Traditional singing and tall tales - the best of the genre
594115
I met Hamper McBee,got drunk with him, and listened to him tell yarns and sing his songs and none did it better. I was in Tubby's right outside Monteagle TN one Sunday night in the 1960s when someone dynamited the well house. There was a fearful noise, everyone ran out, and it smelled like someone had lit a thousand kitchen matches. I jumped over the counter and poured two quick pitchers of beer and Hamper sat there unconcerned until I finished and followed me out. He was a homegrown character from the Southern mountains, as common as an old shoe, and his own man, an individual from another time when Tennessee was the old Southwest frontier. God, he was a handful. These tales, some " real common" as my Mama used to say, are also Hamper at his best and his singing is fine mountain singing, a throwback to an era before radio when folks entertained themselves. Hamper knew a lot of the old tunes, Childe Ballads, border ballads that arrived in this country from England and Scotland - lingering for two centuries in the isolation of the Southern highlands. There is another set of his songs, out of print (I transferred them from an old LP) of Hamper singing (accompanied on some songs by Guy Carawan) called Cumberland Moonshiner. It is less ribald but has Hamper talking about making whiskey and singing in that unmistakable voice. Listening to Hamper was the real-deal, he was not an archivist but a real person who had stepped out of time like Rip Van Winkle. I last ran into him at the Folk-Life fesitival in DC sitting beside a real whiskey still and we swapped yarns for a long spell. I still miss him.
1617285
This wonderful collection of songs is sung by the little known, but angelically beautiful voice of Connie Dover - possibly the finest singer of this kind of material in the world. Connie is a Missouri-based singer who combines a love of ancient Scottish and Irish ballads and other traditional songs, with an interest in her 'cowgirl' roots as an American who has spent time as a trail cook on the cattle ranches of the west listening to the folk sounds of America's past. The musical fruit of these varied tastes, is the diverse range of the songs recorded on this CD. There's Celtic folk, there's cowboy songs, there's even the spiritual 'Ubi Caritas' - a 20th century melody penned to the words of a 9th century Gregorian chant. What is remarkable is how well these pieces all gel together - but then these are great songs, and great songs sound good whatever the context in which they are heard.
Every single one of the tracks on 'The Wishing Well' is worthy of mention, so it's difficult to select favourites. Perhaps Connie's voice is best suited to those gentle Scottish ballads, the pretty 'LADDIE, LIE NEAR ME' and the very beautiful 'WILLIE OF WINSBURY' (I'm glad it's very beautiful because it's also very long!) Another really nice song is 'HUGH THE GRAEME'. However, if Celtic ballads are a forte of Connie's, the two cowboy pieces on this CD, 'WHERE SHALL I GO?' and the lovely 'THE COLORADO TRAIL' are equally good, and splendidly compliment the old world pieces. 'SUMMER BEFORE THE WAR' is another song from a very different era written around a very different theme, and yet again it is first rate material. So is the aforementioned 'UBI CARITAS'. Ironically one of the very best tracks on this CD of vocal delights is the sole instrumental piece 'WESTON' - but that is no reflection at all on the quality of Connie Dover's voice. Rather it is a testament to her skills as a composer, for Connie wrote this melody about the Missouri river town herself. If I must choose a favourite piece however, then it has to be the title track. 'THE WISHING WELL' is the song in which Connie's voice achieves it's greatest expression. This superb song is well worth the price of the CD by itself.
I cannot nitpick over this CD as there is nothing to nitpick about. It's beautiful, and Connie Dover's voice was a revelation to me when I first heard it. This was the first CD I ever purchased which moved me sufficiently to inspire me to write a review; I wouldn't lightly award five stars to anybody, but this unison of singer and songs in perfect harmony certainly deserves five (or six if I could!) and if I can persuade just one person to enrich their musical life by purchasing this CD, then it will have been well worthwhile. Buy it!!!
3041622
'Maria T' greatest virtues reside in the clever interraction, facilitated by digital technology, of interweaving contemporary string work with the famed Romanian folk singer of fifty plus years ago, Maria Tanase. Balanescu has imaginatively complemented the melodic lines of the original folk tunes, and where Maria doesn't appear, the results are pleasant, if not startling. The opening track is an accurate index of thge remainder, hypnotic in its slowly built, repetitive stanzas. It's with a sigh of relief that Tanase's haunting vocals eventually appears mid way through proceedings. 'Mountain Call' is by far the most attractive number, and the reason I purchased the CD. It's an easy jump to imagine Tanase standing to deliver this from one side of a verdant valley. Has anyone heard of Leda Velladares, a Brazillian folk collector/singer I met in the early 80s in Paris? Tanase has the South-American's commanding depth of register and interpretive powers. For me, Balanescu would have improved this effort by slipping this chantreuse into more of his compositions.
4174345
For anyone who loves fairy tales, "Folktales from Bengal" is a must have addition to your collection. Wise and sly at times, and full of the truths that make people treasure old tales and fables, these are fresh to most Western readers. Soham Saha has done an excellent job of bringing these enjoyable works into English.
686033
This commentary was used to review the CD version of "The McGarrigle Hour". The only added comment necessary is the addition of other musicians like Linda Rhonstadt and Emmylou Harris make this more of a harmonic delight than the already great harmonies on the CD.

