5 comments about Rare, Live & Classic.

1. This extradordinarily complete box-set contains Joan Baez songs you've never heard of, never knew existed, never dreamed of! A live performance with the fabulous Odetta. Live performances with Bob Dylan, with Donovan. Early singing from before she was famous. Later songs that sound like they ought to be famous, yet you've never heard them before! And plenty of standard Joan Baez "must haves" like "Blessed Are ..."

   This is the box set for people who are SERIOUS about Joan Baez. Once you have this massive collection, you can safely call yourself a fan. Other people who say "I like her too" will feel like oafs when they find out how much more comprehensive your collection is. They'll DROOL over the live performances you own.

   This isn't the right thing to buy if you're new to Joan Baez. Not only is it a tad expensive for a newcomer, but it's also a little TOO comprehensive for someone who just wants the gist of her. There are some great songs ... and some "not so great" songs that are only interesting to fans because of their biographical/career-span significance. A new fan would have to wade through some songs she didn't really like in order to find the gems.

   But for a die-hard fan ... this collection is the one that separates you from the riff-raff! A lot of this stuff, you CANNOT FIND anywhere else. The more you know about Joan's career, the more you'll appreciate some of these very rare finds!

   A very serious collection.




2. If you don't like Joan, so be it. But if you appreciate the mind-blowing beauty and clearness of her voice, this is the collection of her songs you must get.

   And, can an album that starts with 'Scarlet Ribbons' even be less than perfect?




3. I've had this CD set for about a year now and I'm trying to wear it out. There is so much classic original material in here that it warms my heart. As a long time Joan Baez fan, like from day one when I saw her at Newport as a teenger in the 50's right up until today, this CD set brings me joy. I've worn out many original vinyl LP's of Joan's work and this remastered CD collection restored what I had lost. My only wish is that there would have been some stuff from her "Come From The Shadows" LP which can no longer be found anywhere in the world as far as I know. One of the greatest songs she ever sang was on that LP. It was titled "The Partisan" and revealed great emotion on Joan's part, a quality that makes her music live forever in the hearts of her fans.

   "Rare, Live and Classic" is a "must have" for any true Joan Baez fan as far as I'm concerned. Even though it's a bit pricey the packaging and the enclosed book of rare photos and Joan's thoughts on the songs makes it a fantastic value worth every penny and then some.




4. I bought this CD after I saw Joan Baez in Concert in Salt Lake City. I admit I didn't know most of the songs on the 3 CDs, but I was blown away. There wasn't ONE that I didn't like. They were all amazing. Most of them had never before been released. Rare live perfomances and duets. And Joan wrote something about every song. Either something about the time period, the circumstances surrounding the song/performance, or just some peice of trivia that you wouldn't find anywhere else. It's a rare and precious collection, indeed. Joan is in fine form and this is a WONDERFUL collection of her magnificent 40 year musical career.



5. I consider myself pretty-close to a die-hard Baez fan, but agreed wholeheartedly with the amazon.com review of this album. There is some terrific stuff here, including all of her classics. Some of the "rare" and "live" material was previously unreleased for good reason - they aren't Joan at her best or the recording quality is lacking. If you're truly a die-hard fan and need everything she's ever recorded, then you need this and may be thrilled with it. If you're not, go for some of her other, more-consistly wonderful CDs.

No comments about American Folk Legend.

3 comments about American Roots: A History of American Folk Music.

1. This wonderful, very low-priced collection from Holland's Disky label features 104 tracks of country and pop-folk music from the late 1920s to the mid-1940s. The unusually good sound quality on the earliest tracks, to say nothing of the radio-style intros on several numbers, lead me to suspect that much of this was recorded for, or from, radio broadcasts. For example, one of the Carter Family tracks is entitled "Jimmie Rodgers Visits" and features classically hokey Opry-style banter. Unfortunately, there are no liner notes, though at least recording years are listed on the inserts. Contrast the casual nature of this European "roots" collection with the pretentious hoopla that normally accompanies domestic issues of the same type. Strange and, in a way, refreshing.

