CD Logging
Mar. 24th, 2014 11:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_rck1712 Overture - For those who don't know, this is a PDQ Bach album. I think this one would have worked better for me if I knew more about classical music. I know there were things about this one that went right over my head.
American Banjo: Three Finger and Scruggs Style - I really liked this one. I'm not usually big on instrumentals, but I like this style of banjo playing a lot. I listened to this five or six times.
Baez, Joan. Baptism - I didn't care for this one. More than half of it was Baez reading poetry with no music. I found the selections chosen to be universally depressing. I didn't bother to finish the album, so things might have changed in the last third. I don't know.
Baez, Joan. The First Ten Years - Eh. There was nothing wrong with this one, but it also didn't make a big impression on me. I still like Baez's voice.
Baez, Joan. How Sweet the Sound - I was a little bit puzzled that an album with this title didn't include "Amazing Grace," but apart from that, I enjoyed this one.
Baez, Joan. Ring Them Bells - I liked this one, too.
Belafonte, Harry. All Time Greatest Hits v. 1 - Belafonte's music is catchy. I find myself moving in time to it even when I don't know the song, even when I'm sitting otherwise still.
Belafonte, Harry. An Evening with Harry Belafonte and Friends - I only got to hear the first four songs on this one. I was kind of expecting that because I noticed that the CD had deep scratches. I tried our scratch removal thingy, but the scratches were still there. I liked as much as I heard.
Belafonte, Harry. Jump Up Calypso - It's a pity the library doesn't have more Belafonte. I think there's one, maybe two, more albums before I've run through all of what they've got. I enjoyed this one.
cELLAbration! a Tribute to Ella Jenkins - This is an anthology of kids' folk music. None of the songs made me want to run out and buy a copy.
Chieftans. The Celtic Harp - I didn't like this as well as I liked Water from the Well, but I enjoyed it overall. It was kind of soothing.
Chieftans. Water from the Well - I liked this a lot better than I liked the previous Chieftans album I tried. I'm glad I gave them a second chance. I liked the instrumentals better than the vocals.
Chieftans. The Wide World Over - This had a lot of vocals, and I tend to like the Chieftans better when there aren't vocals. So this is not one I'd revisit.
A Child's Celebration of Folk Music - I quite liked this one. The performers were uniformly good, and I enjoyed the songs they chose to perform. I think I found this one in the library catalog because Pete Seeger performs a song on it. If Cordelia were five years younger and not so focused on Disney pop music, I'd buy this for her.
A Child's Celebration of Silliest Songs - Somehow, these weren't silly enough for me. I'm not sure what I expected. There was nothing actively wrong with the songs, and the performances were decent. It just wasn't what I was looking for.
A Child's Celebration of Song - I waited too long to write this one up. I can't remember a thing about it. Judging by the others in the series, it was probably inoffensive.
A Child's Celebration of the World - This one wasn't bad. There was nothing actively wrong with it. It just made very little impression on me. It was the sort of thing where I'd look up and realize that three or four songs had gone by without my having really heard any of them. I'm never sure whether to put that down to the album or purely to me.
Clancy Brothers with Lou Killen. Greatest Hits - These were largely familiar songs, but most of them sounded just a bit off to me. I wonder if it's the difference between Lou Killen and Tommy Makem.
Clancy Brothers with Tommy Makem. The Very Best of the Clancy Brothers with Tommy Makem - It seems like every Clancy Brothers CD the library has consists of the same dozen or so songs. That makes singing along easier, but it also means there's nothing new coming through.
Classic Labor Songs - Taken one by one, I liked most of these songs, but the cumulative effect was depressing because I couldn't help thinking how bad things are for unions right now and how badly many industries need a union.
Give US Your Poor: 17 New Recordings to Help End Homelessness - These songs raise awareness of an important issue, but I don't think I want to listen to any of them again.
Ian, Janis. Breaking Silence - I ended up listening to this just before it had to go back to the library. Losing so much time to headaches left me behind on listening to my library CDs. I enjoyed this one quite a bit.
Ian, Janis. Folk Is the New Black - I liked this better than I did The Essential Janis Ian. I can't say that it made a strong impression on me, but I didn't dislike it. The songs were pleasant enough to make me take another look at Ian's CDs.
Lightfoot, Gordon. The Very Best of Gordon Lightfoot Vols. I & II - I lost the last two songs on this one due to scratches. The first half of this was familiar to me because I own it on LP, but I didn't know all of the songs in the second half.
