Singkreis Mauthausen - Memento - Gedenkkonzert 50 Jahre Befreiung KZ Mauthausen

The Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp was the hub of a large group of German concentration camps that was built around the villages of Mauthausen and Sankt Georgen an der Gusen (Gusen) in Upper Austria, roughly 20 kilometres east of the city of Linz. The camp operated from the time of the "Anschluss", when Austria was annexed into the German Third Reich in early 1938, to the beginning of May 1945, at the end of the Second World War. Starting with a single camp at Mauthausen, the complex expanded over time and by the summer of 1940 Mauthausen had become one of the largest labour camp complexes in the German-controlled part of Europe, with four main subcamps at Mauthausen and nearby Gusen, and nearly 100 other subcamps located throughout Austria and southern Germany, directed from a central office at Mauthausen.

As at other Nazi concentration camps, the inmates at Mauthausen-Gusen were forced to work as slave labour, under conditions that caused many deaths. The subcamps of the Mauthausen complex included quarries, munitions factories, mines, arms factories and plants assembling Me 262 fighter aircraft. In January 1945, the camps contained roughly 85,000 inmates.The death toll remains unknown, although most sources place it between 122,766 and 320,000 for the entire complex.
Mauthausen was classified as a so-called "category three camp". This was the fiercest category, and for the prisoners it meant "Rûckkehr unerwünscht" (return not desired) and "Vernichtung durch arbeit" (extermination by work).

Commemorating the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the Mauthausen concentration camp,
the Singkreis Mauthausen together with der "Chor der Pfarre Mauthausen musica viva" gave a concert titeld "Memento". They produced an album with the same title with songs from concentration camps and the cantate "Memento.

The album contains the song 'Die Lebenden Steine' (The Living Stones), referring to a phrase used to describe the prisoners of Mauthausen-Gusen, who were subjected to back-breaking labour in the quarries surrounding the camp. The lyrics were written by Włodzimierz Wnuk in 1941, and set to music by Aleksander Kulisiewicz in Sachsenhausen in 1943.

Tracklist:

Moorsoldaten
Mein Vater wird gesucht
Die lebenden Steine
Dachaulied
Buchenwaldlied
Lied der Hoffnung
Ich träume
Herr, gebäre ein Volk
Bedenk, o Mensch
Verhöhnt und geschändet
Vom Leben hin zum Tod
Herr-Nie wieder

Singkreis Mauthausen - Memento - Gedenkkonzert 50 Jahre Befreiung KZ Mauthausen
(320 kbps, front cover included)

Hanns Dieter Hüsch - 40 Jahre unterwegs

Hanns Dieter Hüsch (6 May 1925, in Moers – 6 December 2005, in Windeck-Werfen) was a German author, cabaret artist, actor, songwriter and radio commentator.
With a working life of more than 53 years on the German cabaret stage and 70 of his own programmes he was one of the most productive and successful representatives of literary cabaret in Germany in the 20th century.

It is said that more than 3.5 million people have seen Hanns Dieter Hüsch's live performances from 1947 to 2000. He received the Bundesverdienstkreuz and, twice, the German Cabaret award "Deutscher Kleinkunstpreis"; he also received honorary citizenship of Moers and Mainz, the North Rhine-Westphalia culture prize, the 1995 Kassel Literary Prize, and the culture prize of Rhineland-Palatinate, as well as other honors.

With "40 Jahre unterwegs" Hanns Dieter Hüsch looks back at 40 years on stage. The album was recorded in December 1989 at the "Renitenz-Theater" in Stuttgart.

Tracklist:

1-1	Begrüßung	5:41
1-2	Spaziergang	7:00
1-3	Hedwig	4:04
1-4	Hagenbuch und die Schriftsteller	13:09
1-5	Mein Onkel	17:14
1-6	Die Geschichte von den Bäckern aus Beumelburg	11:13
1-7	Geschichte	3:12
1-8	Jugend	1:55
1-9	Das Alter	2:08
1-10	Abendlied	3:58
1-11	Was soll die Frieda kochen	3:49
1-12	Das Wort zum Montag	3:19
2-1	Schluß gemacht	4:17
2-2	Inside Story	15:01
2-3	Solei mit Kultur	5:39
2-4	Orangerie	4:30
2-5	Wo bin ich?	6:47
2-6	Japanischer Film	10:53
2-7	Dialog mit der Jugend	2:52
2-8	Die Forelle	4:05
2-9	Religiothek	3:35
2-10	Ich setze auf die Liebe	4:48

Hanns Dieter Hüsch - 40 Jahre unterwegs, CD 1
Hanns Dieter Hüsch - 40 Jahre unterwegs, CD 2
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Lightnin´ Hopkins - Same (Smithsonian / Folkways 1959)

Originally released as "The Roots of Lightnin' Hopkins", Smithsonian/Folkways' "Lightnin' Hopkins" was recorded in 1959. Upon its initial release, it was a pivotal part of the blues revival and helped re-spark interest in Hopkins. Before it was recorded, the bluesman had disappeared from sight; after a great deal of searching, Sam Charters found Hopkins in a rented one-room apartment in Houston. 

