Appalachian music reviews

Copland shows us why it's called classical while still giving audiences something anyone can enjoy. I highly recommend this CD to people who want to learn to appreciate classical music or introduce their kids to it. Aaron Copland blends American history (sounds of "Simple Gifts") with sprightly sound and sweeping romance to create treasures that paint a visual picture for the listener. Highly recommend. The drive to work would be unbearable without this CD!

I believe that for a person not to have this CD in their collection woujld be a sign that they just do not know what great music is.

How people can buy Britney Spears music, and not buy this, is beyond me.

Get it if you don't have it, and share the joy.

These pieces are now availible on SACD, and as great as the CD is, the SACD version is breathtaking. I have owned these pieces on LP and cassette in my youth, but these works really "open up" in multichannel SACD with an extremely wide dynamic range and soundstage. Lenny was a personal friend of Copland and was a great admirer of his works. The performances here show his love and respect for these works. I have heard other conductors, but none come close to the exciting interpretations given here. Leonard Slatkin and the St. Louis Symphony come a close second...but these are the definitive interps. The SACD multichannel version really out classes the CD version...but, alas, it doesn't seem to be offered on Amazon!

This collection led to the "re-discovery" of many artists who had dissapeared after when the depression crippled the recording industry. Mississippi John Hurt is probably the most famous as of now, but others, like Clarence Ashley were major finds at the time - and when Folkways sent a field crew to do a new record by Ashley he requested some assist from a young friend named Doc Watson. Watson was unknown outside his home town at the time but went on to become a major star in a field which has very few stars.
Listening to many cuts on this album you can hear the source of much material for folk groups as diverse as the New Lost City Ramblers and The Holy Modal Rounders, rock groups like Canned Heat, and The Grateful Dead. Some of the melodies will be familiar to fans of Dylan, others to Jorma Kaukonan listeners. There are otehrs -- many many others.
This set is the source, the headwaters of reissues, and revivals. An essential part of any folk music collection.

I dont think there is a need to go into to much detail about this *6 CD* set. If you can fork over the cash, just buy it. If you have any interest in roots music, just buy it. If you thought ol' Bobby Dylan and the Band made some great weird music in the basement of big pink in '67 .. for the love of god, BUY THIS! strange, unadorned, raw music , just buy it.

Much ink & many electrons have been devoted to explaining both Harry Smith (and a lot of explanation is necessary -- very interesting man) and this wonderful collection of recordings from the 1920's and 30's, so I won't go into too much detail here. If you'd like a good treatise on the work itself as a cultural object, and how it relates to other thematically similar items, I would reccomend Griel Marcus' book Invisible Republic.
This is the greatest mix tape ever made, and an essential cultural artifact, not only of the vernacular music of the hills & highways of pre-electrification America, but also of the folk movement ofthe fifties and sixties (the primer fromwhic all else was derived) and by extension of the hippy movement following closely thereafter.
SOme of this music is really wild...

This album has become the one I listen to most often. Each song conveys deep meaning, each of the artists truly were inspired. I listen to EmmyLou Harris, if you like her work(from early to present) or that of Gram Parsons, I think this album will be enjoyable for you

This album is like prime rib, every bite of it is juicy and flavorful. The duets are fresh, inspired and fun. It's country music at its best: simple, straight forward and foot stompin' good. If this album doesn't spring you to life, better check the pacemaker.

Ira and Charlie Louvin performed "Americana" decades before that term was applied to that musical genre that lives out in the no-man's land between Country, Folk, Bluegrass and Rockabilly.

Like the better-known Everly Brothers, they performed "Brother Duets" with harmonies so razor-sharp and drum-tight that listeners invariably have an emotional response to the music. Like others, they performed songs that related to real Americans - a mixture of Gospel and cheatin' songs. They did the kind of country songs where, as they say, if you played them backwards you'd get your girl back, your money back and your dog would come back to life.

Carl Jackson is another wonderful Americana musician, at times playing guitar and banjo with talents as diverse as Jim and Jesse and the Virginia Boys, Emmylou Harris' Hot Band and partnerships with Keith Whitley, Vince Gill and John Starling. For this project he gathers a stunning collection of All-Stars: Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, James Taylor, Alison Krauss, Linda Ronstadt, Glen Campbell. To these he adds lesser-known but equally blockbusting bluegrass talents like Rhonda Vincent, Harley Allen and Del McCoury.

