooder (guitar/Keyboards/mandolin/bass/vocals) Mike Seeger (banjo/fiddle/harmonica/jew's Harp) Roland White (mandolin/vocals) Van Dyke Parks (piano) Pete Seeger (fiddle) Flaco Jiménez (accordion) Paddy Moloney (whistle/uilleann pipes) Lefty Mouse (fiddle) Buddy Red Cat (guitar/vocals) Jon Hassell (trumpet) René Camacho (bass) Mike Elizondo (bass) Joachim Cooder (drums/percussion/tambourine) Bobby King, Terry Evans & Juliette Commagere (vocals)
Producer: Ry Cooder & Aisha Ayers, Engineers: Sunny D. Levine, Martin Pradler & Don Smith
[Notes]
'My Name Is Buddy', record by Ry Cooder is the thirteenth studio album by Ry Cooder. It is the second social-political concept album by Ry Cooder. Cooder has described it as the second in a trilogy that began with Chávez Ravine and concluded with I, Flathead. The album is packaged in a small booklet that includes a brief story and drawing to accompany each song. Both the songs and the stories relate tales from the viewpoint of the characters, Buddy Red Cat, Lefty Mouse, and Reverend Tom Toad. The liner notes ask listeners/readers to join them as they "Journey through time and space in days of labor, big bosses, farm failures, strikes, company cops, sundown towns, hobos, and trains... the America of yesteryear." -- Wikipedia

Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys: Live Recordings 1956-1969

Smithsonian Folkways SF CD 40063

Format: CD, Album
Country: US
Released: 1993
Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style: Bluegrass
[Tracklist]
01 Watermelon Hanging On The Vine (0:37)
02 Roanoke (1:19)
03 Brakeman's Blues (2:40)
04 Close By (2:26)
05 Kentucky Waltz (2:26)
06 Blue Grass Stomp (2:10)
07 Blue Moon Of Kentucky (2:00)
08 I'm Working On A Building (1:59)
09 Angels Rock Me To Sleep (1:53)
10 Wheel Hoss (2:08)
11 Watermelon Hanging On The Vine (0:31)
12 Katy Hill (3:06)
13 True Life Blues (2:40)
14 I Live In The Past (2:41)
15 Wayfaring Stranger (4:27)
16 Fire On The Mountain (3:37)
17 Blue Grass Breakdown (3:22)
18 Raw Hide (2:52)
19 Y'All Come (0:49)
20 Cotton-Eyed Joe (2:49)
21 Get Up John (3:14)
22 White House Blues (2:01)
23 Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms (2:27)
24 Kansas City Railroad Blues (2:51)
25 The Walls Of Time (4:30)
26 When He Reached Down His Hand For Me (2:44)
27 Monroe Family Segment (9:45)
[Credits]
Bill Monroe (mandolin/vocals)
Producer & Liner Notes: Ralph Rinzler, Photographer: David Gahr & Phil Zimmerman, Mastering Engineer: Alan Yoshida
[Notes]
"Howdy, howdy folks. We're glad to be back for another show here. As we do the numbers now, we're gonna call each fellow's name out so we can get right along with the show." And what a show. Bluegrass has always been a live-performance genre, on stage or in the studio, and Bill Monroe never sounded better on stage than during these heady years of the folk revival. He had something to share and to prove to his new audience, and he wouldn't meet them halfway, choosing instead his grittiest traditional material and singing, especially in the late '50s, with full, high yodel and wail. His voice mellowed into the '60s, but his band, including many of the best bluegrass pickers ever (Bill Keith, Peter Rowan, Richard Greene, and Bobby Hicks for starters), never gave quarter. To understand Bill Monroe and his various ensembles, one needs to hear his stage brilliance, and there's no better place to start than with these warm, clear live recordings. --Roy Kasten