Persuading Lightnin' with a bottle of gin, Charters convinced Hopkins to record ten songs in that room, using only one microphone. The resulting record was one of the greatest albums in Hopkins' catalog, a skeletal record that is absolutely naked in its loneliness and haunting in its despair. These unvarnished performances arguably capture the essence of Lightnin' Hopkins better than any of his other recordings, and it is certainly one of the landmarks of the late-'50s/early-'60s blues revival.                 

Tracklist:

01. Penitentiary Blues       

02. Bad Luck and Trouble       

03. Come Go Home With Me       

04. Trouble Stay 'Way from My Door    

05. See That My Grave Is Kept Clean      

06. Going Back to Florida      

07. Reminiscenses of Blind Lemon      

08. Fan It      

09. Tell Me, Baby      

10. She's Mine 

Lightnin´ Hopkins - Same (Smithsonian / Folkways 1959)

(320 kbps, cover art included)

VA – Paul Oliver – Conversation With The Blues - A Documentary of Fields Recordings (1965)

"Conversation With The Blues" is a documentary selection of recordings made in the field by Paul Oliver during the summer of 1960.

In the summer of 1960 Paul Oliver came to the United States with the aid of a State Department grant and BBC field recorder with the idea, as he writes of “putting on tape the conversation and music of blues artists in the country and the cities, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes. Some of the blues singers were famous, or had been, whilst others were unknown and destined to remain so. … The blues singers of the Mississippi Delta or East Texas Piney woods may have sung and played in different styles from those currently working in Chicago or Detroit but between them was a common bond of feeling and expression which lay at the root of the blues.” Oliver began his trip in the east hitting Detroit, Chicago, Memphis and St. Louis before joining forces with collector Chris Stratwichz who would found Arhoolie records, and researcher Mack McCormick. The trio, and Oliver’s wife Valerie, traveled through Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas where they record the Black Ace, Alex Moore, K.C. Douglas, Buster Pickens, Lil Son Jackson, Mance Lipscomb, Sam Chatmon and others. "Far from inhibiting the speakers the BBC field recorder excited genius interest as a piece of equipment and encouraged many a blues singer to summon his memories and address his observations with clarity and confidence." On his return to England Oliver produced BBC radio-documentaries on his experiences and compiled the conversations he had with blues singers in his groundbreaking book, Conversation with the Blues.

Tracklist:
01 So Much Good Feeling (spoken with own piano) – Boogie Woogie Red 03:11
02 A Little Different (spoken) – Willie Thomas 00:27
03 Kill That Nigger Dead – James Butch Cage & Willie Thomas 02:03
04 The Onliest Way (spoken) – Lil’ Son Jackson 00:22
05 My Father’s Style – So It Rocked On (spoken, with guitar) – J.B. Lenoir 01:01
06 Move To Kansas City – J.B. Lenoir 00:27
07 When She Come Back (spoken) – Otis Spann 01:13
08 Poor Country Boy – Otis Spann 02:55
09 Ain’t No Easy Thing (spoken) – Lightnin’ Hopkins 01:10
10 Evil Heart Blues – Mance Lipscomb 02:02
11 A Roughneck (spoken) – Blind Arvella Grey 01:26
12 West Helena Blues – Roosevelt Sykes 01:45
13 Days Of Nineteen-Hundred (spoken) – Will Shade 01:13
14 Newport News Blues – Will Shade 02:30
15 Chock House Days (spoken) – Whistling Alex Moore 01:12
16 Come And Get Me – Whistling Alex Moore 01:05
17 Move Back For What (spoken) – Brother John Sellers 00:51
18 I Been Down So Long – J.B. Lenoir 02:35
19 Santa Fe Blues – Jasper Love 00:00
20 Somewhere Down The Line (spoken) – John Lee Hooker 00:11
21 I Hope One Day My Luck WIll Change – Robert Curtis Smith 01:26
22 Only Places They Can Go (spoken) – Otis Spann 01:00
23 People Calls Me Lucky – Oits Spann 01:42
24 What Have I Committed (spoken) – Henry Townsend 00:46
25 ‘Tween Midnight And Day – James Butch Cage 03:16
26 Walking Basses (spoken) – Little Brother Montgomery 00:29
27 Dud Low Joe (piano solo) – Little Brother Montgomery 01:47
28 It’s A Barrelhouse Blues (spoken) – Little Brother Montgomery 00:37
29 Vicksburg Blues – Little Brother Montgomery 03:12
30 They Beat Me To Chicago (spoken) – Little Brother Montgomery 00:15
31 They All Called Him ‘Pork Chops’ (spoken) – Roosevelt Sykes 00:56
32 Forty-Four Blues – Roosevelt Sykes 02:07
33 Doctor Clayton And Me (spoken) – Robert Junior Lockwood & Sunnyland Slim 00:20
34 Take A Little Walk With Me – Robert Junior Lockwood & Sunnyland Slim 02:20
35 To Have The Blues Within (spoken) – Edwin Buster Pickens 00:58
36 Blues In The Bottle – Mance Lipscomb 03:00