Over the past period this writer has reviewed the music of Loudon Wainwright III, the late Utah Phillips, his very much alive old friend Rosalie Sorrels and now the McGarrigle Sisters, Kate and Anna, (including, when appropriate, their family and kin musical entourage). What joins this reviewer and this gathering of folk giants together is one person and one place, Lena and Caf Lena's coffeehouse in Saratoga, New York. That place was (and today continues to be on a lesser scale) the Mecca in upstate New York for the gathering of much folk talent, folk wisdom and just plain whimsy, including the talents of most of those mentioned above.

I know Saratoga and its environs well and if New York City's Greenwich Village and Cambridge's Harvard Square are better known in the 1960s folk revival geography that locale can serve as the folk crowd's summer watering hole (and refuge from life's storms all year round). From the descriptions of the caf `s lifestyle and of the off-beat personality of Lena, as presented in a PBS documentary about her and the place many years ago, it also was a veritable experiment in ad hoc communal living). Thus, I know the names and work of the McGarrigles well. For those not so fortunate, and to bring the younger crowd up to date, Kate McGarrigle is Rufus Wainwright's mother (and Loudon Wainwright, of course, is his father). That will tell much about Rufus' pedigree.

But back to Kate and Anna. Of course they came out of Canada, like compatriots Joni Mitchell and Neil Young, and placed their stamp on a late portion of the folk revival, particularly with their beautiful harmonies, their great instrumental versatility and their songwriting replete with many memory-induced songs from their old country (including some very nice traditional songs in French). Those memory songs, perhaps, are their trademark-covering and creating a certain kind of folk music that is very traditionally driven without being maudlin as many of the very early songs in the North American Songbook tended to be. And their lyrics and melodies backed by a wide range of instruments from the banjo to the fiddle blend very nicely together.

I will give one example, the one that caught my ear long ago before I knew much of Lena and Caf Lena. The McGarrigle song "Mendocino" (out in Pacific California) is written in honor of Lena. Lena, as mentioned above, was very troubled in many ways, although something of a fairy godmother to the upstate New York folk scene. One single line of "Mendocino" captures Lena's turmoil very concisely- "never had the blues from whence I came, in New York state I caught`em". That line in combination with the almost ethereal melody line that evokes the spray of the ocean gives just the right sense about the plight of that troubled lady. This is the kind of thoughtful presentation that dominates their working ethos. Listen up.

Kate and Anna McGarrigle (and friends, family, etc) have gone all out to give an entertaining radio-like hear at many parts of the American (or better, North American) Songbook. Old Tin Pan Alley tunes, Cole Porter and Irving Berlin, some Broadway numbers, traditional folk numbers, late 1950s rock and so on. Oh ya, some Kate and Anna McGarrigle too. Sticks outs here- of course the above-mentioned "Mendocino", Berlin's "What'll I Do", Stephan Foster's "Gentle Annie", the Sonny James classic "Young Love" and an incredible group harmony on "Johnny's Gone To Hilo". Nice stuff here.
3982388
This is an excellent series and the best by far that I know of for anyone interested in Greek folkmusic.  I own all fourteen discs and each one gets five stars.  Some of the especially good things about this series are:

1)  They are all new recordings (1990s) with very clear sound, better than some of those old ones from the 30s you can barely make out.

2)  They're recorded by professional Greek musicologists and the performers are from each locale highlighted (except, for example, Cappadocia, where the singers are descendants of Cappadocian Greeks).  The language ranges from pretty close to standard Athenian to fairly heavy dialect.

3)  There's a nice introduction and a full text of all the songs (including even some alternate lines), and there's a complete English translation of all of this, which is extremely handy for anyone learning Greek.

4)  The aesthetic quality of the songs is very good and they've picked the best versions to record.  True, many of the songs are very strange to western ears, but you can get into them if you give them a chance, and you'll be glad you did.

