Junior Wells and Buddy Guy & Junior Wells Blues Band - Newport Folk Festival, Rhode Island 1968

"Born in 1936 in Lettsworth, Louisiana, George "Buddy" Guy remains one of the world's most vital blues musicians and certainly one of the genre's most influential guitarists. Guy grew up on a diet of uniquely expressive blues stylists like Lightnin' Hopkins and T-Bone Walker. Eventually relocating to Chicago, he would learn directly from the likes of Muddy Waters, Guitar Slim, and Otis Rush. Guy would develop his own distinctive high-energy style that was typified by extreme string bending and a tense, staccato attack. Guy himself would strongly influence an impressive list of next generation guitarists, with Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and Stevie Ray Vaughan the most obvious examples.
Junior Wells family hailed from Memphis and he was raised in Arkansas. Born Amos Wells Blakemore Jr., two years earlier than Buddy Guy, Wells initially emulated Sonny Boy Williamson and Memphis-based Junior Parker. Wells too would be drawn to Chicago, where at age 19, he was recruited into Muddy Waters' band, replacing Little Walter. An exciting vocalist, Wells is more often revered for developing the modern amplified style of harmonica playing, where he soon became second to none.

Both Guy and Wells became recording artists on their own as the 1950s waned. At the dawn of the 1960s they collaborated for the first time on Guy's recording of "Ten Years Ago." The two would continue recording on their own, as well as collaborating, which provided them a wealth of material when they performed together. The dynamic stage presence of these two powerhouse musicians was something special indeed, and this performance, recorded at the 1968 Newport Folk Festival, is an extraordinary testament to Guy and Wells' onstage power.

The recording begins with Festival director George Wein's introduction. The band, which includes the exemplary rhythm section of bassist Jack Myers and jazz drummer-turned bluesman Fred Below, and A.C. Reed as a one-man horn section, kick things off with a hot warm-up instrumental before sinking their teeth into Guy's "One Room Country Shack." Possibly the quintessential track from Guy's classic 1968 A Man And The Blues LP, this sets the stage for the controlled fury yet to come.

With A.C. Reed's sax serving as additional rhythmic punctuation, Guy and Wells next tear into "Checkin' On My Baby," another essential song in their catalogue. Wells belts it out and blows a mean harp while Guy's stratocaster cuts like a knife between every line. Next they slow it down for a smoldering read of "Somebody Hoodooed The Hoodoo Man" followed by Junior Wells' signature song, "Messin' With The Kid." On the latter, Guy's biting tone is particularly raunchy and it's an outstanding performance all around.

To bring the set to a close, Guy and Wells pull out all the stops during a nearly nine-minute exploration of Sonny Boy Williamson's "Help Me." This is pure blues of the highest order, with Guy sounding like B.B. King on steroids and Wells and the band improvising up a storm. On this performance in particular, one can clearly hear how much this band influenced younger musicians, like Johnny Winter and the Butterfield Blues Band. This performance also sounds like a precursor to the incredible version on Van Morrison's "It's Too Late To Stop Now," recorded five years later but in remarkably similar form right down to the vocals. Wells' passionate vocals and the style of these musicians were obviously having a far-reaching impact. This number must certainly have been a highlight of the entire day and the Newport audience lets them know it. Despite George Wein desperately trying to keep the show moving, the audience is literally howling for more, causing Wein to finally relent and invite Guy, Wells & Co. back to the stage for a short (and Wein clarifies it has to be short!) encore.

Guy and Wells have other plans and treat the audience to a fantastic double encore beginning with "Stormy Monday," another tasty slow blues that starts off with a delicate touch but soon has Guy squeezing off a barrage of fiery riffs. He even manages to interject some spontaneous humor into one of his searing solos, by quoting the traditional folksong "Mary Had a Little Lamb" (it was a folk festival after all). Just when everyone was expecting the song to wind to a close, the band veers off into a funky take on James Brown's "I Got You," which must have had the already ecstatic audience up on their feet dancing.
Previously unheard and newly mixed direct off the 1/2" 4-track master reel, this sho
uld prove a rewarding listen for anyone even remotely interested in amplified blues. For those already well aware of the raw energy generated by Guy and Wells together in their prime, this recording is destined to become an important part of their legacy."

(from: http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/ - thanks a lot!)

Tracklist:

1. Intro

2. One Room Country Shack
3. Checkin' On My Baby
4. Somebody Hoodooed The Hoodoo Man Intro
5. Somebody Hoodooed The Hoodoo Man
6. Messin' With The Kid
7. You Gotta Help Me Intro
8. You Gotta Help Me
9. Crowd/Talk
10. Stormy Monday/I Feel Good

Buddy Guy - Guitar, Vocals
Junior Wells - Vocals, Harmonica
A.C. Reed - Sax
Jack Myers- Bass
Fred Below - Drums

Buddy Guy & Junior Wells Blues Band - Newport Folk Festival 1968

(320 kbps, no cover art)

Mahalia Jackson - Newport 1958

General critical consensus holds Mahalia Jackson as the greatest gospel singer ever to live; a major crossover success whose popularity extended across racial divides, she was gospel's first superstar, and even decades after her death remains, for many listeners, a defining symbol of the music's transcendent power. With her singularly expressive contralto, Jackson continues to inspire the generations of vocalists who follow in her wake; among the first spiritual performers to introduce elements of blues into her music, she infused gospel with a sensuality and freedom it had never before experienced, and her artistry rewrote the rules forever.