VA – Paul Oliver – Conversation With The Blues A Documentary of Fields Recordings (1965)
(192 kbps, cover art included)

VA - Listen To The Banned

This collection of wittily salacious songs encompasses familiar personalities (Mae West), longtime musical legends (Cliff Edwards, George Formby, Sophie Tucker, Gertrude Lawrence), and less well-known figures such as Billy Cotton & His Band, Randolph Sutton, and Art Fowler, doing songs that could be considered risqué. The only problem with that notion is that Formby, in particular, is so guileless and offhanded that the censorable nature of "With My Little Ukulele in My Hand" is mostly in the mind of the listener; not so Mae West's "A Guy What Takes His Time," which is an excellent and supremely suggestive musical piece by the actress/singer.

What makes this collection different from the various risqué blues collections familiar to American blues and nostalgia buffs is that most of what's here is British in origin (such as "All Poshed Up With My Daisies in My Hand" by Charlie Higgins), and comes from a music hall tradition that, today, seems rather remote. Of course, ASV is a nostalgia label, and the fact that the British dance bands of the era felt they could and should do material such as "She Was Only a Postman's Daughter, But...." will be a pleasant revelation, but the material will mostly still seem tame (and least in tone) next to the risqué blues of the period. In this company, Jimmie Rodgers' "What's It" is as raunchy as it gets. The sound is fairly good -- little of the contents have been totally restored, so listeners do get source and surface noise, but nothing to interfere with the listening, and the annotation is reasonably thorough; there's obviously precious little extant information on some of the artists represented.              

Tracklist:

 1. I've Gone And Lost My Little Yo-Yo - Billy Cotton And His Band

2. With My Little Ukelele In My Hand - George Formby And His Ukelele

3. A Guy What Takes His Time - Mae West

4. She Was Only A Postmaster's Daughter, But... - Durium Dance Band

5. Nellie, The Nudist Queen - Ross And Sargent

6. My Private Affair - Dawn Davis

7. What's It? - Jimmie Rodgers

8. He Hadn't Up Till Yesterday - Sophie Tucker

9. Winnie The Worm - Ronald Frankau

10. I'm A Bear In A Lady's Boudoir - Cliff Edwards

11. Everyone's Got Sex Appeal For Someone - Ronald Frankau And Monte Crick

12. All Poshed Up With My Daisies In My Hand - Charlie Higgins

13. Pu-leeze! Mister Hemingway! - Elsie Carlisle

14. Let's All be Fairies - Durium Dance Band

15. I'm Going To Give It To Mary With Love - Cliff Edwards

16. The Physician - Gertrude Lawrence

17. No Wonder She's A Blushing Bride - Art Fowler And His Ukelele

18. Flora McDonald - Douglas Byng

19. Or Anything Else I've Got! - Randolph Sutton

20. And So Does He - Dawn Davis

VA - Listen To The Banned
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Odetta‎ – One Grain Of Sand (1963)

Odetta comes from an old school of black American song interpreters, often overlooked after the 50s-early 60s folk scene when the pigeon-holeing of the day seemed to find no room to accommodate anything other than traditional song (blues, worksongs, gospel), protest and singer-songwriter fare. Odetta was instead in a line of black artists, which included Paul Robeson, Jackie Washington, Harry Belafonte, Leon Bibb (Eric’s father) and many others, whose repertoire was drawn from the breadth of commercial and folk song.

Born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1930, Odetta had voice and classical music training as a youngster. She appeared in the 1949 Los Angeles production of Finian’s Rainbow and a year later in the San Francisco run of Guys And Dolls before being drawn into the emerging folk scene of the early 1950s. Her début album “The Tin Angel” was released in 1954 and over the next decade she established herself as one of the folk scene’s most authoritative voices.