   The best material is the earliest, and this includes tracks by Uncle Dave Macon, the meter-challenged Fiddlin' John Carson, the elegantly-named Earl Johnson's Clodhoppers, The Carter Family, and Gene Autry, among others. Early Bluegrass abounds, and long before it is alleged to have existed--check out Byrd Moore and his Hot Shots from 1930, Hayes Shepherd's 1927 bluegrass banjo playing, and Uncle Dave Macon's "Sail Away Ladies," also from 1927, a call-and-response number in pure Bill Monroe/Carl Story style. Early country crooning is represented by Jimmie Rodgers, Vernon Dalhart, and Gene Autry--the latter sounding atypically downhome on 1931's "High-Steppin' Mama." Elsewhere, Moonshine Kate makes like Bessie Smith on "My Man's a Jolly Railroad Man" ("His engine's number eleven"), and Riley Puckett offers a smooth, cowboy-crooner rendition of "Red Wing," which was an oldie even then (1927, again). These tracks are superbly representative of the earliest recorded country.

   The third and fourth CDs feature more commercially familiar string-band styles, 1940s bluegrass, highly nimble Django-Reinhardt-influenced guitar picking by Merle Travis, and the "Crazy Tennesseeans" of Roy Acuff. Of particular interest are Travis' "Pigmeat Strut," which was ineptly lifted, in part, by Scotty Moore on Elvis Presley's "Just Because," and a song called "Oklahoma Hills," the melody better-known as "Cottonfields." Woody Guthrie, Cisco Huston, Peter Seeger and the Almanac Singers, and other pop-folk greats close the collection. The highlights: A lovely, mixolydian-mode melody on Guthrie's 1941 "House of the Rising Sun;" Pete Seeger's energetic banjo workout "Cumberland Bear Chase" (1944), a version of a tune-with-narrative recorded in the 1920s by the Hill Billies; and Seeger's "Talking Union" (1941). "Talking Union" found new life many years later as Dick Feller's apolitical rant against bad customer service, "The Credit Card Song."

   Sound quality ranges from acceptable to fabulous. An incredible deal. I wish for more from Disky.




2. Like the first reviewer, I too was struck by the lack of African American representation in a collection titled "American Roots." I can't really imagine how this might have happened, except perhaps because the collection comes from a Dutch record company, though even that explanation seems rather untenable. The lack of any documentation in the box set only exacerbates this oddity.

   You sure get a lot of songs here, and the range of material is useful for a collector of old timey music - I particularly appreciated the inclusion of "I'm A Man of Constant Sorrow" and the Pete Seeger repertoire. Again, though, there's zero documentation on the history of these selections, and specific information like recording dates and record labels is really missed.

   For the completists in the audience, you'll want this collection. For interested amateurs, you'll probably be better off with either the Harry Smith's AAFM or the many series put together (and well documented) by Yazoo. In fact, there are probably links above this review to at least one Yazoo series.

   Bottom line: lots of songs but little explanatory information.




3. Odd that something with a title and subtitle so grandiose as this collection's has no songs by African-American artists on it. After all, black Americans have played a huge role, from spirituals to blues and all points between, in the creation of our country's folk and vernacular music. Here, as far as I can tell, only two African-Americans appear, and in secondary roles on disc four: Sonny Terry and Josh White. For the sort of racial integration that more truly defines our grassroots music, you'll have to go to Yazoo's splendid ongoing series on Early Rural American Music.

   That -- no small consideration -- aside, American Roots is a good deal, financially of course, but also artistically. The no-frills packaging assures the absence of a fat (or even thin) booklet of liner notes, explaining what compiler Tony Watts's selection criteria were. They're certainly unusual, though they shouldn't be; unlike many of his colleagues, Watts apparently has no trouble seeing that Gene Autry, Roy Acuff, and Merle Travis have as legitimate a claim to a place on the folk-music spectrum as do the Carter Family, Uncle Dave Macon, and Fiddlin' John Carson, whose archaic styles are more obviously tied to earlier Southern traditions. Watts documents the debt early country innovators had to the sounds that came before them as well as the creative, personal approach they contributed as they invented a more modern music. And listening to Travis's flat-picking instrumental "Cannonball Rag," you can hear the music coming full circle; Travis pupil Doc Watson would make Travis's jazz-inflected city sound into something most people assume to be organic Appalachiana.