"Newport 1958"  is a wonderful album with recordings of the Newport Jazz Festival 1958.

 Jackson was at the peak of her career, and she gave a stunning performance at this show, lifting such songs as "He's Got the Whole World In His Hands," "Lord's Prayer," "Evening Prayer," "I'm on My Way," "Walk over God's Heaven" and "His Eye is on the Sparrow" to glorious heights. It's not only one of the great live gospel albums, it's simply one of the great gospel albums.

 

Mahalia Jackson - Newport 1958
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Reverend Gary Davis - Live At Newport (1965)

This is one of the few handful of recordings to feature the Rev. Gary Davis in concert. As the name of the project suggests, the proceedings were documented at the Newport Folk Festival in July of 1965.

The Reverend's solo vocal is accompanied by his own six- and twelve-string guitar(s) as well as mouth harp. The repertoire incorporates a wide range of secular blues and sacred gospel. Davis' material is derived from his own writings and notable interpretations of folk and blues standards such as "Lovin' Spoonful" and "I Won't Be Back No More." Also featured are insightful readings of some of his best-known and loved religious sides - namely "Death Don't Have No Mercy" and "Twelve Gates to the City."

It is remarkable that although the Reverend was approaching 70 - at the time of this recording - his driving passion and verve are of a man half his age. The frenetic "Samson & Delilah (If I Had My Way)," the haunting "You've Got to Move," the high-spirited "Buck Dance," and "Twelve Sticks" are among the most passionate and emotionally charged selections available in his canon. This set provides the platform for Davis to raise them to an even greater exceptionally potent level. The clean and nimble fret and fingering that became his signature sound has arguably never been as direct and forceful. The two instrumentals best reveal this facet of his performance. Unlike a majority of the garden-variety studio renditions of these songs, there is an almost palpable sense of salvation and urgency in the concert recordings - making them seminal installments of his musical catalog.

Tracklist:

01. Samson and Delilah

02. I Won't Be Back No More
03. Buck Dance
04. Twelve Sticks (the Dozens) 
05. Death Don't Have No Mercy 
06. You Got to Move
07. Lovin' Spoonful
08. She Wouldn't Say Quit 
09. I've Done All My Singing for My Lord 
10. Twelve Gates to the City
11. I Will Do My Last Singing in This Land Somewhere
12. Soldier's Drill
13. Get Along Cindy 


Reverend Gary Davis - Live At Newport
(192 kbps, front cover included)

Ray Charles - At Newport (1958)

Ray Charles was the musician most responsible for developing soul music. Singers like Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson also did a great deal to pioneer the form, but Charles did even more to devise a new form of black pop by merging '50s R&B with gospel-powered vocals, adding plenty of flavor from contemporary jazz, blues, and (in the '60s) country. Then there was his singing; his style was among the most emotional and easily identifiable of any 20th century performer, up there with the likes of Elvis and Billie Holiday. He was also a superb keyboard player, arranger, and bandleader. The brilliance of his 1950s and '60s work, however, can't obscure the fact that he made few classic tracks after the mid-'60s, though he recorded often and performed until the year before his death.
For his appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival on July 5, 1958, Ray Charles pulled out all the stops, performing raucous versions of "The Right Time," "I Got a Woman," and "Talkin' 'Bout You."

Tracks:
01. The Right Time (N. Brown, O. Cadena, L. Herman)
02. In A Little Spanish Town (M. Wayne, S. Lewis, J. Young)
03. I Got A Woman (R. Charles)
04. Blues Waltz (R. Charles)
05. Hot Rod (R. Charles)
06. Talkin' 'Bout You (R. Charles)
07. Sherry (B. R. Crawford Jr)
08. A Fool For You (R. Charles)

Ray Charles - At Newport (1958)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Newport Folk Festival 1963 - The Evening Concert Vol. 1

From the liner notes:

"Freebody Park in Newport, R. I., is a vast, rambling, open piece of real estate bounded on one side by a large stage which is surrounded on all sides by music lovers.
There, under the stars, have been held the evening concerts of the three Newport Folk Festivals in the summers of 1959, 1960 and 1963.
The peninsula on which this historic city is situated - it was a center of trade and smuggling in colonial days, and then a famous resort - just out into Narragansett Bay, and fogs are frequent. The sight of a performer on the stage as the fog billows and eddies around him beneath the colored lights, often adds to the impact of the performance.
But foggy weather or clear, the relaxed atmosphere and open-air sourroundings at the park lend themselves well to a folk concert.
"Contrast" and "variety" are the first words which come to mind in describing the performers on this disk. Their backgrounds are as diverse as the United States population. This is true of the entire roster of singers at these festival concerts, which included intellectuals, primitives, students, teachers, farmers and professional musicinans."