I have all the volumes in this set and I'm very very pleased with every one of them.  Not only is the music excellent, but the singing and the words are great and often quite moving.  It's good to know that Greek folklorists are finally getting on the ball and recording the great wealth of songs (and stories) that this brilliant people produces.
3164839
I have only heard two recordings of this work, but overall I find this one more satisfying than the other. The Tallis Scholars are a small male/female group who sing superbly and are nicely recorded here.  The only reservation is that the performance, while serenely beautiful and sonorous, lacks some of the drama that seems to me to be inherent in the music. All the same, a good choice, this superb late Renaissance polyphonic work.
4165756
Dear Music Appreciators,

VOICE OF AGES is a joyful 50th anniversary celebration and a gift from The Chieftains to their fans and lovers of traditional Irish music around the world.  The album is not purely traditional Irish music, but every song has some special quality to link it to the spirit of The Chieftains and what they've been about for the last fifty years.  As a collaborative album this is a chance to expose world music fans to some of the finest musical artists working outside of the top forty today, and to expose fans of those artists to The Chieftains.

The album includes seventeen songs across fifteen tracks, eleven of which are considered traditional, and those that are not are wrapped in traditional sounding arrangements.

Dylan fans will be interested (happily or sadly - you know how those Dylanphiles can be) to hear independent lit rockers The Decemberists perform "When the Ship Comes In,"  backed by The Chieftains.  It has been nearly fifty years since Dylan and Joan Baez performed that song at The March on Washington.

Fans of recent Grammy-winning act The Civil Wars will relish the Americana duo's original song contribution to this album.

Of course the Bon Iver track will draw deserved attention.  He's a popular and a busy boy these days...

19th century American music purists will be dismayed to see Stephen Foster's name left out of the credits on "Hard Times Come Again No More."

Take notice of all the names on the album cover.  They are all worth knowing.  Enjoy this for what it is - the collaborator  performances are not all equally great (those of Carolina Chocolate Drops and Punch Brothers are probably the most noteworthy for their energy and charisma), but they all seem to have some measure of the joy of music infused into them by the restless, wandering spirit of The Chieftains.

But my favorite moment on VOICE OF AGES occurs on the fourteenth track, "The Chieftains in Orbit."  NASA astronaut Cady Coleman greets the listener from outer space (onboard the International Space Station) and proceeds to play a bit of a lovely song on instruments borrowed from Matt Molloy and Paddy Maloney.  It's touching to hear the ancient sounding Irish melody ring out true and clear from outer space - a reminder of the remarkable contrast between the microscopic physical size yet unknowably vast spirit of mankind.  We press ever onward in our unending journey through infinite time and space.

Sincerely,

Constant Listener
2269640
I have had this collection of songs and stories for over thirty years, and love them as much now as I did when I first bought them. Paul Clayton and Jean Ritchie have beautiful voices, and Richard Chase is a wonderful storyteller. The words and music are as authentic as you can get, and the songs and stories are so inventive and reflect the mind and culture of the Appalachian mountain people.
1370128
Because I love traditional musics of the world and lament overly produced, electronically processed Euro Pop style in world music [with some exceptions], I regard Putumayo's latest collection as the new middle way, the great hope for a different international musical style. The music is simply wonderful. Richly melodic with strong but not overbearing rhythms, the underlying traditional root music is now fully blossomed with modern instrumentation and arrangements. Particular favorites are the oud track of Charbel Rouhana & Hani Siblini, the Sudanese song of Jamal Porto, and the Palestinian Arab group Zaman's flamenco exploration. With such examples from Syria and Lebanon across North Africa to the Atlantic coast, with Latin flavors of Spain and Cuba, this readily accessible music can be well received in both concert halls and intimate clubs in Sacramento, California, as well as Damascus, Syria. The Acoustic Arabia collection is relaxed, contemplative, and intimate compared to the danceable but less interesting collecton of Putumayo's North African Groove. I welcome this addition to the Putumayo catalog. It is yet another major contribution to our appreciation and understanding of other musics, other cultures.
4357019
A beautiful collection of ballads by a remarkable singer and musician, whose love for the art shows clearly in his emotive rendition of these traditional songs. A true traditional folk singer for our modern times. Bravo!
630405
From the first time I watched "Sharpe's Rifles" the voice of John Tams stood out as one of the best voices I have ever heard for traditional music.  His voice is hauntingly beautiful, and at it's best with minimal instrumentation.  This album delivers John Tams' voice at it's (almost) best, something I didn't find on his CDs "Home" and "Unity", however it is marred by the use of too many instruments.  The songs are all beautiful and well done, but if you're looking for the sparse and amazing style exhibited in the movies, you won't find it here.  Also, The marches I find almost grating(after I bought the CD I  burned it without the marches).  This CD also features the voice of Kate Rusby, another talented singer.