The songs are "Louvin Brothers Greatest Hits", and Carl gets the performers to keep it close to the bone in reproducing the "Brother Duet" style. To be honest, I bought the CD just to get the track with James Taylor and Alison Krauss ("How's the World Treating You".) What I discovered is that there's not a weak track on the project. The instrumentation is Louvin Brothers sparse and the harmonies are Louvin Brothers Sweet.

This disc is killer.

The Femmes did a major turn on the course of rock and roll here. Following up the legendary (well today it is) self-titled freshman album must have not been an easy task. One obviously they were not up for, so they made a new sound. Still Femmes at heart, but now with electric guitar, jazz influence, detailed piano riffs, horns, and bipolar lyrics. The album even has parts of Gano screaming to himself in an autistic manner. It goes in 5 different directions at once and has a much less "high school dork looking for fame" feel. This is the dork that grew up, went to Nam', now is 35, living alone, and going to high school sporting events. Gano's lyrics are at top form here and more honest than ever. The tunes have become more in depth and infectious as the common cold. What can only be described as awkward moments control the album from Gano quotes such as " Listen to me baby - Can you keep a secret for me? - Make sure no one finds out - cause then the lights will go out - and I will find you out - and I will cut you up - Uh hmm, don't ask me why - because, I said, I said, I said - I'm gonna do what I can, do what I can, do, do, do, do what I can." in 'Never tell' and " I led her to a hole, a deep black well - I said "make a wish, make sure and not tell - and close you're eyes dear, and count to seven - You know your papa loves you, good children go to heaven" in 'Country death song'. Hallowed Ground does have calming moments such as 'I know it's true...' which is a slow paced love song where Gano mutters half the song like a love lore adult. The bands comfortableness with they're strangeness and Gano's lack of social norms make this stand out like a communist flag draped over a former U.S. presidents grave. It also gives the Femmes the quirkiness that makes them the Violent Femmes. Don't confuse them as a joke band. These femmes - they're funny guys, but they're real Bad@ss's when it comes to rock.
Music - 4 1/2 Vocals - 4 1/2 Consistency - 4

one thing that i love about violent femmes is that they come from wisconsin where i live also i love that there is such variety in their music this album for instance is a great mix of music my fave songs are "black girls" "i hear the rain" and "never tell" all 3 of these songs are great punk-rock like songs and the rest of the album is great too

I am always hearing critics say that the self-titled album from these guys is "the only album by [VF] that's worth owning". I get the feeling that either this recording fell on deaf ears, they didn't really listen to this, or something along the lines of trying to sound cool. But really this is the best possible way to follow up the timeless debut, and the music here is equally as well-aged. Originally, Brian Ritchie did not want to be involved with Gordon Gano's Christian songs, so the first album had none, and this one has it. Seen as a parody at first, but that's completely understandable. After all, how do you know it's sincere when put into the rest of the context of "Black Girls"? (Speaks in a real un-PC manner). However, I feel that it is one of the greatest tracks on "Hallowed Ground", a change in pace from others here and even the debut, with more of a jazz influence than before.

That's another great thing about this album: The guys step outside of their folk-punk shell on this album. We get a well-done country song about a murder via drowning ("Country Death Song"), some more of Ritchie's xylophone playing ("I Hear the Rain"), as well as other really great moments. The album is far matured from the debut. While that one made me feel great about my youth, "Hallowed Ground" reminds me of just life in general and the things that go on in it. Oh, it's title track is yet another masterpiece in this somewhat short album (9 tracks total, but you get all quality).

Who knew a country-jazz-Appalachian Folk-etc. type album could have balance and not seem like a gimmick! And even if you don't like it the first time, I think it will grow on you if you give it time. You do not have to be religious to appreciate the imagery in here.

