CD Logging

[the_rck]

I only had comments on about half of these. Most of them were just kind of there, not particularly memorable one way or the other.

I've also not been getting CDs the last couple of weeks because I want to focus on some other things (like the Netflix DVD I've had since the beginning of September).

ABBA. The Definitive Collection - I knew about two thirds of these songs, so I had fun singing along. There's been an awful lot of overlap between the ABBA albums I've tried. That's good for singing along but bad for finding new music.

Bluegrass Number One Hits - I didn't love this, but it did give me some suggestions for people to check out in the library catalog. I'm not being very scientific about how I find more music. As long as I don't run out of things to try, I'll be fine.

Chapman, Tracy. Where You Live - I like Chapman's voice, but every time I listened to the lyrics on this, I got depressed. Pass.

Chenille Sisters. Room to Breathe

DeMent, Iris. Sing the Delta - I think I like DeMent better when she's singing duets than when she's singing solo. This is my second DeMent album, and I'm still meh.

Flatt, Lester and Earl Scruggs. Flatt & Scruggs: the Complete Mercury Recordings

Flatt, Lester and Earl Scruggs. Flatt & Scruggs: the Golden Era

Flatt, Lester and Earl Scruggs. 'Tis Sweet to Be Remembered: The Essential Flatt & Scruggs - I liked this one a great deal.

Fleck, Bela. The Bluegrass Sessions: Tales from the Acoustic Planet

Flesher, Bob. Bob Flesher's Old-Time Clawhammer Banjo

Flesher, Bob and the New Old-Time Band. Picking in the Blue Ridge

Galway, James and the Chieftains. In Ireland - Eh. This was a little too... sweet, maybe? It wasn't unpleasant, but it wasn't really more than just there for me.

Golden Age (Columbia Country Classics) - A good bit of this was what I'd classify as bluegrass. My guess is that the line wasn't as clear (is it clear even now?) between the genres when these performers were active. I enjoyed most of these songs in a general sort of way. I didn't fall in love with anything, though, or even feel drawn to listen a second time.

Gulley, Steve & Tim Stafford. Dogwood Winter

Harris, Emmylou. Elite Hotel

Harvey, Steve. Three Forks of Ivy - I liked this in a sort of general way. That is, it's the sort of music I enjoy, but nothing really stood out for me about it. I played it twice because it was pleasant.

Khaled, Cheb and Safy Boutella. Kutche - This wasn't bad. It was very much not the sort of thing I usually listen to, and I'm unlikely to seek out more like it, but I'm not sorry I listened to it.

Krauss, Alison. Forget About It

Krauss, Alison and Union Station. Lonely Runs Both Ways

Lawson, Doyle and Quicksilver. The Original Band - I quite liked this.

Listen to Me: Buddy Holly - This is another anthology of covers of Buddy Holly songs. The library has it catalogued as actually performed by Holly, but it's not. As I was expecting Buddy Holly, I was disappointed.

Lonesome River Band. No Turning Back

Mainer, J.E. The Early Years - At four CDs, this seemed to go on too long, especially as it wasn't really my thing. I didn't actively dislike it or I'd have stopped after the first CD (though continuing had more to do with not having many other library CDs than with anything else). I just don't care if I ever hear any of it again.

McCoury, Del, Doc Watson, and Mac Wiseman. Mac, Doc & Del

Midnight Cattle Callers. Midnight Cattle Callers - This CD is by a local group. iTunes labels the music as 'Country & Folk,' but there's a definite thread of rock music in it, too, enough that I had trouble deciding how to classify the album. Overall, I enjoyed this. It's not something I'm likely to buy, but I did listen to it twice.

