NEWSLETTER #133
American Folk Music
The Even Dozen Jug Band ->
The Weavers
| THE EVEN DOZEN JUG
BAND |
Collector's Choice 263 |
The Even Dozen Jug Band |
● CD $13.98 |
Reissue of 1964 album by group that included Stefan
Grossman, Maria Muldaur, John Sebastian, David Grisman and others.
Includes take Your Fingers Off It/ Mandolin King Rag/ Evolution Mama/ I
Don't Love Nobody/ France Blues/ Original Colossal Drag Rag and more.
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| THE ROOFTOP SINGERS |
Vanguard 79749 |
Best Of The Vanguard Years |
● CD $15.98 |
27 tracks, 65 minutes, recommended Despite a memorable,
chart-topping single and critical acclaim rarely accorded to '60s pop-folk
acts, the Rooftop Singers never approached the success of its
lesser-talented, better-known contemporaries. Originally organized for a
one-shot Vanguard album, former Weaver Erik Darling built the group around
folk-blues aficionado Bill Svanoe and jazz chanteuse Lynne Taylor. Duke
Ellington bassist Wendell Marshall and Prestige Records' house drummer
Bobby Donaldson reinforced the Rooftops' jazz undercurrent. Their
retooling of Gus Cannon's Walk Right In became an unexpected hit in
November 1962, launching the group professionally and spawning a brief
twelve-string guitar mania. Blending elements of Lead Belly, the Golden
Gate Quartet, Blind Willie Johnson, Peggy Lee and Lambert, Hendricks &
Ross, the Rooftops' style and repertoire were almost certainly too
cerebral to appeal to that era's "hootenanny" audiences. Ironically, the
elements that doomed the group's commercial potential forty years ago now
contribute to its timelessness. This anthology culls most of the tracks
from the trio's first two (and best) albums in pristine stereo, along with
five previously unissued songs and a rocking twelve-string guitar
instrumental that only appeared on a single. Highlights include R.C.
Frog (a Ray Charles-influenced take on Froggie Went A-Courtin'),
Tom Cat/ You Don't Know/ It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That
Swing), a newly discovered Taylor solo of Wild Mountain Thyme
and a jazzy Working on the Railroad. Dave Samuelson provides a
brief overview of the Rooftop Singers' meteoric career. (AK)
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| VARIOUS ARTISTS |
Shout Factory DK 30216 |
Folk Hits of the 60s |
● CD $18.98 |
OK, people, you want 'em, here they are - Woody Guthrie,
Gale Garnett, Glen Yarbrough, The Sandpipers, The Kingston Trio, The
Wonder Who?, We Five You, Joan Baez, Trini Lopez, The Village Stompers and
ten others. (no Peter Paul & Mary).
JOAN BAEZ: There but for Fortune/ HARRY BELAFONTE: Banana Boat Song/ THE
BROTHERS FOUR: Greenfields/ JUDY COLLINS: Both Sides Now/ BOBBY DARIN: If
I Were a Carpenter/ GALE GARNETT: We'll Sing in the Sunshine/ WOODY
GUTHRIE: This Land Is Your Land/ THE KINGSTON TRIO: Tom Dooley/ TRINI
LOPEZ: If I Had a Hammer/ Lemon Tree/ THE NEW CHRISTY MINSTRELS: Green,
Green/ THE ROOFTOP SINGERS: Walk Right In/ THE SANDPIPERS: Guantanamera/
THE SERENDIPITY SINGERS: Don't Let the Rain Come Down/ THE TOKENS: The
Lion Sleeps Tonight/ THE VILLAGE STOMPERS: Washington Square/ WE FIVE: You
Were on My Mind/ THE WEAVERS: Goodnite Irene/ THE WONDER WHO?: Don't Think
Twice/ GLEN YARBROUGH: Baby the Rain Must Fall
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| VARIOUS ARTISTS |
Varese 66427 |
In The Wind: The Folk Music Collection |
● CD $13.98 |
A sort of companion piece to the Shout Factory folk hits
collection, this one also leads off with Woody Guthrie doing "This Land Is
Your Land," but these are for the most part earlier recordings
(1956-1965), and a lot of them aren't the pop hit versions of the songs.
Includes Odetta, Vince Martin & The Tarriers, The Kingston Trio, The
Brothers Four, Hoyt Axton, The New Christy Minstrels, Phil Ochs, Rod
McKuen and more.
HOYT AXTON: Greenback Dollar/ THE BROTHERS FOUR: Greenfields/ JUDY
COLLINS: Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)/ WOODY
GUTHRIE: This Land Is Your Land/ BURL IVES: Big Rock Candy Mountain/ THE
KINGSTON TRIO: Worried Man/ THE LIMELITERS: John Henry, the Steel Driving
Man/ VINCE MARTIN & THE TARRIERS: Cindy Oh Cindy/ BARRY MCGUIRE: One By
One/ ROD MCKUEN: Advice to Folk Singers/ THE CHAD MITCHELL TRIO: Blowin'
in the Wind/ THE NEW CHRISTY MINSTRELS: Saturday Night/ THE NEW
JOURNEYMEN: Bound for Higher Ground/ PHIL OCHS: I'll Be There/ ODETTA:
He's Got the Whole World in His Hands/ JIMMY ROGERS WITH ROD MCKUEN:
Two-Ten, Six-Eighteen (Doesn't Anybody Know My Name)/ PETE SEEGER: Where
Have All the Flowers Gone/ THE TARRIERS: Banana Boat Song
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| THE WEAVERS |
Vanguard 79707 |
Rarities From The Vanguard Vault |
● CD $15.98 |
20 tracks, 49 minutes, recommended After reissuing the
same Weavers material time and time again, Vanguard Records finally
compiled an album that fans of this beloved folk quartet will embrace.
Rarities from the Vanguard Vault features eight songs previously
unavailable on compact disc, two studio tracks making their stereo debuts,
and ten previously unissued masters. Half the cuts spotlight the original
quartet of Ronnie Gilbert, Lee Hays, Fred Hellerman and Pete Seeger; the
others feature Seeger's replacement, Erik Darling. Seeger's tracks mostly
come from a marathon August 1957 session that Vanguard parceled across
three albums across a ten-year period. There's More Pretty Girls Than
One/ Goin' Down That Road Feelin' Bad/ Deep Blue Sea and Hey Lilee
Lilee Lo make their first appearance here; Joshua Fit the Battle of
Jericho only appeared on a 1967 budget LP. A September 1957 mono
session slated for a never-issued single yielded a definitive Kisses
Sweeter Than Wine and Lee Hays' lively The Crawdad Song. Erik
Darling's April 1958 arrival revitalized the quartet. His sessions include
Why-O/ Dry Weather Houses and Rookoombine, three previously
unheard Caribbean songs originally intended for "Travelling On with the
Weavers." Dave Samuelson's notes shed light on this little-documented
transitional period in the Weavers' career. (AK)
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