   Disc four moves from the South to New York City, where the Communist Party's Popular Front and singing Stalinists Pete Seeger, Lee Hays, Cisco Houston, and Woody Guthrie created the urban folk revival. This disc contains one of American Roots' two genuinely repellant songs (the other is on disc one -- Vernon Dalhart's "The Runaway Train," bearer of what passed for humor in 1931 but seven decades later comes across as crude and stupid racism). In a 1940 reworking of the traditional "Liza Jane" into an anti-war agitprop exercise, we are reminded that during the Hitler-Stalin pact, Seeger, et al., cravenly followed the Soviet line, which was that World War II was all about the machinations of British capitalists and none of America's business. Later, in the same disc, Seeger and the Almanac Singers are performing a vigorous, full-throated, chirrupy anti-Hitler tune, "Deliver the Goods," done in 1942 after Hitler had attacked Russia and it was okay to oppose Hitler again. The hypocrisy is not pretty to hear. Side four also serves to remind us that where sheer talent is concerned, Guthrie was head and shoulders above the rest.

   The sound quality on all four discs is decent on the whole. Inexplicably, however, there is annoying surface noise on Burl Ives's "The Big Rock Candy Mountain," hardly a rare recording. But for the price, I guess it's churlish to demand perfection. Anyone who loves American folk music, or at least that part of it sung by European Americans with (mostly) Southern accents, should have this worthwhile and entertaining anthology in his or her CD collection.

No comments about Giants of the Folk Tradition, Vol. 1.

3 comments about Dear Companion.

1. Although I didn't begin buying records in earnest until about 15 years after the height of the folk era, I'm surprised I missed Ms. Hester until recently. I only knew of her as a footnote to Dylan's career (his harmonica backing on a couple tunes are his earliest commercial recordings) until I read about her role (and mistreatment by Richard Farina) in David Hajdu's excellent Positively Fourth Street.

   Columbia signed Hester to be their Joan Baez when Baez was selling so many records and creating such a stir for much smaller competitor Vanguard. However, they don't really sound much alike. If anyone, I'd have to say that Hester sounds like Mary Hopkins ("Those Were the Days" "Turn Turn Turn") with a Texas inflection.

   I don't think Hester is quite as good as some of the better remembered icons of the Folk era, but for those of us who have listened to the limited cannon of great pre-electric albums way too many times, a new voice on some old and new tunes is a must have.

   This collection is a typically all-inclusive and meticulous Bear Family compilation. Sixty tunes crammed are onto 2 cds, and the sound quality is very good, so the high price is not entirely unjustified.

   I thought that the early sessions from 1961 were mostly enjoyable, but at times Hester's voice could be a bit thin. While she let the songs speak for themselves, she didn't always contribute a lot of herself to them. Three and a half stars for these.

   The middle sessions I adored. Her singing is more mature, both expressively and technically, and there's a wonderful choice of material, much of which has not been done to death by others. Five stars.

   As for the later pop sessions, let's just say that I'm glad I sprung for a CD player with remote control. Ms. Hester's singing is strong, but it's wasted on inappropriate ditties with horrible dated pop arrangements. One star only. Luckily, this is only about 20% of the collection.

   The set comes with a nice booklet that has detailed discographical information for the recordings on the disc and an interesting interview with Hester. There are also many gorgeous photos of her, although they're mostly from two sessions so they needn't all have been included.




2. These are timeless songs sung by a timeless and beautiful voice. I listened to Carolyn Hester when I was a teenager in the sixties, and recently purchased this album. She is the most memorable singer I have heard, and her music leads one to discover other great singers [e.g. Nanci Griffith, on whose Other Rooms, Other Voices Carolyn Hester sings] and great songs one would otherwise never have heard. Truly an inspiration. I cannot recommend this recording strongly enough. Food for the soul. I hope she continues to perform and record.



3. Alertnate album takes featuring Bob Dylan and Ravi Shankar, the complete tracks from two of Hester's out of print Decca albums, an insight into the recording of different versions of songs in the days when studio tracking was a lot simpler than it is now-all this plus a liner notes booklet with lots of infomation and comments from Hester and others about her own career and the folk music revival. This is by no means a recording of historical interest only. It's a vibrant collection by a great singer, which stands on its own as well as providing a base for understanding what Hester is doing with her music today, and the work of the many artists-Dylan, Nanci Griffith, Emmylou Harris, the Kennedys, Rory Block among others-she has touched in her career.

No comments about 50 Years of Bluegrass Hits.

3 comments about The Collected Works of Jack Hardy Part I, Volumes 1-5 1965-1983.

1. As a virtual unknown artist (having only purchased his terrific, more recent cd 'The Passing') I picked up this Collection, used, with the thought that here was an artist perhaps worth the total emmersion one might reserve for a Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen. You know the kind, where accolades abound; a "behind-the scenes", "one-of-a-kind" singer/songwriter. Enter Jack Hardy.
   