American Folk Song Festival: Jean Thomas, The Traipsin' Woman

Folkways Records FA-2358

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: US
Released: 1960
Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style: Folk
[Tracklist]
A01 Introduction: Jean Thomas (3:15)
A02 Fox Horn / Cherokee Song of Welcome (medley): George Davidson, Florence Clark (1:48)
A03 I Love My Rooster: Marieda Perkins (0:37)
A04 Lord Lovell: Lucinda Perkins (2:15)
A05 Paper of Pins: Linda Brown & Donnie Stewart (2:17)
A06 Billy Boy: Donnie Stewart & Terry Perkins (1:28)
A07 Bonnie George Campbell: Margaret Caudill Hurst & Carolyn Margaret Hurst (1:34)
A08 Paw Paw Patch: Group of children (1:39)
A09 Love of Rosanna McCoy: Dave Varney (3:16)
A10 Ballad of Peace: Dave Varney (2:16)
A11 Warning Song: Rose Dory (1:54)
A12 Cambric Shirt: Diane Tincher & Margaret Winters (0:42)
A13 Keys of Canterbury: Ray Napier & Margaret Winters (2:38)
A14 Courtin' Song (Bachelor's Song): Pleaz Mobley & Olive Mobley (2:43)
A15 Give Me One More Day: Ruby Dean & The Journeymen's Quartet (3:06)
B01 Lord, You've Been So Good to Me: Aunt Alice Williams (2:02)
B02 Barbara Ellen (Barbara Allen): Rosie Day (2:56)
B03 Sally Goodin': George Davidson (0:35)
B04 Boatin' Up Sandy: George Davidson (0:33)
B05 The Prodigal Son: Aunt Dora Harmon (2:06)
B06 Civil War March: Aunt Dora Harmon (0:56)
B07 The Squire's Daughter: Lula Curry (1:49)
B08 Hi Said the Blackbird: Pleaz Mobley (1:49)
B09 Pretty Polly: Pleaz Mobley (2:16)
B10 Turkey in the Straw: Curley Smith & Bob Ramey (1:27)
B11 I'll Never Be Lonesome in Heaven: Lula Curry (2:46)
B12 Amazing Grace: Group of singers (1:49)
B13 Down in the Valley: Group of singers (2:49)
[Credits]
Producer: Jean Thomas
[Notes]
Created in 1931, the American Folk Song Festival helped Kentucky mountain singers share their music with the world. Perhaps more relevantly, it allowed the rest of the world to hear the music of these singers, including members of the Hatfield and McCoy families. This album was recorded in the 1950s, and features singers of all ages.

The Harvesters: Pastures of Plenty and Other Songs

Folkways Records FA-2406

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: US
Released: 1961
Genre:　Folk, World, & Country
Style: Folk
[Tracklist]
A1 This Land is My Land (2:20)
A2 A Gut Morgn (1:22)
A3 Pastures of Plenty (2:36)
A4 Red Rosy Bush (1:32)
A5 Muleskinner Blues (2:01)
A6 Run Come See (2:22)
A7 The Ox-Driving Song (2:24)
A8 Mrs. McGrath (3:30)
B1 House Carpenter (2:22)
B2 Na Kone Varanom (2:01)
B3 Sinner Man (2:12)
B4 Virgin Mary (1:45)
B5 Liebster Meiner (2:09)
B6 Orcha Bamibar (2:29)
B7 Walking in Jerusalem (2:33)
B8 Que Bonita Bandera (1:33)
B9 Roll Over (0:46)
[Credits]
Ethel Raim (vocals) Joyce Bittman (guitar/vocals) Walter Raim (guitar/banjo) Ronnie Gluck (accordion/harmonica/guitar/vocals) Jerry Silverman (guitar/mandolin) Roger Horn (bass)
[Notes]
The Harvesters, a semi-professional group whose members hail from New York, recorded this album during a singing holiday in California in 1959. Here, they sing songs in Yiddish, Hebrew, and Spanish, as well as beloved favorites like Woody Guthrie's "This Land is My Land" and "Pastures of Plenty."