Moore, Russell and IIIrd Tyme Out. Prime Tyme

Parton, Dolly. The Grass Is Blue

Reno, Don, Red Smiley and Bill Harrell. 1963-1972 Complete Starday King Recordings v. 3 - This four CD set was a pleasant listen. I don't think I feel the need to hear it again, though. Judging by the pamphlet in the box, the three men only sang together for a very short while (less than a year, I think), so this set covers the end of Don Reno's years with Red Smiley and all of Reno's time with Bill Harrell. Some of these songs were too overwhelmingly Christian for my taste. They weren't bad to listen to; they just addressed a Christianity with which I'm not completely comfortable.

Ronstadt, Linda. Duets - The library had a very long waitlist for this one, so it took me months to get it. I don't think it was worth the wait. There was nothing actively wrong with it. I just didn't care about most of the songs.

The Roys. Gypsy Runaway Train

The Roys. New Day Dawning

Saline Fiddlers. Kaleidoscope - The Saline Fiddlers are a high school group from a nearby town. I enjoyed some of this and didn't enjoy some of this. It was pretty good for a high school group.

Schickele, Peter. Piano Quintet No. 1; String Quartets Nos. 1 and 5 - I think I don't know enough to have a real opinion on this. It was just kind of there.

Scruggs, Earl with family and friends. The Ultimate Collection: Live at the Ryman

Seldom Scene. 15th Anniversary Celebration

Seldom Scene. Recorded Live at the Cellar Door

Simon, Paul. So Beautiful or So What

Simon, Paul. Song Book - I knew a lot of these songs in different versions, so I was continually thrown off by things not being as I expected. That distracted me from forming a clear opinion about these performances.

Simon, Paul. Songwriter - This is apparently some sort of retrospective. I recognized some of the songs in spite of not having listened to anything Simon has done since the 1980s. There were, of course, a lot of songs I didn't recognize at all.

Slayden, Will. African-American Banjo Songs from West Tennessee - This is an historically important recording, and I'm not sorry I listened to it, but I don't care if I ever hear it again. This is a recording from the early 1950s of a black banjo player then in his sixties. There aren't many such recordings.

Southern Journey vol 1: Voices from the American South - I think I've now listened to all the CDs the library has from this series. I suppose there's some level of irony in the fact that vol 1 is the last one from my point of view. I think all the CDs in this series are more useful as historical documents as opposed to being fun to listen to. I'm not sorry to have listened, but nothing's really stuck with me.

Southern Journey vol 7: Ozark Frontier - I'm not sure why I keep getting these. I seldom much like the music. I don't tend to actively dislike it, of course, but I don't have the right ear (or knowledge of musical history) to hear what's special about this sort of recording.

Southern Journey vol 9: Harp of a Thousand Strings - This recording was made in 1959 at the annual United Sacred Harp Musical Association Singing Convention in Fyffe, Alabama.

Southern Journey vol 11: Honor the Lamb - This is all performances by the Belleville A Cappella Choir of the Church of God and Saints of Christ. I rather enjoyed it. The CD skipped several times during the third or fourth song but didn't end up completely choking up.

Stanley Brothers. Clinch Mountain Bluegrass - This was okay. It didn't really catch me.

Stanley Brothers and the Clinch Mountain Boys. The Complete Mercury Recordings

Stanley, Ralph & Friends. Clinch Mountain Sweethearts - I liked this one.

A Tribute to Jimmy Martin: The King of Bluegrass

25 Bluegrass Classics, Vintage 60s: Songs of Rural America

Comments

[ken-3k.livejournal.com]

The "Southern Journey" series is the CD-era repackaging of the field recordings collected by Alan Lomax and his companion, the British folksinger Shirley Collins, in travels through the American South around 1959. They're primary folk song documents, in that the performers learned the material through the traditions of their communities. Probably not going to be a whole lot of easy listening, but they are, as you noted, significant historical documents. Most of the folk songs we have had to be collected from a "source singer" (meaning non-professional and probably non-trained) at some point.

Shirley Collins has had her own distinguished career as a singer. In her golden years she has put together a touring lecture about the collecting work with Alan Lomax titled "America Over The Water," and I think this evolved into a book, which I should try to get.