The album presents live recordings by Mississippi John Hurt, Jack Elliott, Ian & Sylvia, The Freedom Singers, Sam Hinton and Bob Dylan.

Newport Folk Festival 1963 - The Evening Concert Vol. 1
(192 kbps, ca. 65 MB)

Bluegrass At Newport - Newport Folk Festivals 1959, 1960 & 1963

Bluegrass is one of America´s original root music forms, one which originated in the traditional mountain music of the Kentucky and Virginia hills. The ringing banjos, lively fiddles and mandolins, and booming upright bass tones set toes to tapping and hands to clapping in rural mountain communities throughout the early and mid 1950s.
It was at the very first Newport Folk Festival, back in 1959, that bluegrass got its initial exposure to the young urban audiences who flocked to Rhode island each July to see and hear the red hot pickers and singers who were among the legendary figures of bluegrass.

In some cases these performers were making theri first-ever trips out of the South. Artists like Flatt and Scruggs, Doc Watson, and Jim & Jesse McReynold beace, if not quite household words, at least well enough known to contiinue to pursue active careers on the bluegrass festival, college, coffeehouse and concert circuit for many years after their Newport Folk Festival appearances.

Bluegrass At Newport - 2 CDs:
Bluegrass At Newport - Newport Folk Festivals 1959, 1960 & 1963
(192 kbps, ca. 68 MB)

Newport Broadside - Newport Folk Festival 1963

The most collectible of the 1963 Newport Folk Festival albums, "Broadside" - as its title implies - serves up the hottest topical songs and performers to appear that weekend; 1963 marked the apogee of the folk protest movement, Broadside magazine was its mouthpiece, and Newport 1963 was the finest hour for all.

It only follows, then, that this album should also emerge as the greatest tribute to that age of impassioned innocence. Bob Dylan opens and closes the LP with a pair of duets - the first, with Pete Seeger, is a jolly singalong assault on the Hugh Hefners of this world, while the closing "With God on Our Side," alongside Joan Baez, is a revelation, a reminder of the days when Dylan and Baez, the king and queen of folk, really did seem ready to rule the world.

A pair of Tom Paxton songs are equally remarkable. A gentle "Rambling Boy" is graced by a genuinely melodious audience singalong, while "The Willing Conscript" is as funny (and pertinent) today as it surely was in 1963, with the Vietnam conflict just beginning to escalate, and lessons in bayonetting, disembowelling, and dismembering the enemy were indeed a vital component of any youth's education.

Further proof that the finest folk is that which retains its relevance no matter what the prevailing musical and cultural climate is delivered by Sam Hinton's wryly punning "Talking Atomic Blues." It was originally recorded in 1950; 13 years later, just months after the Cuban missile crisis, it still blistered with every ounce of its original passion. "We hold this truth to be self-evident, that all men should be cremated equal." Newcomers Phil Ochs and Peter La Farge both impress; Englishman Bob Davenport, however, is ill-served by his unaccompanied drone through Ewan MacColl's "Come All Ye Giant Drivers," and three songs from the Freedom Singers were probably a lot more pertinent in 1963 than they sound today. Such moments of drabness are scarce, however; so scarce that if you should find a copy of this album, forget what the vinyl junkie down the road will pay for a copy. Keep it for yourself and play it till the grooves uncoil.

Newport Broadside - Newport Folk Festival 1963
(192 kbps, cover art inlcuded)

Muddy Waters - At Newport 1960

For many back in the early '60s, this was their first exposure to live recorded blues, and it's still pretty damn impressive some 40-plus years down the line.

Muddy, with a band featuring Otis Spann, James Cotton, and guitarist Pat Hare, lays it down tough and cool with a set that literally had 'em dancing in the aisles by the set closer, a rippling version of "Got My Mojo Working," reprised again in a short encore version. Kicking off the album with a version of "I've Got My Brand on You" that positively burns the relatively tame (in comparison) studio take, Waters heads full bore through impressive versions of "Hoochie Coochie Man," Big Bill Broonzy's "Feel So Good," and "Tiger in Your Tank."

A great breakthrough moment in blues history, where the jazz audience opened its ears and embraced Chicago blues.

Tracklist:

01.  I Got My Brand on You

02.  I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man

03.  Baby Please Don't Go
04.  Soon Forgotten
05.  Tiger in Your Tank
06.  I Feel So Good
07.  I've Got My Mojo Working

08.  I've Got My Mojo Working, Part 2

09.  Goodbye Newport Blues

Muddy Waters - At Newport 1960
(320 kbps, no cover art included)

The Newport Folk Festival

The Newport Folk Festival is an American annual folk-oriented music festival in Newport, Rhode Island, which began in 1959 as a counterpart to the previously established Newport Jazz Festival. The festival features performances by folk, blues, country, bluegrass and folk rock musicians, and since the 1990's has featured performers from related contemporary genres, such as alternative country, indie folk and folk punk.