By 1963, when she released ONE GRAIN OF SAND, Odetta was a formidable cultural presence (check out her “live” work on the just-released DVD of Festival, taken from the early 60s Newport Folk Festivals). “One Grain Of Sand” finds her singing and playing guitar with accompaniment by Bill Lee (Spike Lee’s father, who also was responsible for the music in his son’s movie Mo’ Better Blues) on string bass. She covers everything from Leadbelly’s Midnight Special to Woody Guthrie’s Rambling Round Your City and American folk ballads such as Come All Ye Fair And Tender Ladies. It’s the contrasts that always surprise: the haunting traditional She Moved Through The Fair positioned next to the singing cowboy classic Cool Water (a song written by the Sons Of The Pioneers’ Bob Nolan). Also, worth checking out is Bill Lee’s excellent bass playing on the title song, interweaving with, and supporting, Odetta’s moving, slightly distracted vocal. -  John Crosby


By the time the independent folk label Vanguard Records got around to releasing its sixth Odetta album, One Grain of Sand, in 1963, the singer had already decamped to RCA Victor and released her major-label debut, Sometimes I Feel Like Cryin', in 1962. But One Grain of Sand is not just a collection of outtakes assembled to fulfill a contract and take revenge on a departed artist. It finds Odetta accompanying herself as usual on acoustic guitar and joined by Bill Lee on string bass, putting her inimitable stamp on a good set of traditional folk songs along with numbers associated with Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie, and Pete Seeger. She also brings in spirituals, blues, and even country on a cover of "Cool Water." But, given her distinctive vocal approach, every song from every genre becomes an Odetta song, with her contralto finding unusual depths of feeling in even the lighter fare. It might be argued that, in the early '60s, partially because of record company machinations, Odetta had a glut of LPs in release. But when even a minor one displays such quality, it's hard to complain.                


Tracklist

A1	Sail Away Ladies	2:37
A2	Moses, Moses	2:55
A3	Midnight Special	3:22
A4	Rambler-Gambler	3:19
A5	Cotton Fields	3:23
A6	Roll On, Buddy	3:04
A7	Ain't No Grave	2:02
B1	Special Delivery Blues	2:36
B2	Rambling Round Your City	4:02
B3	Boll Weevil	2:13
B4	Come All Ye Fair And Tender Ladies	3:23
B5	She Moved Through The Fair	3:00
B6	Cool Water	3:03
B7	One Grain Of Sand	2:06

Odetta – One Grain Of Sand (1963)          
(320 kbps, cover art included)                  

VA - Rhythm And Blues - No. 1 Chart Hits 1949-1955

During the first half of the 1950’s, before the children of the white middle class began to question the musical tastes and listening habits of their parents, before the Haleys and the Presleys got a chance to upset established rules, Black artists were busy opening doors.

Nothing reflects this transitional moment better than the charts of the African-American community, where the seeds of this insurgency were planted. The best-sellers of that time, and more particularly the Number One rhythm & blues hits, clearly depict a movement that took the swing-infused rhythms of the immediate postwar era right up to the threshold of rock and soul.

Tracklist:

	Part I - Swing & Ballads
01	–Percy Mayfield	Please Send Me Someone To Love	2:53
02	–Joe Liggins	Pink Champagne	3:01
03	–Ruth Brown	Teardrops From My Eyes	2:53
04	–Ivory Joe Hunter	I Almost Lost My Mind	3:11
05	–The Four Blazes	Mary Jo	2:34
06	–The Platters	Only You (And You Alone)	2:38
07	–Little Esther & Mel Walker	Cupid's Boogie	2:34
08	–Peppermint Harris	I Got Loaded	2:27
09	–Roy Brown	Hard Luck Blues	3:00
10	–Joe Morris	Any Time, Any Place, Anywhere	3:04
11	–Louis Jordan	Blue Light Boogie - Parts 1 & 2	5:09
12	–Johnny Ace	Pledging My Love	2:45
		Part II - Blues & Rock
13	–The Dominoes	Have Mercy Baby	2:22
14	–B.B. King	You Upset Me Baby	3:00
15	–Lowell Fulson	Blue Shadows	2:48
16	–Little Walter	My Babe	2:39
17	–Hank Ballard	Work With Me Annie	2:48
18	–The Drifters	Honey Love	2:24
19	–Eddie Boyd	Five Long Years	2:40
20	–The "5" Royales	Baby Don't Do It	2:44
21	–Joe Turner	Honey Hush	2:41
22	–Jimmy Nelson	"T" 99 Blues	3:06
23	–Willie Mabon	I Don't Know	3:08
24	–Etta James	The Wallflower	2:48

VA - Rhythm And Blues - No. 1 Chart Hits 1949-1955

(192 kbps, cover art included)

VA - Madchester - The Manchester Story '88 - '91

Madchester is a music and cultural scene that developed in the Manchester area of the United Kingdom in the late 1980s, in which artists merged alternative rock with acid house culture and other sources, including psychedelia and 1960s pop. The label was popularised by the British music press in the early 1990s, and included groups such as Happy Mondays, the Stone Roses, the Inspiral Carpets, Northside, 808 State, James and The Charlatans, amongst others.
The rave-influenced scene is widely seen as heavily influenced by drugs, especially ecstasy (MDMA). At that time, the Haçienda nightclub, co-owned by members of New Order, was a major catalyst for the distinctive musical ethos in the city that was called the Second Summer of Love.