   In keeping with my fellow reviewers here, I'll add to their reviews rather than try to supplant them. If one truely desires to explore JH in depth than it's only fitting that ALL reviews are perused, for Jack Hardy's Work is worthy of study and not necessarily (just) casual indulgence.
   
   First off,there are a total of 67 tracks in this whole box. So, what do we have?
   
   CD#1 EARLY and RARE (frm 1960's/ early 70's...67:10 mins)
   Country-folk/Folk-country rarities. All self-penned masterpieces, great sound, back-up harmonies by the Roche Sisters. Verse/chorus/verse structure. If you like Tom Russell you're home here. 4 1/2 stars
   
   CD#2 THE MIRROR of MY MADNESS (frm 1976...73:57 mins)
   More contemporary issues weave their way into a Folk-country-blues style, the Roche Sisters chime through as we get more of a hint of Celtic leanings and whats to come. Tom Russell and Bob Dylan comes to mind, and of all people Tom Rapp (Pearls Before Swine)!!! 4 stars
   
   CD#3 THE NAMELESS ONE (frm 1978...50:01 mins)
   Modern folk with strong Celtic undertones. JH read alot of William Butler Yeats...this is a very Pagan album, wonderful harmonies by the Roche Sisters again...and, maybe its just me but similarities to Tom Rapp keep popping up (especially in the lyrics). 5+ stars, one of his best!
   
   CD#4 LANDMARK (frm 1982...69:31)
   Similar to CD#3...verse/chorus/verse mysticism, looking at the modern world through ancient eyes, guitar work has a Dire Straights flow. 5+ stars, another fave of mine like CD#3. Brings to mind the wonderous later era 'The Passing' cd.
   
   CD#5 WHITE SHOES (frm 1982...45:12)
   Less mystical and Celtic, not as dark hued. If you enjoy his "Celtic" tinged albums this one shuns that for a more contemporary but no less personal (JH can be cryptic as all heck)approach. While I've played #1,#2,#3 and #4 several times over, this cd requires more "study"...it "reads" differently.
   
   TOTAL TRACK TIME= 303:15
   
   "my friends say I used to sing
   love songs of sweet things
   with hopes of the future to share.
   
   "but I've grown bitter and calloused
   and my thoughts turn to malice
   where lovers torture my stare." ('Down on You' frm CD#1)
   
   "...my floors are made of wood
   but the holes are of stone.
   
   nobody home (adieu mon ami)
   nobody home (adieu mon ami)
   nobody home (adieu mon ami)." ('Nobody Home' frm CD#4)



2. This set contains everything you need. Romance, war, hate, death, magic, lust, greed, sin, life, grief, betrayal, beauty, bliss, regret... Jack has more emotion in his little finger than the rest of us have in our entire lives. He doesn't hold back anything-no subject is safe. His voice can be dark, gravelly, laughing, soft, seductive or near to tears. I found myself so moved by his live performance of "The 111th Pensylvane" that I cried. I looked around that crowded and smoky basement room of a small church in New York City and found that we were ALL crying. However, if you plan to fall in love anytime soon, make sure you listen to Jack. You will become part of HIS story, HIS loves, HIS game. He can sweep you off your feet, trust me. You will begin to wish that you knew anyone HALF so eloquent. Romance becomes real again, chivalry is not dead! Love takes on a clarity before unknown. Yes, a large investment, being a box set. Worth every silver penny...



3. Jack Hardy's songwriting is among the most thought provoking you will ever hear... the man is just downright eloquent in his song writing ability! I suggest getting everything you can get your hands on and buy it all. Jack is well known for his nurturing of young songwriters, and having known him for the past 5 years I can tell you he's a good man, and an even better songwriter!

No comments about Bluegrass 1970-1979.

5 comments about The Essential Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys (1945-1949).

1. I can sympathize with those who have a bone to pick with Columbia for the wealth of alternate takes in this 2-CD box set. It DOES tell you on the reverse, in small print, that tracks 2 to 5, 7, 9, 10 and 13 on disc 1, and 1, 2, 6 to 8, 10, 14, 16 and 17 on disc 2 are alternates, as do the otherwise fantastic liner notes in the enclosed booklet. The problem is, you can't tell that when making a mail-order purchase.
   
