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Pete Seeger American Favorite Ballads, vol 3, Smithsonian Folkways, 2004.
There are five CDs in this series, all terrific - this is just the one I have in front of me. Pete's 90th birthday is May 5th, and thank God for Pete Seeger. He's done as much to keep traditional American music vital for the past sixty years as anyone - maybe more than anyone.
This one's crammed with gold nuggets: Gypsy Davy, Erie Canal, Arkansas Traveler - 27 in all! Sing along with it, Pete wouldn't have it any other way.
Jimmie Rodgers The Very Best Of, BMG, 1997.
It's not a new release: sue me. If you love American music and you don't have any Jimmie Rodgers in your collection, get this one. Twenty-two examples of why "The Singing Brakeman" was the father of country music, whose influence extends in a straight line through Hank Williams, Merle Haggard, Doc Watson, Emmylou Harris, and more, more, more...
The sound quality - for recordings made in the 1920s and '30s - is unbelievable. It's an import, of course, on BMG's Camden label.
Bettye LaVette The Scene of the Crime, Anti, 2007.
Criminally overlooked soul diva (frankly, we never knew about her) teams up with the Drive-By Truckers. Mismatch? Not at all: DBT have familial roots in the same Muscle Shoals studios that spawned some of LaVette's early work, and the combination works like a charm. Grooves galore, and oh, that voice: seen a lot of tough times but knows she's tougher.
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Gone Gone Gone
Miserable errand-driving on the freeway, punky distorto guitar in rockabilly rhythm cuts through the airwaves courtesy of KRSH, male-female harmony kicks in, and I'm hooked.
What is this? Sounds new...but, uh, old. The harmonies are terrific, vibrato-laden, each singer stepping out, then back, some great song about being gone, gone, gone... No back-announce. Found it when I got home, though, and you could have knocked me over with a feather and a hard shove: it was Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, wailin' on an Everly Brothers tune!
Ubiquitous mystery man T Bone Burnett produces. Album coming out in October, featuring tunes by the likes of Waits, Gene Clark, Townes, and Mel Tillis, and backing by the likes of Mike Seeger, Norman Blake, Greg Leisz, and Marc Ribot. Can't wait.
Neil Young, Live at Massey Hall 1971
This set catches old caveman Neil as he is just establishing himself as an artist with a unique vision and the musical sensibilities to make it real. He's playing solo, accompanying himself on guitar and piano in front of a warmly receptive hometown Toronto crowd.
With the provisional success of After the Gold Rush behind him but the definitive smash album Harvest still to come, Neil exhibits characteristic fearlessness in presenting brand new songs - some written just days before, and some not even yet finished, with complete conviction. And what songs. He is already well on his way to establishing the oevre that dominated the 70's singer-songwriter landscape: Old Man, Helpless, Heart of Gold, The Needle and the Damage Done, Down By the River, I Am a Child - they're all here, only fresh and new.
Kris Kristofferson, This Old Road
So full of integrity, craft, sweetness, sadness, and passion, I want to listen to it constantly. And now that I have the whole thing nearly memorized, "How can I keep from singing?" Dale says Kristofferson’s voice is like a favorite pair of old leather boots or gloves or something like that.