Norman Blake & Tony Rice 2

Rounder Records CD-0266

Format: CD, Album
Country: US
Released: 1990
Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style: Bluegrass
[Tracklist]
01 It's Raining Here This Morning (3:37)
02 Lost Indian (3:06)
03 Georgie (2:49)
04 Father's Hall (2:17)
05 The Two Soldiers (4:35)
06 Blackberry Blossom (3:14)
07 Eight More Miles To Louisville (2:46)
08 Lincoln's Funeral Train (The Sad Journey To Springfield) (4:14)
09 Molly Bloom (2:39)
10 D-18 Song (Thank You, Mr. Martin) (3:58)
11 Back In Yonder's World (3:54)
12 Bright Days (2:14)
13 Salt Creek (3:10)
[Credits]
Norman Blake (guitar/mandolin/vocals) Tony Rice (guitar/vocals) Doc Watson (guitar) Nancy Blake (mandolin/cello/vocals) Mark Schatz (bass)
[Notes]
Norman Blake and Tony Rice 2 is an album by American guitarists Norman Blake and Tony Rice, released in 1990. It is their second album together. They previously released Blake & Rice in 1987. Doc Watson appears as a guest. Recorded at Bias Recording Co., Springfield, Virginia.

Country Music: A Film by Ken Burns

Country Music - Ken Burns from Fanny country girl on Vimeo.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Country Music is a documentary miniseries produced by Ken Burns and written by Dayton Duncan that premiered on PBS on September 15, 2019. The eight-part series chronicles the history and prominence of country music in American culture.[5][6]Burns announced the miniseries in January 2014, with a projected airdate in 2018. Burns cited his ongoing work on other documentary projects as having affected progress on the series. Writer Dayton Duncan explained that the goal of the series was to demonstrate that country music "isn't and never was just one type of music. It was always this amalgam of American music and it sprang from a lot of very different roots and then, as it grew, it sprouted many different branches, but they're all connected." Burns filmed a total of 175 hours of interviews with 101 artists and other personalities for the series; some were recorded as early as 2012, and some of the interviewees (such as Little Jimmy Dickens, Roy Clark, Ralph Stanley, and Merle Haggard) died over the course of production. (Read more...)

Dock Boggs: Legendary Singer & Banjo Player

Folkways Records FA 2351

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: US
Released: 1964
Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style: Appalachian Music, Country Blues
[Tracklist]
A1 Down South Blues (2:11)
A2 Country Blues (3:55)
A3 Pretty Polly (2:56)
A4 Coal Creek March (1:57)
A5 My Old Horse Died (1:48)
A6 Wild Bill Jones (2:14)
A7 Rowan Country Crew (6:15)
A8 New Prisoner's Song (2:57)
B1 Oh Death (3:22)
B2 Prodigal Son (3:57)
B3 Mother's Advice (3:43)
B4 Drunkard's Lone Child (4:10)
B5 Bright Sunny South (3:41)
B6 Mistreated Mama Blues (1:55)
B7 Harvey Logan (3:33)
[Credits]
Dock Boggs (banjo/vocals)
Recorder and Editor: Mike Seeger, Liner Notes: Ralph Rinzler, Designer: A. Doyle Moore, Photographer: Dan Seeger
[Notes]
Moran Lee "Dock" Boggs (1898–1971) was an old-time singer, songwriter and banjo player. His unique style of singing and banjo playing combined elements of Appalachian folk music and African-American blues. A self-taught musician, Dock recorded about eights sides of music between 1927 and 1929. The Great Depression and domestic issues sidelined his musical career until he was "rediscovered" by Mike Seeger (The New Lost City Ramblers) and encouraged to perform at the American Folk Festival in Asheville, NC in 1963. This release contains several songs from that Festival including "Oh Death" and "Country Blues," a song he had originally recorded in the 1920s.