The Newport Folk Festival was founded in 1959 by George Wein, founder of the already-well-established Newport Jazz Festival, backed by its original board: Theodore Bikel, Oscar Brand, Pete Seeger and Albert Grossman.

The Festival is renowned for introducing a number of performers who went on to become major stars, most notably Joan Baez (who appeared as an unannounced guest of Bob Gibson in 1959), and Bob Dylan, whose first Newport appearance, as a guest of Joan Baez in 1963, is generally regarded as his premiere national performance. Dylan and Baez also played together in 1964. Dylan became the artist most notably associated with the festival.

The festival draws on folk music in a wide and loosened sense. For instance, in the 1960s there were famous performances by Johnny Cash and Howlin' Wolf, artists usually described as representing country music and blues respectively. The festival was associated with the 1960s Blues Revival, where artists "lost" since the 1940s (e.g. Delta blues singers) were "rediscovered".

Concerts have been a rich source of recordings. Murray Lerner directed the 1967 film "Festival" based on the 1963-1965 festivals, now available on DVD.

We´ll present some of the Newport Folk Festival recordings in the next days.

Anne Briggs - Classic Anne Briggs (1990) - The Complete Topic Recordings

A painfully shy person in front of an audience, Anne's singing was hypnotic and from all accounts had a profound influence on other UK folk notables such as June Tabor, Maddy Prior and Sandy Denny. Sandy's song The Pond and the Stream (track 7, Fotheringay album) was inspired by Anne Briggs:
Annie wanders on the land
She loves the freedom of the air....

Anne was shy of her own recordings. She "delayed" the release of her 1974 recordings with the impromptu group Ragged Robin for a mere 22 years. (Sing a Song For You - 1996).

"Classic Anne Briggs" is the Anne Briggs motherlode, encompassing her four original 1963-1971 EPs and sole LP recorded for the Topic label. This music is mainly a capella, though some tracks have sparse instrumental arrangements.

Tracks
1 The Recruited Collier
2 The Doffing Mistress
3 Lowlands Away
4 My Bonny Boy
5 Polly Vaughan
6 Rosemary Lane
7 Gathering Rushes
8 The Whirly Whorl
9 The Stonecutter Boy
10 Martinmas Time
11 Blackwaterside
12 The Snow It Melts the Soonest
13 Willie O' Winsbury
14 Go Your Way
15 Thorneymoor Woods
16 The Cuckoo
17 Reynardine
18 Young Tambling
19 Living by the Water
20 My Bonny Lad

Anne Briggs - Classic Anne Briggs

(320 kbps, cover art & booklet included)
Here is the link to a rare interview, in which Anne Briggs talks to Alexis Petridis about her 'lost classic' folk album - and why she has hardly sung a note for 34 years

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2007/aug/03/folk.shopping1

VA - Prayers From Hell: White Gospel & Sinner's Blues, 1927-1940

This compilation of hillbilly gospel music and twisted Southern white blues could have been taken from one of the discs in Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music - there's even an essay included by Greil Marcus, a reprinted chapter from his Invisible Republic book.

Normally, this would reek of copycat-ism and a cheap way to make a buck. Given that this is the Trikont label from Germany, you can be assured this isn't the case. Their notes and packages are superb, they make their records primarily for a European audience, where the Smith Anthology may not be available, and there is a different focus, one that is perversely curious in its approach to this very foreign - to them - music. Besides, they put some gems on here Smith didn't include because his anthology was based on only six years of recorded material.

As for the music, it's stellar. This is solid, primitive, hillbilly gospel music and blues. The remastering is excellent and the material choice is wonderful. From the Carolina Ramblers Stringband's "That Lonesome Valley" to the Dixon Brothers' "Didn't Hear Nobody Pray" (covered recently by the Fairfield Four) and "When Gabriel Blows His Trumpet for Me" to Byron Parker and his mountaineer group, the Carter Family, and Bill Carlisle, we hear the sound of the hopeful pilgrims, assured of their place in the heavens with God. Some of these songs also plead for the one who is lost to turn from sin (the Carter Family's "Better Farther On"). The praise is definite but reserved, plaintively sung with the fear of God in their approach. There is a loneliness in these songs that speaks of everything from poverty to a sense of continual loss - it's whistling in the graveyard music.

However, the coin flips on this disc several time when we hear Frank Hutchison's "Hell Bound Train" and "Stackalee," or the mad-dog glass-chewing howl of Dock Boggs' wailing through "Country Blues," "New Prisoner's Song," "Sugar Baby," and "Pretty Polly." Boggs and Hutchison even the score - they show the dark as death side of culturally enforced Christianity and refuse to be tamed or comforted. Joining them are Ledford and Daniel Nicholson's fiddle and banjo blues ballad "Ninety Nine Years" from 1932. It's a tale of love, betrayal. Gambling, love, and murder.