Even with the negatives I gave this CD 4 stars, because it is so enjoyable to listen to!!  I reccomend it to anyone who likes Sharpe's or traditional music.  It is definetely worth the money!!
3286368
This is one of the better recordings of Bok/Muir/Trickett. The songs are mostly appropriate to play around young children and most older children will Tots and Trotters quite funny. My brother did when he was younger.  The songs are mostly North American folk music and done quite beautifully. I would absolutely recommend this album to both those familiar with traditional music and those looking to familiarize themselves with traditional music styles.
383445
this publication of sam henry's 'songs of the people' is affordable and basically identical to any of the previous hardcover incarnations that are only owned by college libraries and rich people.

as for the content, this book is a historically significant collection of traditional irish songs sung in english and taken from northern singers. it was the source for many brilliant singers of the folk revival, namely paul brady.

highly recommended for any folksingers or those interested in traditional songs.
1077692
This is a well-curated collection of Irish and folk songs that makes learning and playing them yourself as easy and fun as it gets. The songs are popular with Irish traditional music fans, but not overexposed, so you will find plenty of people who know them, and lots of occasions to sing them.

The songs that are in Irish include a phonetic pronunciation guide underlaying the tune, as well as the Irish spelling underneath that, which is a good way to get a feel for Irish pronunciation patterns, especially if you're using song to help you learn the language.

What really makes this book unique is the harmony section. You can use it to sing the songs in harmony with friends, or try singing the tune and giving over the harmonies to a melody instrument, like fiddle, concertina, or penny whistle. Since chord symbols are also provided for all the songs, this book makes it possible to play and sing them with any combination of instruments and voices.

Irish traditional song, like other Irish musical traditions, is primarily an oral tradition. The best way to learn them is still at the knee, so to speak, of an experienced traditional singer with a large repertoire. Unfortunately, though, this tends to put the songs out of reach of many who would otherwise get much enjoyment from learning and singing them (and prevent them from passing the tradition on, in turn.) The Tradition of Irish Song helps to open pathways to make these beautiful songs more accessible to musicians and fans.
1521169
Utilizing her unique, powerful voice and seemingly unlimited creative sprit to update the traditional music of her Sami cultural roots, Mari Boine takes the listener on a journey back in time, to when these songs and stories were uses to preserve the history and soul of a people.  She beautifully combines ancient, traditional instruments and forms with an unmistakable, unrelenting 'groove' -- not totally unlike the work of Hedningarna and other young Scandinavian bands, but completely individual.  No one else sounds like this.
The album is generous in length, at over an hour, and attractively and informatively packaged.  The booklet offers English translations of the songs, and there's also a nice essay on the cultural background of the artist and the material.  The songs speak of love, of the hardship of living in such a rigorous, demanding environment, of family, of joys and sorrows, and of the stark beauty of the natural world.
For a recording utilizing mainly acoustic instruments, the power here is stunning.  The only electric instruments credited are guitar and bass.  Also present are violin, ocarina, flutes, dulcimer, melodica, chillador, charango (!), drums, and a vast array of percussives.  The effect is beautiful, hypnotic, mesmerizing -- and extremely powerful.
Mari has one other recording, GULA GULA, available domestically (it quite appropriately appeared on Peter Gabriel's Real World label), and several available as imports.  How she has escaped wider attention on these shores is a mystery to me.
3714548
In Irish traditional music circles, the guitar is usually found as rhythm accompaniment.  There are even some traditional music purists who say the guitar has no place in Irish trad.  This album gives the lie to all that, as Dnal Clancy (the son of one of the famous Clancy Brothers, Liam Clancy) shows what a powerful solo instrument guitar can be.  This album is solidly a guitar album, too--nothing else intrudes on his wonderful playing except for occasional accompaniment on uilleann pipe drones by the Waterford piper David Power, and Donal accompanies himself in places on bouzouki and bodhran.  And his playing is truly wonderful!  At turns forceful and fast, with blazing speed, at other times slower and more delicate, but always beautifully realized.  His choice of tunes is equally wonderful:  all the tunes on this album are taken from the tradition, and the well-written liner notes give the background so typical of traditional music, of where he learned the tunes and a little about the history of some of them.  There is a very nice balance between the familiar and the less-familiar, and between fast and slow.  I love the playing on the jigs (like "The Monaghan Jig" and "Old Hag You Have Killed Me," combined in a ripping set where he also demonstrates how the guitar can almost mimic the drone of the pipes behind the melody), and on the familiar reels like "The Concert Reel" and "My Love and I in the Garden."  Also included is an O'Carolan harp tune, "Lord Inchiquin," which comes off very well on guitar.  For me, perhaps my favorite track of all is his treatment of the slow air, "The Dark Slender Boy" or "An Buachaill Caol Dubh," which happens to be one of my favorite traditional songs, and which is rendered beautifully by Dnal.  All in all this is a fantastic album of traditional music, and is a must-have for fans either of Irish trad or just of guitar in general.