The Beechwood label's 16-track "Manchester Story '88-'91: Madchester" presents a pretty faithful re-telling of the Factory-led Brit-pop explosion that consumed college radio in the late '80s early '90s.

Usually relegated to late-night appearances on MTV's 120 Minutes, bands like New Fast Automatic Daffodils, Happy Mondays, Stone Roses, Charlatans UK, 808 State, and New Order nevertheless found a way to break out internationally, influencing the myriad of shapes that alternative rock would assume in the coming years.

Though there are many holes in the story (where are Blur, Ride, Primal Scream or the Manic Street Preachers?) presented here, the inclusion of various remixes, original 12" versions, and extended mixes keeps things interesting, and the songs themselves are all top-notch, resulting in a formidable gateway drug for anybody looking to immerse themselves in genre.        
 

   

Fear won't prevail. We will continue to enjoy our love for life, freedom & joy.

Tracklist:

1	–Happy Mondays	W.F.L. (The Vince Clark Mix)	6:10
2	–The Stone Roses	Elephant Stone	4:47
3	–The Charlatans	Indian Rope	4:30
4	–Northside	Shall We Take A Trip	4:20
5	–Inspiral Carpets	Joe	3:21
6	–New Fast Automatic Daffodils	Big	6:04
7	–New Order	True Faith (Original 12" Mix)	5:13
8	–Paris Angels	Perfume (Loved Up)	4:10
9	–MC Tunes Versus 808 State	Tunes Splits The Atom (Original Rap)	3:09
10	–Happy Mondays	Step On (Stuff It In Mix)	5:45
11	–James	Come Home (Extended Flood Mix)	6:07
12	–The Mock Turtles	Can You Dig It?	4:08
13	–The Charlatans	Then	4:10
14	–New Order	Bizarre Love Triangle (Original 12" Mix)	6:42
15	–808 State	Pacific State (Origin)	4:27
16	–The Stone Roses	Fools Gold	4:15

VA - Madchester - The Manchester Story '88 - '91  
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Ras Michael & The Sons of Negus - Kibir-Am-Lak - Glory To God

Originally released in 1977, this album continues the tradition pioneered by The Sons of Negus, Count Ossie and The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari.

The album opens with the churchical hymn chant of "New Name", with its piano intro and eerie phased guitar. Robbie Shakespeare's bass is a huge underpinning boom, grounding the tune and merging with thudding Binghi drums.

"If You Only Knew" is a more calming chant, but again, is clearly derived from hymnal form and structure.

The heaviest, most aggressive track here is the aural purge of "Bablyon" AKA "Free up Jah People", with its lyric about Jah conspiring to bomb the world in vengeance for man's corruption - it's not a peacable, reflective lyric, but it does full justice to the hammer like bass drop in this tune. At times, Nyabinghi drumming can sound lethargic and soporific, but this work is energetic, inspired and inventive, a complex undertow of taut sound.

"Booma Yeah" is partially chanted in Amharic. The opening blessing from Ras Michael is a recital and a meditation, reminding the listener of the origin of the drum in Africa. That heartbeat he reminds, is echoed in The Sons of Negus. After the orthodox opening, this track veers into Hamilton Bohannon / Tony Allen afro funk - it works beautifully, with Shakespeare's agile bass and the taut Binghi percussion. It sounds similar to Hamilton Bohannon's long deleted 45 "South African Man" with it's hypnotic keyboard and drum structure.

"Over the Mountain" speaks of nature as a holy place of Jah spirit.

Tracklist:

1	New Name	5:02
2	Wicked Men	4:45
3	No-Hoppers	4:34
4	Zion Land	4:05
5	If You Only Knew	7:25
6	Babylon	3:38
7	Booma Yeah	5:39
8	Over The Mountain	4:41

Ras Michael & The Sons of Negus - Kibir-Am-Lak - Glory To God

(256 kbps, cover art included)

Ijahman Levi‎ – Are We A Warrior (1979)

"A We a Warrior" is truly an overlooked gem for the waning years of roots reggae's Golden Era. With only five tracks on the entire album, Ijahman takes the opportunity to languidly suss out each tune to the fullest. Every song is at least five minutes long. Several of the cuts are nearly 8 minutes long and not a moment is wasted. The result is a mystical, lush, yearning, spiritual (The Church), and, yes, sexy (check Ms. Beverly) soundscape that is still prophetic and futuristic sounding nearly three decades after is original release. 