The Femmes did a major turn on the course of rock and roll here. Following up the legendary (well today it is) self-titled freshman album must have not been an easy task. One obviously they were not up for, so they made a new sound. Still Femmes at heart, but now with electric guitar, jazz influence, detailed piano riffs, horns, and bipolar lyrics. The album even has parts of Gano screaming to himself in an autistic manner. It goes in 5 different directions at once and has a much less "high school dork looking for fame" feel. This is the dork that grew up, went to Nam', now is 35, living alone, and going to high school sporting events. Gano's lyrics are at top form here and more honest than ever. The tunes have become more in depth and infectious as the common cold. What can only be described as awkward moments control the album from Gano quotes such as " Listen to me baby - Can you keep a secret for me? - Make sure no one finds out - cause then the lights will go out - and I will find you out - and I will cut you up - Uh hmm, don't ask me why - because, I said, I said, I said - I'm gonna do what I can, do what I can, do, do, do, do what I can." in 'Never tell' and " I led her to a hole, a deep black well - I said "make a wish, make sure and not tell - and close you're eyes dear, and count to seven - You know your papa loves you, good children go to heaven" in 'Country death song'. Hallowed Ground does have calming moments such as 'I know it's true...' which is a slow paced love song where Gano mutters half the song like a love lore adult. The bands comfortableness with they're strangeness and Gano's lack of social norms make this stand out like a communist flag draped over a former U.S. presidents grave. It also gives the Femmes the quirkiness that makes them the Violent Femmes. Don't confuse them as a joke band. These femmes - they're funny guys, but they're real Bad@ss's when it comes to rock.
Music - 4 1/2 Vocals - 4 1/2 Consistency - 4

one thing that i love about violent femmes is that they come from wisconsin where i live also i love that there is such variety in their music this album for instance is a great mix of music my fave songs are "black girls" "i hear the rain" and "never tell" all 3 of these songs are great punk-rock like songs and the rest of the album is great too

I am always hearing critics say that the self-titled album from these guys is "the only album by [VF] that's worth owning". I get the feeling that either this recording fell on deaf ears, they didn't really listen to this, or something along the lines of trying to sound cool. But really this is the best possible way to follow up the timeless debut, and the music here is equally as well-aged. Originally, Brian Ritchie did not want to be involved with Gordon Gano's Christian songs, so the first album had none, and this one has it. Seen as a parody at first, but that's completely understandable. After all, how do you know it's sincere when put into the rest of the context of "Black Girls"? (Speaks in a real un-PC manner). However, I feel that it is one of the greatest tracks on "Hallowed Ground", a change in pace from others here and even the debut, with more of a jazz influence than before.

That's another great thing about this album: The guys step outside of their folk-punk shell on this album. We get a well-done country song about a murder via drowning ("Country Death Song"), some more of Ritchie's xylophone playing ("I Hear the Rain"), as well as other really great moments. The album is far matured from the debut. While that one made me feel great about my youth, "Hallowed Ground" reminds me of just life in general and the things that go on in it. Oh, it's title track is yet another masterpiece in this somewhat short album (9 tracks total, but you get all quality).

Who knew a country-jazz-Appalachian Folk-etc. type album could have balance and not seem like a gimmick! And even if you don't like it the first time, I think it will grow on you if you give it time. You do not have to be religious to appreciate the imagery in here.

The Femmes did a major turn on the course of rock and roll here. Following up the legendary (well today it is) self-titled freshman album must have not been an easy task. One obviously they were not up for, so they made a new sound. Still Femmes at heart, but now with electric guitar, jazz influence, detailed piano riffs, horns, and bipolar lyrics. The album even has parts of Gano screaming to himself in an autistic manner. It goes in 5 different directions at once and has a much less "high school dork looking for fame" feel. This is the dork that grew up, went to Nam', now is 35, living alone, and going to high school sporting events. Gano's lyrics are at top form here and more honest than ever. The tunes have become more in depth and infectious as the common cold. What can only be described as awkward moments control the album from Gano quotes such as " Listen to me baby - Can you keep a secret for me? - Make sure no one finds out - cause then the lights will go out - and I will find you out - and I will cut you up - Uh hmm, don't ask me why - because, I said, I said, I said - I'm gonna do what I can, do what I can, do, do, do, do what I can." in 'Never tell' and " I led her to a hole, a deep black well - I said "make a wish, make sure and not tell - and close you're eyes dear, and count to seven - You know your papa loves you, good children go to heaven" in 'Country death song'. Hallowed Ground does have calming moments such as 'I know it's true...' which is a slow paced love song where Gano mutters half the song like a love lore adult. The bands comfortableness with they're strangeness and Gano's lack of social norms make this stand out like a communist flag draped over a former U.S. presidents grave. It also gives the Femmes the quirkiness that makes them the Violent Femmes. Don't confuse them as a joke band. These femmes - they're funny guys, but they're real Bad@ss's when it comes to rock.
Music - 4 1/2 Vocals - 4 1/2 Consistency - 4