Lunceford, R.D. Cotton Blossom - Eh. There was nothing wrong with this. It was perfectly acceptable as background music while I did other things. It just lacked some spark that I'm looking for. I think it was too mellow for me.
Martin, Reed. Old Time Banjo - This was okay. I wouldn't mind listening to it if it just happened to be on. Unfortunately, it lacked something that I want in music. I have no idea what, just that I wouldn't go out of my way to hear this again.
Martin, Steve. The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo - I enjoyed this. I was a bit dubious because I know nothing about Steve Martin as a musician and wasn't sure how seriously he'd take it. As it turns out, he takes it seriously enough to make a good album. There were a lot of other musicians involved (I'm not sure Martin did any of the vocals), but I couldn't find information anywhere on the insert to tell me who was doing what. That frustrated me.
Mitchell, Joni. Shine - I don't know if I'm going to try more Mitchell. I don't dislike what I've heard of her music, but it doesn't really catch me either. It's just kind of there. The album ends, and not a single song has made a solid impression on me. If I were willing to work more at it and listen to the songs without doing anything else at the same time, who knows? But I'm looking for stuff I'll enjoy while I do other things.
Old Time Banjo - The sound quality on this was kind of poor. There was crackling over all the music. I found it distracting. The music was pretty good, but I wouldn't listen to it again unless I could get a version without the static.
Peter, Paul & Mary. In These Times - These were songs of social activism, by and large. I like Peter, Paul & Mary, so I enjoyed these. Nothing caught my attention and demanded a second listen, however.
Putumayo Presents American Folk - I get these anthologies in hopes that something on them will make me want to find more music by one (or more!) of the artists. For this one, I found that most of the artists sounded kind of alike and had a raspy vocal quality that I don't like.
Reno, Don. Don Reno: Founding Father of the Bluegrass Banjo - When the CD came up in iTunes, the information was mangled a bit-- It lists the artist as 'Reno The Don.' Unusually for me, I liked the instrumental tracks better here than I did the tracks with vocals. Not that the vocals were unpleasant-- The men singing had nice voices. I just wanted to hear the instruments.
Seeger, Pete. American Favorite Ballads vol. 5 - I didn't like most of this one. Seeger seems to be hit or miss for me.
Seeger, Pete. Song and Play Time - Most of the library's Seeger CDs currently have wait lists, but nobody had requested this one, probably because it's music for children.
Seeger, Pete with the Rivertown Kids and Friends. Tomorrow's Children - I'm still waiting for the wait lists to die down for Seeger's adult albums. This one was reasonably fun. The kids sang more than I expected and were better than I expected.
Songs of the Civil War - The case for this was pretty minimalist. It didn't even give a song list. I regretted that because the information on the second CD track list was wrong-- It claimed all the songs were performed by 'The Samples,' but I could hear that they were all performed by different people (and at least one was definitely performed by Pete Seeger). I liked this album better than I expected to. The performances were generally good even when the songs weren't my sort of thing, and that's by no means a certain thing with a Smithsonian Folkways album.
Southern Journey, vol. 3: 61 Highway Mississippi: Delta Country Blues, Spirituals, Work Songs & Dance Music - I neglected to write this one up right away, so the details have slipped my mind. I seem to recall that this one was okay. I might actually have liked some of the songs if I'd listened to them more than once.
Sowing the Seeds: The Tenth Anniversary - This is a two CD set. The first CD is all protest and political songs. I didn't enjoy it much-- Not that it was bad music. It's just that those sorts of songs depress me more than energize me. The second CD is more my sort of thing. The subtitle for that is 'Love, Hope and Appleseed.'
Teng, Vienna. Waking Hour - I'd seen Teng mentioned on DW/LJ, and I was curious. I didn't mind this album. I could tell that, with repeated listening, I might actually like it. That just seemed like a lot of work, however. This reminded me of things I used to listen to in high school, back in the days when I actually listened to the radio and encountered new music that way.
Vega, Suzanne. Close-up. Vol. 1, Love Songs; Close-up. Vol. 2, People & Places; Close-up. Vol. 3, States of Being; Close-up. Vol. 4, Songs of Family - This set seems to be an anthology sort of thing, pulling from all sorts of different albums. I recognized some songs and not others. I expect I'll encounter the ones that were new to me again as I go through the library's holdings of Vega albums. I still like Vega better now than I did in the 1980s. I think it's largely that nobody's pushing her on me now.