   In my case, I bought it at a store over ten year ago and, admittedly, did not closely check the back of the package, so I didn't discover that fact until I started to play the discs, and read the liner notes. Even so, since I wasn't especially looking for original versions at the time, instead just wanting to experience some classic Blue Grass music after having seen a TV documentary on Bill, I still found it to be completely enjoyable, my particular favourite being Can't You Hear Me Calling featuring the vocal harmony of Bill and Mac Wiseman (complete with false starts).
   
   The fabulous 35-page booklet with notes by music historian Mark A. Humphrey is full of fascinating background as well as track-by-track comments, vintage photos, poster/record reproductions, and a complete sessionography. Not what you want if seeking only original versions, particularly of the 7 Country hits he registered from 1946 to 1949 for Columbia.
   
   Still, 5 of those originals are here along with 3 original B-sides: Rocky Road Blues which backed Kentucky Waltz, his first hit which came in April 1946 (# 3) but which is an alternate take here); Footprints In The Snow (# 5 in December 1946 - its B-side, True Life Blues, is an alternate); My Rose Of Old Kentucky which backed Sweetheart, You Done Me Wrong which charted in June 1948 (# 11) but which is an alternate here); Wicked Path Of Sin (# 13 in November 1948 - its flip, Summertime Is Past And Gone, is an alternate); Little Community Church (# 11 in December 1948 b/w That Home Above); Toy Heart (# 12 in April 1949 - its B-side, Blue Grass Breakdown is an alternate); and When You Are Lonely (# 12 in November 1949 - its flip, It's Mighty Dark To Travel, is an alternate.
   
   All but Little Community Church and its B-side, which were billed to Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Quartet, were credited to Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys. In 1958 he would add a solo hit on Decca, Scotland, which would reach # 27 in November, and in 1959 his solo cover of the Billy Grammer hit, Gotta Travel On, topped out at # 15 Country, also on Decca.
   
   It's just too bad they didn't see fit to include only originals as it then would have appealed to both those fans just wanting to hear some good old Blue Grass as well as collectors of hit singles.



2. The complaints about Columbia issuing alternate takes on this set are factually correct. I was sort of puzzled by this too. However in the liner notes to Columbia's "16 Gems" Bill Monroe album they explain the background of this set. Apparently the original concept was to release a 3-cd set with the original and alternate takes together, but there were concerns over the marketability of that idea. So the result was the issue of the 16 gems album, which contains the primary (released) takes of some of the biggest cuts (Bluegrass Breakdown, The Old Crossroads, etc.) and the release of this set, with the alternate takes of those songs. The two albums--"16 gems" and "the Essential Bill Monroe" complement each other. If you are looking for a Bill Monroe on Columbia box set, those two products combined are probably the next best thing to Bear Family's "Blue Moon of Kentucky" 1936-1949 set (which is both more extensive and more expensive).
   As a side note, "Uncle Pen" was recorded during Monroe's Decca years only and thus would not be available to Columbia for reissue.



3. Boy are the previous reviewers picky-picky. I have never seen even opera picked apart as this boxset has. What do these folks expect-perfection? This set will please all but the fussiest bluegrassophile.



4. This 2-disc set was part of a "two-fer" deal and not my first choice, but am I ever glad it was! This one has gone to the top of the CD pile near my stereo and with me on the road. It seems to be a good sampling of the many incarnations of the "Blue Grass Boys" (and girl, counting Wilene/Sally Ann Forrester on accordion). Until this set, I didn't know that Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs had started out with Bill Monroe and being a dedicated fan of F & S, the cuts featuring them are exceptional.



5. I can't fault the superb music or the documentation (a previous reviewer said there's none...he should return his, the set comes with a pretty good book of history, session notes, etc.). However, for some reason, Columbia decided that 16 of these songs should be represented not by the originally released takes, but by alternate takes. The master takes were released later on a separate release (16 Golden Hits or something like that). Grrrrr...
   So we get the following absurdity in the notes: "...Monroe opens the throttle and launches into what would become the most influential performance in bluegrass history." This is describing "Blue Grass Breakdown", but the problem is that the performance in question, undoubtedly an extremely important recording, ISN'T INCLUDED IN THE SET, but rather an alternate take is substituted. Dunderheads. If this set was meant to be an introduction to Monroe, it should have been all master takes. If it was meant to be a collection for completists, it should've had an additional CD's worth of music included.

   On the plus side for Columbia, the sound is really quite excellent, considering these are 40's recordings. Many Columbia CD reissues, at least in their former Jazz reissue series, were marred by terrible remastering. This release sounds fabulous.

No comments about The Woody Guthrie Story.