one thing that i love about violent femmes is that they come from wisconsin where i live also i love that there is such variety in their music this album for instance is a great mix of music my fave songs are "black girls" "i hear the rain" and "never tell" all 3 of these songs are great punk-rock like songs and the rest of the album is great too

I am always hearing critics say that the self-titled album from these guys is "the only album by [VF] that's worth owning". I get the feeling that either this recording fell on deaf ears, they didn't really listen to this, or something along the lines of trying to sound cool. But really this is the best possible way to follow up the timeless debut, and the music here is equally as well-aged. Originally, Brian Ritchie did not want to be involved with Gordon Gano's Christian songs, so the first album had none, and this one has it. Seen as a parody at first, but that's completely understandable. After all, how do you know it's sincere when put into the rest of the context of "Black Girls"? (Speaks in a real un-PC manner). However, I feel that it is one of the greatest tracks on "Hallowed Ground", a change in pace from others here and even the debut, with more of a jazz influence than before.

That's another great thing about this album: The guys step outside of their folk-punk shell on this album. We get a well-done country song about a murder via drowning ("Country Death Song"), some more of Ritchie's xylophone playing ("I Hear the Rain"), as well as other really great moments. The album is far matured from the debut. While that one made me feel great about my youth, "Hallowed Ground" reminds me of just life in general and the things that go on in it. Oh, it's title track is yet another masterpiece in this somewhat short album (9 tracks total, but you get all quality).

Who knew a country-jazz-Appalachian Folk-etc. type album could have balance and not seem like a gimmick! And even if you don't like it the first time, I think it will grow on you if you give it time. You do not have to be religious to appreciate the imagery in here.

Beautifully packaged treatment of Dock's 1920s recordings. Kind of a banjo flailing hillbilly Robert Johnson. Sidenote, I actually met Dock when I was a child, he was a friend of my pawpaw's. They worked in the coalmines together and was wild together back in the old days. I had no idea Dock even played an instrument until I read a book by Greil Marcus years later...

Great music, like great movies, has atmosphere and tactile presence. You can just imagine what Boggs' contemporaries thought about these songs. There is a seriousness and a pervading sense of doom that must have shocked and compelled his early audiences. The old power is still there.

Dock Bogg's music is typical of old time music by white appalachian performers, particularly banjo players. They are playing an African instrument, transmitted into their area by African Americans, their repetoire ranges into blues, their musical styles on the instruments even in non-blues are influenced by blues music. They lived in a society where the formal racial separation of Jim Crow Segregation and Lynch law existed because of the actual integration of the lives and cultures of white and black workers and farmers and above all musicians was greater than what we have today.

Dock Boggs was quite explicit. He recalled the names of the black banjo players he saw in childhood who played banjo finger style, rather than in the claw hammer style that his brothers played. From childhood he wanted to play like them. Many of the tunes he recorded he said he got from listening to Black blues records. Some tunes, like "Down South Blues" he learned from female classic blues records that were more in the lineage of Jazz, than acoustic blues. Anyone who cares to read the many interviews with Boggs that have been published or listen to the cds and lps of his memories can learn about this.

Bogg's skills as a singer, as a banjo player, and, above all, as a performer who throws himself entirely into his songs,are unique. But the mixture of African and European American music he represents is hardly unique.


He may collide with the rather false, sometime boring, washed white fantasies about old time white country music nourished by folkies and post folkies and with what white racists who cling to as something purely "white," but Boggs' bluesyness is part of being real old time and not a suburban 60-90s fantasy of old time life.


What about the other great finger picking discovery of old-time banjo playing, Roscoe Holcomb. When he was rediscovered though Holcomb's repetoire included all kinds of music played on banjo, guitar, harmonic, and fiddle, he said he was a blues singer and one of the better ones around his area of Kentucky!