American Banjo: Three Finger and Scruggs Style - I really liked this one. I'm not usually big on instrumentals, but I like this style of banjo playing a lot. I listened to this five or six times.
Baez, Joan. Baptism - I didn't care for this one. More than half of it was Baez reading poetry with no music. I found the selections chosen to be universally depressing. I didn't bother to finish the album, so things might have changed in the last third. I don't know.
Baez, Joan. The First Ten Years - Eh. There was nothing wrong with this one, but it also didn't make a big impression on me. I still like Baez's voice.
Baez, Joan. How Sweet the Sound - I was a little bit puzzled that an album with this title didn't include "Amazing Grace," but apart from that, I enjoyed this one.
Baez, Joan. Ring Them Bells - I liked this one, too.
Belafonte, Harry. All Time Greatest Hits v. 1 - Belafonte's music is catchy. I find myself moving in time to it even when I don't know the song, even when I'm sitting otherwise still.
Belafonte, Harry. An Evening with Harry Belafonte and Friends - I only got to hear the first four songs on this one. I was kind of expecting that because I noticed that the CD had deep scratches. I tried our scratch removal thingy, but the scratches were still there. I liked as much as I heard.
Belafonte, Harry. Jump Up Calypso - It's a pity the library doesn't have more Belafonte. I think there's one, maybe two, more albums before I've run through all of what they've got. I enjoyed this one.
cELLAbration! a Tribute to Ella Jenkins - This is an anthology of kids' folk music. None of the songs made me want to run out and buy a copy.
Chieftans. The Celtic Harp - I didn't like this as well as I liked Water from the Well, but I enjoyed it overall. It was kind of soothing.
Chieftans. Water from the Well - I liked this a lot better than I liked the previous Chieftans album I tried. I'm glad I gave them a second chance. I liked the instrumentals better than the vocals.
Chieftans. The Wide World Over - This had a lot of vocals, and I tend to like the Chieftans better when there aren't vocals. So this is not one I'd revisit.
A Child's Celebration of Folk Music - I quite liked this one. The performers were uniformly good, and I enjoyed the songs they chose to perform. I think I found this one in the library catalog because Pete Seeger performs a song on it. If Cordelia were five years younger and not so focused on Disney pop music, I'd buy this for her.
A Child's Celebration of Silliest Songs - Somehow, these weren't silly enough for me. I'm not sure what I expected. There was nothing actively wrong with the songs, and the performances were decent. It just wasn't what I was looking for.
A Child's Celebration of Song - I waited too long to write this one up. I can't remember a thing about it. Judging by the others in the series, it was probably inoffensive.
A Child's Celebration of the World - This one wasn't bad. There was nothing actively wrong with it. It just made very little impression on me. It was the sort of thing where I'd look up and realize that three or four songs had gone by without my having really heard any of them. I'm never sure whether to put that down to the album or purely to me.
Clancy Brothers with Lou Killen. Greatest Hits - These were largely familiar songs, but most of them sounded just a bit off to me. I wonder if it's the difference between Lou Killen and Tommy Makem.
Clancy Brothers with Tommy Makem. The Very Best of the Clancy Brothers with Tommy Makem - It seems like every Clancy Brothers CD the library has consists of the same dozen or so songs. That makes singing along easier, but it also means there's nothing new coming through.
Classic Labor Songs - Taken one by one, I liked most of these songs, but the cumulative effect was depressing because I couldn't help thinking how bad things are for unions right now and how badly many industries need a union.
Give US Your Poor: 17 New Recordings to Help End Homelessness - These songs raise awareness of an important issue, but I don't think I want to listen to any of them again.
Ian, Janis. Breaking Silence - I ended up listening to this just before it had to go back to the library. Losing so much time to headaches left me behind on listening to my library CDs. I enjoyed this one quite a bit.
Ian, Janis. Folk Is the New Black - I liked this better than I did The Essential Janis Ian. I can't say that it made a strong impression on me, but I didn't dislike it. The songs were pleasant enough to make me take another look at Ian's CDs.
Lightfoot, Gordon. The Very Best of Gordon Lightfoot Vols. I & II - I lost the last two songs on this one due to scratches. The first half of this was familiar to me because I own it on LP, but I didn't know all of the songs in the second half.