All of these songs appear in the mirror of redemption, past it, out of its dimension and scope. But even here, rebellious as they are, Jesus wins. Just after Boggs' "Pretty Polly" sends chills down the spine for the coldness of its tale, its unrepentant bitterness and anger, we are led out of the entire compilation by Edith and Sherman Collins' "I Can't Feel at Home in This World Anymore." Something becomes obvious in the tune and both gospel and sinner's tunes turn back on themselves and meet the bridge where the title of this song is literally true in both cases, and the pitfalls of earthly existence is, too; it's just the attitude regarding departure from that place that's different.

 

Tracks:

That Lonesome Valley - Carolina Ramblers String Band
I Am Ready To Go - The Monroe Brothers
Church In The Wildwood - The Carter Family
New Prisoner's Song - Dock Boggs
Didn't Hear Nobody Pray - Dixon Brothers
The Heavenly Train - Bill Carlisle
Hell Bound Train - Frank Hutchison
We Shall Rise - Byron Parker & His Mountaineers
Down South Blues - Dock Boggs
What Will You Take In Exchange - Edith And Sherman Collins
Shining City Over The River - Dorsey & Beatrice Dixon
Worried Man Blues - Rodgers & Nicholson
It Is Better Farther On - The Carter Family
Country Blues - Dock Boggs
What Would The Profit Be - The Monroe Brothers
Unclouded Sky - Bill Carlisle's Kentucky Boys
Stackalee - Frank Hutchison
When Gabriel Blows His Trumpet For Me - Dixon Brothers
I Love My Savior - Byron Parker & His Mountaineers
Sugar Baby - Dock Boggs
He Will Be Your Savior Too - Bill Carlisle
Ninety Nine Years - Ledford & Daniel Nicholson
When Jesus Appears - Dorsey & Beatrice Dixon
Pretty Polly - Dock Boggs
I Can't Feel At Home In This World Any More - Edith & Sherman Collins

VA - Praxers From Hell: White Gospel & Sinner´s Blues 1927 - 1940

Afrique Dynamique! - Les Sons Funky Du Coeur D´Afrique!

DJ Hamid Zagzoule's Afrique Dynamique! selection has no governing theme beyond a bias towards uptempo dancefloor certainty.

His favourite period seems to be the 1980s, an ascendant time for the continent's music. Countries covered stretch from Mali down to South Africa, though the emphasis is definitely on West Africa.

The disc bolts off with a pair of classic Congolese soukous duets by Franco/Sam Mangwana and Pepe Kalle/Nyboma, both flooded with golden vocal harmonies and serpentine guitar chases. Numbers by Mahlathini & The Mahotella Queens and King Sunny Ade offer the widest stylistic diversions, the Queens supplying compulsive chorus hooklines, the neglected King Sunny still sounding out on his own with Nigerian ju-ju wobble-drums pulsing under bizarrely Hawaiian steel guitar phrases.

Ghanaian Highlife guitarist Eric Agyeman provides a 1970s classic, while Baaba Maal contributes an early, reggae-infused tune with one of his trademark vocal flights. One thing that's noticeable on tracks by Tshala Muana and Charlotte Mbango is the harshness of their programmed beats, increasingly prevalent once into the 1990s.

Afrique Dynamique! - Les Sons Funky Du Coeur d´Afrique!
(192 kbps, front cover included)

Malvina Reynolds - Selftitled (1970)

Malvina Reynolds (August 23, 1900 – March 17, 1978) was an American folk/blues singer-songwriter and political activist, best known for her song writing, particularly the song "Little Boxes."
Though she played violin in a dance band in her twenties, she began her songwriting career late in life. She was in her late 40s when she met Earl Robinson, Pete Seeger, and other folk singers and songwriters. She returned to school at UC Berkeley, where she studied music theory. She went on to write several popular songs, including "Little Boxes," "What Have They Done to the Rain," recorded by The Searchers and Joan Baez (about nuclear fallout), "It Isn't Nice" (a civil rights anthem), "Turn Around" (about children growing up, later sung by Harry Belafonte), and "There's a Bottom Below" (about depression). Reynolds was also a noted composer of children's songs, including "Magic Penny" and "Morningtown Ride," a top five UK single (December 1966) recorded by The Seekers.
Malvina Reynolds was the grooviest grandma to ever strut across the folk singer stage.

This 24-track CD is a treasure trove for fans of folk legend MalvinaReynolds. First, it contains all of the self-titled 1970 album that found the 70-year-old singer/guitarist jamming with members of the Byrds and the Dillards, in fine jangle-psych fashion. Second, it offers over a dozen bonus tracks, including some never released. Reynolds's mellow, unassuming delivery meshes sweetly with an acerbic and self-assured wit and political commitment.