Lucinda Williams: West

Lost Highway B0006938-02

Format: CD, Album
Country: US
Released: 2007
Genre: Rock, Folk, World, & Country
Style: Country Rock
[Tracklist]
01 Are You Alright? (5:18)
02 Mama You Sweet (4:44)
03 Learning How To Live (5:11)
04 Fancy Funeral (4:14)
05 Unsuffer Me (5:40)
06 Everything Has Changed (3:38)
07 Come On (4:53)
08 Where Is My Love? (5:22)
09 Rescue (5:34)
10 What If (5:41)
11 Wrap My Head Around That (9:06)
12 Words (3:32)
13 West (5:44)
[Credits]
Lucinda Williams (guitar/vocals) Bill Frisell, Doug Pettibone (guitar) Jenny Scheinman (violin) Rob Brophy (viola) Tim Loo (cello) Tony Garnier (bass) Jim Keltner (drums/percussion) Rob Burger (piano/organ/accordion)
Producer: Tom Overby and Hal Willner, Photographer: Margaret Malandruccolo, Annie Leibovitz and Alan Messer, Designer: Karen Naff
[Notes]
The title of West reflects the change in Lucinda Williams' life as she moved to Los Angeles. It also reflects what had been left behind. Williams is nothing if not a purely confessional songwriter. She continually walks in the shadowlands to bring out what is both most personal yet universal in her work, to communicate to listeners directly and without compromise. If Essence and World Without Tears took chances and stated different sides of the songwriter and her world, West jumps off the ledge into the sky of freedom, where anything can be said without worry of consequence and where anything can be said in any way she wishes. It's entirely appropriate that West was released on the day before Valentine's Day 2007, for it's a record about the heart, about its volumes of brokenness, about its acceptance of its state, and how, with the scars still visible to the bearer, it opens wider and becomes the font of love itself. But the journey is a dark one. First there's the music and the production. Williams chose Hal Willner to produce West. Williams, who'd been writing a lot, demoed some songs before she brought in Willner. He stripped down the demos but kept the scratch vocals. From there, the pair created the rest of the album together, never re-recording Williams' initial vocals. The vocals were accompanied by her guitar playing; Willner wanted her inherent phrasing and rhythmic flow. Willner also brought his own crew to play with Williams. This collaboration -- as unlikely as it might seem on the surface -- results in something utterly different and yet unmistakably Lucinda Williams. West is a warm, inviting, yet very dark record about grief, the loss of love, anger at a lover who cannot deliver, and embracing the possibility of change. In other words, it's not without its redemptive moments. Williams has put all of her qualities on display at once with an unbridled and unbowed sense of adventure here on her eighth album. She, her bandmates, and Willner have come up with exactly what pop music needs: a real work of art based in contemporary forms and feelings. West is an album that will no doubt attract more than a few new fans, and will give old ones, if they are open enough, a recording to relish. -- AllMusic Review by Thom Jurek

Hot Blast: Contemporary Songs Written and Sung by Peggy Seeger and Ewan MacColl

Folkways Records FW 8710

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Stereo
Country: US
Released: 1978
Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style: Folk
[Tracklist]
A1 Blast Against Blackguards (4:09)
A2 The Tenant Farmer (3:35)
A3 The Pay-Up Song (5:01)
A4 Emily (5:38)
A5 Cut Price Hero (3:15)
A6 You And I (3:05)
A7 Legal Illegal (4:13)
B1 The Invader (5:27)
B2 The Father's Song (2:23)
B3 White Wind (18:37)
[Credits]
Peggy Seeger (concertina/guitar/vocals) Ewan MacColl (vocals) Bruce Turner (clarinet) Calum MacColl (guitar/psaltery/dulcimer/bongos/tin whistle/kalimba/backing vocals) Neil MacColl (guitar/mandolin/backing vocals) Jim Carroll, Kirsty MacColl, Pat MacKenzie (backing vocals)
Photographer: Walker Evans, Designer: Ronald Clyne, Engineer: Stephen Hardy
[Notes]
Political themes run powerfully through this 1978 recording, written and performed by husband and wife Ewan MacColl (1915–1989) and Peggy Seeger (b. 1935). Songs cover apartheid, domestic abuse, and worker's rights. MacColl and Seeger point out that writing and singing political songs is an age-old tradition, and they hope that the songs on this album will be useful weapons in the arsenal of those who are "against the brutal exploitation of the working-class, against the senseless waste of human and natural resources and against the pernicious disease of racism." Liner notes include song lyrics for each of the tracks.