Lunceford, R.D. Cotton Blossom - Eh. There was nothing wrong with this. It was perfectly acceptable as background music while I did other things. It just lacked some spark that I'm looking for. I think it was too mellow for me.
Martin, Reed. Old Time Banjo - This was okay. I wouldn't mind listening to it if it just happened to be on. Unfortunately, it lacked something that I want in music. I have no idea what, just that I wouldn't go out of my way to hear this again.
Martin, Steve. The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo - I enjoyed this. I was a bit dubious because I know nothing about Steve Martin as a musician and wasn't sure how seriously he'd take it. As it turns out, he takes it seriously enough to make a good album. There were a lot of other musicians involved (I'm not sure Martin did any of the vocals), but I couldn't find information anywhere on the insert to tell me who was doing what. That frustrated me.
Mitchell, Joni. Shine - I don't know if I'm going to try more Mitchell. I don't dislike what I've heard of her music, but it doesn't really catch me either. It's just kind of there. The album ends, and not a single song has made a solid impression on me. If I were willing to work more at it and listen to the songs without doing anything else at the same time, who knows? But I'm looking for stuff I'll enjoy while I do other things.
Old Time Banjo - The sound quality on this was kind of poor. There was crackling over all the music. I found it distracting. The music was pretty good, but I wouldn't listen to it again unless I could get a version without the static.
Peter, Paul & Mary. In These Times - These were songs of social activism, by and large. I like Peter, Paul & Mary, so I enjoyed these. Nothing caught my attention and demanded a second listen, however.
Putumayo Presents American Folk - I get these anthologies in hopes that something on them will make me want to find more music by one (or more!) of the artists. For this one, I found that most of the artists sounded kind of alike and had a raspy vocal quality that I don't like.
Reno, Don. Don Reno: Founding Father of the Bluegrass Banjo - When the CD came up in iTunes, the information was mangled a bit-- It lists the artist as 'Reno The Don.' Unusually for me, I liked the instrumental tracks better here than I did the tracks with vocals. Not that the vocals were unpleasant-- The men singing had nice voices. I just wanted to hear the instruments.
Seeger, Pete. American Favorite Ballads vol. 5 - I didn't like most of this one. Seeger seems to be hit or miss for me.
Seeger, Pete. Song and Play Time - Most of the library's Seeger CDs currently have wait lists, but nobody had requested this one, probably because it's music for children.
Seeger, Pete with the Rivertown Kids and Friends. Tomorrow's Children - I'm still waiting for the wait lists to die down for Seeger's adult albums. This one was reasonably fun. The kids sang more than I expected and were better than I expected.
Songs of the Civil War - The case for this was pretty minimalist. It didn't even give a song list. I regretted that because the information on the second CD track list was wrong-- It claimed all the songs were performed by 'The Samples,' but I could hear that they were all performed by different people (and at least one was definitely performed by Pete Seeger). I liked this album better than I expected to. The performances were generally good even when the songs weren't my sort of thing, and that's by no means a certain thing with a Smithsonian Folkways album.
Southern Journey, vol. 3: 61 Highway Mississippi: Delta Country Blues, Spirituals, Work Songs & Dance Music - I neglected to write this one up right away, so the details have slipped my mind. I seem to recall that this one was okay. I might actually have liked some of the songs if I'd listened to them more than once.
Sowing the Seeds: The Tenth Anniversary - This is a two CD set. The first CD is all protest and political songs. I didn't enjoy it much-- Not that it was bad music. It's just that those sorts of songs depress me more than energize me. The second CD is more my sort of thing. The subtitle for that is 'Love, Hope and Appleseed.'
Teng, Vienna. Waking Hour - I'd seen Teng mentioned on DW/LJ, and I was curious. I didn't mind this album. I could tell that, with repeated listening, I might actually like it. That just seemed like a lot of work, however. This reminded me of things I used to listen to in high school, back in the days when I actually listened to the radio and encountered new music that way.
Vega, Suzanne. Close-up. Vol. 1, Love Songs; Close-up. Vol. 2, People & Places; Close-up. Vol. 3, States of Being; Close-up. Vol. 4, Songs of Family - This set seems to be an anthology sort of thing, pulling from all sorts of different albums. I recognized some songs and not others. I expect I'll encounter the ones that were new to me again as I go through the library's holdings of Vega albums. I still like Vega better now than I did in the 1980s. I think it's largely that nobody's pushing her on me now.