Original album tracks:
1. The World's Gone Beautiful
2. Daddy's In The Jail
3. It Isn't Nice
4. Boraxo
5. We Hate To See Them Go
6. There'll Come A Time
7. From Way Up Here
8. The Desert
9. D.D.T.
10. Let It Be
11. Morningtown Ride
12. No Hole In My Head

Bonus tracks:
13. Alcatraz (Pelican Island) (only issued previously on 45)
14. Like The Miller Grinds The Wheat (only issued previously on 45)
15. The Rand Hymn (previously unreleased)
16. Plutonium (previously unreleased)
17. Tungsten (only issued previously on 45)
18. Cement Octopus (only issued previously on 45)
19. The Albatross (only issued previously on 45)
20. Buying The Package (previously unreleased)
21. Overtime (previously unreleased)
22. Nancy Newman (previously unreleased)
23. There'll Come A Time (Alternate version - previously unreleased)
24. It Isn't Nice (Alternate version - only issued previously on 45)


Malvina Reynolds - guitar, vocals
Brian Davies, Clark Maffitt, Dick Rosmini, John Horton - guitars
Mike Lang - piano
Alex Hassilev - organ
Steve La Fever - bass
Gene Parsons - drums
The Byrds - background vocals

Guests:
Eric Weissberg - guitar
Bill Lee - bass

Malvina Reynolds - Selftitled (1970)
(320 kbps, front cover included)

Willie Dixon - Peace? (1971)

Willie Dixon's life and work was virtually an embodiment of the progress of the blues, from an accidental creation of the descendants of freed slaves to a recognized and vital part of America's musical heritage. That Dixon was one of the first professional blues songwriters to benefit in a serious, material way - and that he had to fight to do it - from his work also made him an important symbol of the injustice that still informs the music industry, even at the end of the 20th century. A producer, songwriter, bassist, and singer, he helped Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, and others find their most commercially successful voices.

Here´s his album "Peace?" from 1971. Even though Chicago was a strong blues city in the 70s, there still weren't that many underground recordings of the music – as most of the sessions were in the hands of the bigger (or soon to be bigger) labels, which wasn't really the case with the soul sessions at the same time. This one's one of the few real indie albums we ever see from the time, and it features Chicago's classic bluesman playing with a group that includes Lafayette Leake on piano, Buster Benton on guitar, and the more famous soul stars Louis Satterfield and Phil Upchurch on bass. Tracks are pretty straight blues, but they sound a lot better than most of Willie's other records from the decade – and titles include "I'm Wanted", "Suffering Son Of A Gun", "If I Could See", and "You Got To Move".

This album expresses some of Willie Dixon's serious thoughts about the current troubled world. Willie contends that all blues songs must be based on actual facts, it's the only way to feel what you are singing. The entire production including the cover design has all been Willie's idea. This was the first album released by Yambo Records, a label founded by Willie Dixon in the late 1960s after he left Chess Records

Tracklist:

01. I'm Wanted 

02. Peace 

03. It's In The News 

04. I'd Give My Life For You 

05. You Got To Move 

06. Suffering Son Of A Gun 

07. Jelly Jam 

08. You Don't Make Sense Or Peace 

09. Blues You Can't Lose 

10. If I Could See

Willie Dixon - Peace?
(192 kbps, front & back cover included)

Fulanito - Hombre Mas Famoso de la Tierra

You don´t know Fulanito? Doesn´t matter, just listen to the music: You will find yourself moving to the music and their hot beats. Even if you don't speak Spanish, you'll find their rhyming hot and catchy.

You don´t love merengue and dominican music? This is an even better combination. These guys combine rap, hip hop, merenge and house music to make a unique, danceable and high energy combination.

Fulanito's modern take on merengue's sound and style is original, catchy and naughty all at once. The lyrics are filled with innuendo and are delivered in catchy and sing-songy raps over the backbeat of a techno rhythm, mixed with Latin and Italian influences (the occasional accordeon riffs to remind us of the mafiaso image the band wants to maintain). They also integrate cumbia into their merengue sound on "Merencumbiaso" (Track 3). It is almost impossible to shake the highly catchy hooks that the tracks open with. It's like a team of Dominican guys decked out in mafia style suits with Panama Hats have spotted you on the dance floor, have grabbed your hands and summoned you to surrender to the beat of the merengue. Irresistable!

Fulanito - Hombre Mas Famoso de la Tierra (new link)
(mp3, 128 kbps, ca. 42 MB)

Wade In The Water Vol. IV - African American Community Gospel

This is the fourth part of a four-disc set, drawn from the musical examples to Bernice Johnson Reagon's outstanding National Public Radio series on African-American gospel music, deals respectively with the concert tradition in spiritual singing, the 19th-century roots of African-American congregational singing, the pioneering composers, and community gospel.