Ijahman sings as though he is truly possessed by a mystical muse. The backing band on this album could easily be an allstar list of Jamaica's finest studio musicians of the era: They are nothing less than precise as they construct deep grooves that build upon and transcend the classic one-drop sound that was so (rightfully) pervasive at the time. There is a dark edge to Ijahman's spirituality and that's what makes this record exceptional. This is not tourist Jamaican music, nor is it poppy or hippy-dippy reggae and there are no touchy, feelly, "everything is irie" (although the grooves are indeed deep) anthems here. The style, rhythm and lyrics are unapologetically revolutionary, African and Rastafarian. This not to say that those who simply enjoy great music will be put off: Above all else, the music here is sublime and richly melodic. This ones for those who seek a deeper roots sound. "Are We a Warrior" is simply rare find, a unique record that takes the willing listener on a sonic quest in search of mystic revelations.

- Coalhouse Walker Junior

The title track and "Moulding" are two of reggae's most haunting meditations ever.

Tracklist:

A1	Are We A Warrior
A2	Moulding
A3	The Church
B1	Miss Beverly
B2	Two Sides Of Love

Ijahman Levi‎ – Are We A Warrior (1979)
(192 kbps, cover art included)        

Roosevelt Sykes - The Honey Dripper, Vol. 2 - 1944 - 1950

Next time someone voices the goofball opinion that blues is simply too depressing to embrace, sit 'em down and expose 'em to a heady dose of Roosevelt Sykes. If he doesn't change their minds, nothing will. There was absolutely nothing downbeat about this roly-poly, effervescent pianist (nicknamed "Honeydripper" for his youthful prowess around the girls), whose lengthy career spanned the pre-war and postwar eras with no interruption whatsoever. Sykes' romping boogies and hilariously risqué lyrics (his double-entendre gems included "Dirty Mother for You," "Ice Cream Freezer," and "Peeping Tom") characterize his monumental contributions to the blues idiom. He was a pioneering piano pounder responsible for the seminal pieces "44 Blues," "Driving Wheel," and "Night Time Is the Right Time."

Sykes began playing while growing up in Helena. At age 15, he hit the road, developing his rowdy barrelhouse style around the blues-fertile St. Louis area. Sykes began recording in 1929 for OKeh and was signed to four different labels the next year under four different names (he was variously billed as Dobby Bragg, Willie Kelly, and Easy Papa Johnson)! Sykes joined Decca Records in 1935, where his popularity blossomed. After relocating to Chicago, Sykes inked a pact with Bluebird in 1943 and recorded prolifically for the RCA subsidiary with his combo, the Honeydrippers, scoring a pair of R&B hits in 1945 (covers of Cecil Gant's "I Wonder" and Joe Liggins' "The Honeydripper"). The following year, he scored one more national chart item for the parent Victor logo, the lowdown blues "Sunny Road." He also often toured and recorded with singer St. Louis Jimmy Oden, the originator of the classic "Going Down Slow."

In 1951, Sykes joined Chicago's United Records, cutting more fine sides over the next couple of years. A pair of Dave Bartholomew-produced 1955 dates for Imperial in New Orleans included a rollicking version of "Sweet Home Chicago" that presaged all the covers that would surface later on. A slew of albums for Bluesville, Folkways, Crown, and Delmark kept Sykes on the shelves during the '60s (a time when European tours began to take up quite a bit of the pianist's itinerary). He settled in New Orleans during the late '60s, where he remained a local treasure until his death.
Precious few pianists could boast the thundering boogie prowess of Roosevelt Sykes, and even fewer could chase away the blues with his blues as the rotund cigar-chomping 88s ace did.    


Roosevelt Sykes - The Honey Dripper, Vol. 2 - 1944 - 1950
(192 kbps, cover art included)
          

Melanie - Born To Be (1968)

"Born to Be", Melanie Safka's 1968 debut, is an intriguing curate's egg. Neither Melanie, nor her producer-husband Peter Schekeryk, seem sure exactly where her strengths lie, so she is cast in a number of roles: Piaf-imitating chanteuse ("In the Hour"), soul-searching, angst-heavy troubadour ("Momma Momma"), giggling novelty figure ("Animal Crackers") and children's entertainer ("Christopher Robin Is Saying His Prayers").

Stranger still, half the time the experiment works; the small ensemble, led by her own enthusiastic (if thoroughly inexpert) guitar playing creates an arty, coffeehouse ambience in which Melanie's idiot-savant act flourishes. But the less said about her attack at "Merry Christmas" the better.    

"Born to Be" was  Melanie's debut album, released on Buddah Records in 1968.
Following Melanie's success at the Woodstock Festival in 1969 Buddha repackaged and reissued the album as "My First Album."