The mixture is real. If you go back and listen to say the Carter family (who added to the Carter Scratch guitar style Maybelle Carter originated, finger style blues and slide playing Maybelle learned from African American blues singer Leslie Riddle who traveled with AP Carter collecting songs and lived with the Carter Family for a time) or to Bill Monroe (who along with fellow western Kentuckian Merle Travis learned much of his music from Black bluesman Arnold Schultz) they sound so much blusier, so much more black influenced, than the Allison Krauses and Nickel Creeks reared in suburbia and not the world of racial cultural mix that Dock Boggs comes from.

Just a point of fact, Bogg's banjo style is closer to bluegrass than most other banjo players of his time. Many of Boggs's contemporaries including his older banjo playing brother were frailers of various kinds, whereas Boggs was a finger picker for the most part. Bluegrass banjo involves precisely adding in the bluesier licks and sounds to the music in an systematic fashion. It is a finger style with just the kind of synchopation that Boggs was a master of, although not exactly what Boggs does here.

On the other hand, Boggs's banjo playing is very strongly influenced by the white parlor guitar and classic banjo stylings, whereas bluegrass in my opinion after the suggestions of my friend Allen Feldman, comes from styles of North Carolina finger picking that descend from clawhammer banjo. Boggs eschewed clawhammer and doesn't play any of those finger styles.

The quality of songs on this album is fantastic. The Carter canon of music is worth any trouble you have to go to to hear it. Unfortunately, I don't think that these are the best records of many of these songs. To my ear, they often sound like they have performed the songs once too often and the music sounds tired.

Just for fun, listen to some of the amazon.com samples of the same songs, on different albums, and you'll hear the difference. My advice, try to buy the original recordings.

Nonetheless, this body of work is incredible, and I would recommend that anyone try to acquaint themselves with the music.

Let me first say that this collection of recordings is wonderful. It is the first Carter Family CD I have ever heard.
But, since then, I have heard ealier versions of the songs, and later versions, and have come away a little confused. Their voices on the Columbia recordings are much lower (which at first I thought was cool that Sara sounds like a man) and the tempos are slower. I can only assume that the tape speed is considerably out of whack. Does anyone else know anything about this? I know that Columbia has made this mistake before, most notably on Mile Davis' "Kind of Blue".
Still, the Carters are the real deal. Virtually any of their recordings are fabulous.

After watching the PBS special about the Carter family, and loving their music from my childhood, I wanted to hear again the many wonderful songs and sounds. I have always loved hearing the autoharp.
The cd is great.

I'm a big Doc Watson fan and was expecting more vocals from Doc. The CD featured more Ashley and less Doc than I expected. I was somewhat disappointed. If you're buying this CD because your an Ashley fan then I'd think that you'll find it satisfying. On the other hand, if you're getting it because you want to hear Doc, then you may be less than satisfied.

These recordings with Doc & Clarence Ashley are as good as American folk/old-time music gets. And the performances are truly timeless -- it could've been 1910 or 1960 or 2010. When you've had it with flash-in-the-pan, here-today-forgotten-tomorrow dreck that's on eMpTV and the radio, then put on this disk & enjoy the music.

I've owned these recordings first as records, then as tapes, and now as CDs since they came out in the early 1960s. After 40 years, they are still fresh, fun, and fantasic, they make me want to pick up my guitar and my banjo and pick behind them. You will find that there is a slight overlap in the cds compared with the original versions of the records. More tunes and more players are on here, particularly banjo players, than on the original records, and some tunes that were on the original recordings under this title now appear on Smithsonian Folkways' new version of the Watson Family. All and all, I couldn't think of the last 40 years of my life without these CDs.

Mary Hall Surface and David Maddox have done it again! They take familar and not-so familar tales and magically weave them into a delightful collection of stories. The music is cleaver and the lyrics creative. Characters come alive with rich voices and personalities. I put the CD in my car and before long both me and my husband were singing the songs of Jack and the Beanstalk and all the others. Truly fun! You've got to hear it!

David Maddox and Mary Hall Surface have done a fine job. The storytelling and the music worked their magic with this listener and her grandsons.

It is such a pleasure to listen to fresh and delicate music married to energetic and imaginative lyrics. This is a creative team that has produced some wonderful material together and nothing better than this CD.It's both sophisticated and yet warmly accessible. Enjoy.