"Wade in the Water, Vol. 4: African American Community Gospel" focuses on the sacred music of two vastly different areas of the U.S. - Washington D.C. and rural Alabama - to illustrate the differences brought about by local perspective. The eight Alabama tracks run the gamut from newly arranged renditions of traditional favorites to popular hits to original compositions; all are in the quartet style, which remains the primary gospel vehicle throughout the state - group anniversary celebrations are even regularly held, with other quartets traveling from miles around to perform in their peers' honor. In D.C., the trend is toward performances connected with the worship services of the urban church community; again, however, the scope is vast, including traditional styles, processional praise songs and a contemporary reading of "Peace in the Valley."

Wade In The Water Vol IV - African American Community Gospel
(192 kbps)

Kurt Weill - 1900 - 1950 - Berliner Requiem

The focus of this album falls on the "Berliner Requiem" of 1928, together with two a capella choral pieces, "Legende vom toten Soldaten" and "Zu Potsdam unter den Eichen", which fall in the vicinity of the "Requiem". The four songs to texts by Walt Whitman give an impression - not merely in musical terms - of the way the "American" Weill grappled with the subject of war and death, this time form the perspecitve of one who "stayed at home" and helplessly confronted the Second World War. The album opens with the large-scale "Recordare", a religious view of the same subject, and is counter-balanced by the concluding "Kiddush". The latter work is the only piece on this album which does not directly deal with the problems of war and peace, but its meditative and religious stance can be taken as symbolic of peace. The vocal works on this live recording cover a period of twenty-four years. During this time not only the circumstances of Weill´s life but his very musical language changed whith almost unimaginable radicality. At first an "avant-garde" composer in the early 1920s, a spiritual confrère of Schoenberg and Hindemith, Weill underwent an simplification and popularization in his musical style which, in scale, is probalby unique in the history of music. Tracklist: 1. Recordare, Op. 11 (1923)

2. Legende vom toten Soldaten (1929)

3. Zu Potsdam unter den Eichen (1928)

Berliner Requiem (1928):

5. Ballade vom ertrunken Mädchen

6. Marterl (Grabschrift)

7. Erster Bericht über den unbekannten Soldaten unter dem Triumphbogen

8. Zweiter Bericht uber den unbekannten Soldaten unter dem Triumphbogen

9. Grosser Dankchoral Four Walt Whitman Songs (1942/47):

10. Oh Captain! My Captain!

11. Beat! Beat! Drums!

12. Dirge for two veterans

13. Come up from the feilds, father

14. Kiddush (1946)

Recorded at Robert-Schumann-Saal, Düsseldorf, March, 24, 1990, with Jürgen Wagner (tenord), Wolfgang Holzmair (baritone) and the Robert-Schumann-Kammerorchester conducted by Harmut Schmidt (1 - 9) and Marc-Andreas Schlingensiepen (10 - 14).

Kurt Weill - Berliner Requiem
(192 kbps, front cover included)

Archie Shepp - The Cry Of My People (1972)

Archie Shepp has been at various times a feared firebrand and radical, soulful throwback and contemplative veteran. He was viewed in the '60s as perhaps the most articulate and disturbing member of the free generation, a published playwright willing to speak on the record in unsparing, explicit fashion about social injustice and the anger and rage he felt. His tenor sax solos were searing, harsh, and unrelenting, played with a vivid intensity. But in the '70s, Shepp employed a fatback/swing-based R&B approach, and in the '80s he mixed straight bebop, ballads, and blues pieces displaying little of the fury and fire from his earlier days.

Recorded in 1972 with a core band of Leroy Jenkins, Cornell Dupree, Jimmy Garrison, and Charles McGhee, Shepp supplemented "The Cry Of My People! in much the same way he did with the cast of "Attica Blues", with gospel singers, big bands, quintets, sextets, and chamber orchestras, with guests that included Harold Mabern on piano, Bernard "Pretty" Purdie on drums, and Ron Carter on electric bass! Recorded during a period in which Shepp was reaching out of the jazz idiom to include all of what he perceived to be "trans-African" music at the time, there is gutbucket R&B here, as well as the sweetly soul gospel of "Rest Enough." The charts' arrangements are a combination of Ellington's more pastoral moods -- usually expressed in his suites -- and the more darkly complex modal stylings of George Russell. Unlike some of Shepp's dates from this period, the vocals do not detract from the mix employed here. This is an urban record that showcases Shepp's ability, at this time in his career, to literally take on any project, combine as many sources as he was permitted by his financial resources, and come up with something compelling, provocative, and soulful. All extremes are subsumed by the whole: The avant-garde free jazz of the period is covered in the large-ensemble playing, which is covered by the gospel and R&B stylings that are accented by the free jazz players. Shepp worked with many larger ensembles as a leader, but never did he achieve such a perfect balance as he did on "The Cry of My People".