Tracklist:

A1	In The Hour	3:04
A2	I'm Back In Town	2:17
A3	Bo Bo's Party	3:58
A4	Mr. Tambourine Man	4:20
A5	Momma Momma	4:00
B1	I Really Loved Harold	4:05
B2	Animal Crackers	2:12
B3	Cristopher Robin (Is Saying His Prayer)	2:35
B4	Close To It All	3:22
B5	Merry Christmas	2:50

Melanie - Born To Be (1968)
(320 kbps, cover art included)          

Dagmar Manzel - Ich bin ein Wesen leichter Art

Born in 1958 in Berlin, Dagmar Manzel is one of Germany’s most noticed and successful actresses. Alongside of her career in theater, film and TV, her love pertains for music as well. Following her successful solo song recital "Ich bin ein Wesen leichter Art" at Deutsche Theater, Berlin, she performed the title role of Offenbach’s operetta "Die Großherzogin von Gerolstein". Further engagements in musical theater led her to the title role at Berliner Ensemble in "La Périchole" and to Hans-Otto-Theater Potsdam as "Rosalinde / Die Fledermaus". At Komische Oper Berlin, she has been celebrated not only for her debut as "Mrs. Lovett / Sweeny Todd", but also for her achievements as Lilli Vanessi in "Kiss me Kate". This successful show has also been transferred to the opera Cologne, where it has been running ever since. Dagmar Manzel can also be seen and heard in a new production of Ralph Benatzky’s "Im Weißen Rößl" at Komische Oper Berlin since the start of the season 2010/2011.

Dagmar Manzel is also familiar to the concert stage. She performed at La Cité de la Musique in Paris with the Ensemble Intercontemporain songs by Hanns Eisler under the direction of Peter Rundel; with whom she collaborated again in Zurich this year to perform Kassandra by Michael Jarell with the chamber orchestra of Collegium Novum Zurich. Twice already, she has been working with co-actor Robert Gallinowski in a song recital called Philharmonischer Salon. It is a recital evening, initiated by Götz Teusch, former cello player with the Berliner Philharmoniker, with songs from Berlin cultural life during the 1920s. On the occasion of opening the Jewish Culture Days in Berlin, Manzel gave a concert devoted to Richard Heymann accompanied by the pianist Tal Balshai and his ensemble in early spring of 2011. With the equal lineup she could be heard at Konzerthaus Berlin Gendarmenmarkt during Hanns Eisler Days 2012. A triumphant success has been the new production of Kurt Weill’s "Sieben Todsünden" with director Barrie Kosky at Komische Oper Berlin in spring of 2012 in which Dagmar Manzel sang the role of Anna. Furthermore, she performed at the opening of the Augsburg Brecht Festival in spring of 2013. In summer of 2013, Dagmar Manzel returned to Komische Oper Berlin to sing the role of Madeleine de Faublas in Paul Abraham’s "Ball im Savoy".

Here´s the album "Ich bin ein Wesen leichter Art" featuring here programm of stage songs performed at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin.

Dagmar Manzel - Ich bin ein Wesen leichter Art
(256 kbps, cover art included)

Pete Seeger - Wimoweh and other songs of freedom and protest (1968)

In 1961, Pete Seeger, long the flagship artist of the tiny independent Folkways Records label, signed to the major label Columbia Records. This did not, as it turned out, mean that he actually left Folkways, which retained the right to issue not only previously unreleased recordings dating from before the Columbia deal, but also new recordings if Columbia didn't deem them sufficiently commercial to constitute competition.

Nevertheless, Moses Asch, head of Folkways, couldn't have been very pleased at the development, and when Columbia issued its first Seeger album, a live LP called "Story Songs" in August 1961, Folkways countered the same month with its own live album, "Sing Out with Pete!", which turned out to be a cobbled-together set of tracks that had been left off earlier Seeger live collections.

In 1968, Folkways was in a flurry of releasing Seeger compilations (the others were "Pete Seeger Sings Woody Guthrie", "Pete Seeger Sings Leadbelly", and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"), and this one takes eight of the 12 tracks from the "Sing Out with Pete!" album, re-sequences them, and adds a few other stray tracks ("Wasn't That a Time," "What a Friend We Have in Congress," and "Hymn to Nations"). The recordings also seem to have been re-edited and remixed, with some extra waves of applause overdubbed. Although it contains a couple of Seeger's greatest hits, "Wimoweh" and "If I Had a Hammer (Hammer Song)," as well as some interesting performances of spirituals, with such collaborators as Big Bill Broonzy, Memphis Slim, and Willie Dixon thrown in, the album is still a hodgepodge. In fact, it's even more of a hodgepodge than the original version was seven years previously. 

The album features protest songs as well as old spirituals sung by legendary folk singer Pete Seeger. With Seeger's modern interpretations the folk process is truly at work, "making past experience meaningful for present-day life." Liner notes include background information on each of the tracks.
  

Tracklist:
101 I'm On My Way to Canaan's Land       4:20
102 Wimoweh      2:48
103 Wasn't That a Time           2:59
104 Freiheit           3:06
105 Study War No More (Down By the Riverside) - Pete Seeger and Big Bill Broonzy 5:28
201 Hold On - Pete Seeger, Memphis Slim, and Willie Dixon 3:27
202 If I Had a Hammer (Hammer Song)           2:21
203 We are Soldiers in the Army           4:05
204 Mrs. McGrath           4:19
205 What a Friend We Have in Congress           1:58
206 Hymn to Nations (Beethoven, Ludwig v.: 9th Symphony)           2:06    


Pete Seeger - Wimoweh and other songs of freedom and protest (1968)
(192 kbps, cover art included)     

Lucio Dalla - Come E' Profondo Il Mare (1977)

As the title of one of his most famous songs states, Lucio Dalla was born on March 4, 1943, and became one of the most important, as well as most popular, figures in Italian pop music of the second half of the 20th century. Dalla's career was a fascinating musical rollercoaster through several distinct periods. More than once he managed to enrapture and then enrage fans and critics with his sudden changes of musical direction, which were, as is often the case in Italy, invariably perceived as sheer ideological betrayals. Still, at the same time that he was alienating one audience, he was attracting a new and often bigger one. Typically unfazed by controversy, Dalla never let criticism get behind his perennial sad buffoon façade, and kept doing things his way, even at the risk of self-parody. By the early 21st century, Dalla had long become an untouchable icon of Italian pop culture as everybody's favorite mischievous uncle.            

His album Come è profondo il mare was released in 1977 by RCA Italiana. It was the first work in which Dalla wrote both the music and lyrics, after three albums in which the latter had been provided by poet Roberto Roversi.

Tracklist:

1. "Come è profondo il mare" - 5:24
2. "Treno a vela" - 3:27
3. "Il cucciolo Alfredo" - 5:22
4. "Corso Buenos Aires" - 4:38
5. "Disperato erotico stomp" - 5:52
6. "Quale allegria" - 4:30
7. "...E non andar più via" - 3:25
8. "Barcarola" - 3:50

Lucio Dalla - Come E' Profondo Il Mare (1977)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Tyrannosaurus Rex‎ - For The Lion And The Unicorn In The Oak Forests Of Faun

Its abysmal sound quality notwithstanding, "For the Lion and the Unicorn" is one of the earliest known live recordings of Tyrannosaurus Rex and, as such, stands among the most precious artifacts in the entire Marc Bolan catalog. One of the first shows to feature Bolan stepping out with an electric guitar, it sees the group already poised for the transition that would, a couple of years later, take the entire country by surprise. But still it captures precisely the same mystic magic that the duo was already renowned for, a world of elves and unicorns, Afghan women and Abyssinian seas, and Bolan's inimitable grasp of life through lyrics set to a churning sea of half-electric rumination.

Certainly the live appeal of the duo is not hard to see, even if it is a little difficult to discern - the sound quality is akin to standing outside the hall with a tin can pressed to the fire escape, and some of the subtler nuances of the music are certainly lost in the translation. But a powerful set drawing from all three Tyrannosaurus Rex LPs to date highlights the glory that was theirs for the taking, and if a better quality tape ever turns up, it would be the rival of any other live Bolan out there.      


Tracklist:

1-1	Unicorn / Hot Rod Mama	3:32
1-2	Afghan Woman	1:49
1-3	Debora	3:30
1-4	Mustang Ford	3:01
1-5	Stacey Grove	2:04
1-6	Salamanda Palaganda	2:16
1-7	Wind Quartets	2:59
1-8	One Inch Rock	2:18
1-9	Chariots Of Silk	2:43
1-10	Seal Of Seasons	1:57
1-11	Consuela	2:35
1-12	Nijinsky Hind	2:21
1-13	Once Upon The Seas Of Abyssinia	2:21
1-14	Interstellar Overdrive	0:28
1-15	Do You Remember	3:35
1-16	The Wizard	4:02
1-17	Eastern Spell	1:58
1-18	Strange Orchestras	2:12
1-19	Misty Coast Of Albany	2:45
1-20	Evenings Of Damask	2:27
1-21	Pewter Suitor	3:16
1-22	Travelling Tragition	1:49

Tracks 1 to 16 recorded at The Lyceum, London on 11.4.69; 17 & 18 at Broendby Club, Copenhagen in 1969; 19 at Café Au Gogo, New York on 16.8.69; and 20-22 at Queen Elizabeth Hall, London on 13.1.69.          

Tyrannosaurus Rex‎ - For The Lion And The Unicorn In The Oak Forests Of Faun 
(192 kbps, cover art included)