Tracklist:

1.Rest Enough (Song To Mother)

2.A Prayer

3.All God's Children Got A Home In The Universe

4.The Lady

5.The Cry Of My People

6.African Drum Suite

7.African Drum Suite

8.Come Sunday

Archie Shepp - The Cry Of My People (1972)

Paul Robeson – Ol’ Man River (1990)

Paul Leroy Robeson (April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an African-American concert singer (bass-baritone), recording artist, athlete and actor who became noted for his political radicalism and activism in the civil rights movement. The son of an escaped slave, Robeson was the first major concert star to popularize the performance of Negro spirituals and was the first black actor of the 20th century to portray Shakespeare's Othello in a production with an all white cast.

A nationally renowned football player from 1917 to the early 1920s, Robeson was an All-American athlete, and Phi Beta Kappa Society laureate during his years at Rutgers University. In 1923, Robeson drifted into amateur theater work and within a decade he had become an international star of stage, screen, radio and film. Robeson went on to be a recipient of the NAACP's Spingarn Medal, the Stalin Peace Prize and of honorary memberships in over half a dozen trade unions. James Earl Jones, Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte have cited Robeson's lead film roles as being the first to display dignity for black actors and pride in African heritage. Though one of the most internationally famous people of the 20th century, blacklisting during the Cold War, has nearly erased Robeson from mainstream interpretations of history.

At the height of his career, Paul Robeson chose to become primarily a political artist. In 1950, Robeson's passport was revoked under the McCarran Act over his work in the anti-imperialism movement and what the U.S. State Department called Robeson's "frequent criticism while abroad of the treatment of blacks in the US." Under heavy and daily surveillance by both the FBI and the CIA and publicly condemned for his beliefs, Robeson's income fell dramatically and he was blacklisted from performing on stage, screen, radio and television. Robeson's right to travel was restored in 1958, but his already faltering health broke down under controversial circumstances in 1963. By 1965, he was forced into permanent retirement. He spent his final years in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, unapologetic about his political views and career. Advocates of Robeson's legacy have restored his name to history books and sports records, honoring his memory with posthumous recognitions.

Here´s a compilation named after one of his most famous songs, "Ol´ Man River", released in 1990.

Tracks:
01 – Carry Me Back To Old Virginny/Round The Bend Of The Road/River, Stay ‘Way From My Door
02 – Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
03 – Blue Prelude
04 – My Old Kentucky Home
05 – The Old Ark’s A-Moving
06 – Got The South In My Soul
07 – Go Down, Moses
08 – I Stood On The River
09 – The Folks I Used To Know
10 – Scarecrow
11 – Piccaninny Shoes
12 – Shenandoa’
13 – I Want To Be Ready
14 – Wagon Wheels
15 – Joshua Fit The Battle Of Jericho
16 – So Shy
17 – Peter, Go Ring-A Dem Bells
18 – I Ain’t Lazy, I’m Just Dreamin’
19 – Mammy’s Little Kinky Headed Boy
20 – Roll The Chariot Along
21 – Hail The Crown/I Got A Robe/Oh Lord, I Done What You Told Me To Do/The Gospel Train/The Heaven Bells Are Ringin’/I’ll Hear The Trumpet Sound/Walk Together, Children
22 – Ol’ Man River

Paul Robeson - Ol´ Man River (1990)

Jean Ritchie and Doc Watson - At Folk City (Folkways, 1963)

This pairing unites two traditional musicians of legendary talent and captures them live in 1963 performing songs like "Amazing Grace", "Storms Are On the Ocean", and "Wabash Cannonball".

Jean Ritchie was born into a large and musical family in Viper, Kentucky in 1922. The Ritchie family was very much a part of the Appalachian folk tradition, and had committed over 300 songs (including hymns, traditional love songs, ballads, children's game songs, etc.) to its collective memory, a tradition that Ritchie has drawn on (as well as preserved and maintained) for the entire length of her performing career. She grew up in a home where singing was intertwined with nearly every task, and the beautiful, ephemeral nature of these mountain songs and fragments was not lost on her. After graduating from high school, Ritchie attended Cumberland Junior College in Williamsburg, Ky., moving on to the University of Kentucky, where she graduated in 1946. She accepted a position at the Henry Street Settlement in New York City and soon found her family's songs useful in reaching out to the children in her care. Her singing, although she never had a strong pop sort of voice, was perfect for the old ballads, especially when she accompanied herself on lap dulcimer, and the ancient modal melodies of her family felt fresh and airy in her hands. Ritchie soon found herself in demand in the New York coffeehouses, and her official career in music began. After hearing some casually recorded songs by Ritchie, Jac Holzman, who was just starting up Elektra Records, signed her to the label, eventually releasing three albums, "Jean Ritchie Sings" (1952), "Songs of Her Kentucky Mountain Family" (1957) and "A Time for Singing" (1962) at the height of the folk revival. Although she never reached the household name status of Peter, Paul & Mary, Joan Baez, Judy Collins or the Kingston Trio, Ritchie maintained her Appalachian authenticity, and her subsequent albums worked to preserve the rich folk tradition of the Southern Appalachians.

Jean Ritchie & Doc Watson - At Folk City (1963)
(256 kbps, no cover inlcuded)