The critical consensus at the end of 2000 was that it had been one of the weakest film years in recent memory. Which may have been true, despite O Brother, Where Art Thou?, the Coen brothers' delightfully warm and weird Depression-era re-telling of Homer's Odyssey. But for music lovers, 2000 was an amazing year at the movies, and it produced ...
The debut album by Peter, Paul & Mary is still one of the best albums to come out of the 1960s folk music revival, a beautifully harmonized collection of the best songs that the group knew, stirring in its sensibilities and its haunting melodies, crossing between folk, children's songs, and even gospel ("If I Had My Way"), and light-hearted just ...
Bob Dylan's first album is a lot like the debut albums by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones -- a sterling effort, outclassing most, if not all, of what came before it in the genre, but similarly eclipsed by the artist's own subsequent efforts. The difference was that not very many people heard Bob Dylan on its original release (originals on the ...
After looking at the cover of Gillian Welch's debut album, Revival, and listening to the first two cuts, "Orphan Girl" and "Annabelle," you'd be tempted to imagine that Welch somehow stumbled into a time machine after cutting some tunes at the 1927 Bristol, TN, sessions and was transported to a recording studio in Los Angeles in 1996, where T-Bone ...
Old Crow Medicine Show is an all-acoustic quintet from four states whose members met in New York City and currently reside in Nash Vegas. Their storied beginnings include a North American cross-continent ramble while they learned their instruments and how to play together, eventually ending up playing on the street in front of the Grand Ole Opry ...
Tigerlily, Natalie Merchant's first solo record, does sound different than 10,000 Maniacs. Instead of relying strictly on jangly folk-rock, Merchant continues opening her music up as she did on Our Time in Eden, her last album with the Maniacs. From the understated groove of "Carnival" to the rolling "San Andreas Fault," the added emphasis on ...
Few artists will offer the story of a lighthouse, sung in the first person, but Nickel Creek has a flair for the unusual. "The Lighthouse's Tale," is but one of a dozen good reasons to enjoy this self-titled release. Produced by Alison Krauss, it features an eclectic collection of material, original and borrowed. Highlights include the ...
"Greatest Hits," as Seeger himself wryly wrote in his liner notes, is a misnomer considering that he never had hit singles or huge-selling albums as a solo artist, though actually "Little Boxes" (included here) made the lower reaches of the charts. In reality this 1967 compilation (since reissued on CD) collects the most popular tracks of his 1962 ...
The soundtrack to a film about a woman music scholar's travels in Appalachia is largely devoted to contemporary versions of traditional folk songs by an impressive roster of female vocalists. Rosanne Cash, Emmylou Harris, Maria McKee, Dolly Parton (dueting with Emmy Rossum), Gillian Welch, Iris DeMent, and Patty Loveless are the big names here, ...
It's hard to overestimate the importance of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, the record that firmly established Dylan as an unparalleled songwriter, one of considerable skill, imagination, and vision. At the time, folk had been quite popular on college campuses and bohemian circles, making headway onto the pop charts in diluted form, and while there ...
Despite having scored a series of major hits in the early '50s, starting with "Goodnight Irene," which topped the charts for 13 weeks, the Weavers were hounded out of existence in 1953 as part of the anti-Communist witch hunts. Although Senator Joseph McCarthy, whose scurrilous activities gave the McCarthy Era its name, had been condemned by the ...
A remarkable debut, Infamous Angel established Iris DeMent as one of the greatest artists of her generation. With her gift for poignant, confessional songwriting and a voice that makes raw beauty seem like a brand new thing, she invokes the elemental magic of the Carter Family while sounding as fresh and modern as John Prine (who, not surprisingly ...
This double album opens with a then-new Bob Dylan song, "The Times They Are A' Changin'," and closes with the best-known song ever written by Pete Seeger and Lee Hayes, "If I Had a Hammer." That seems to sum up Peter, Paul & Mary, but In Concert offers a lot more than that. The surprises include vignettes in blues and gospel, and, most notably, ...
If The Times They Are a-Changin' isn't a marked step forward from The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, even if it is his first collection of all originals, it's nevertheless a fine collection all the same. It isn't as rich as Freewheelin', and Dylan has tempered his sense of humor considerably, choosing to concentrate on social protests in the style of ...
Shel Silverstein is a hard guy to pin down, which is part of not only his charm, but his genius. He's best known as a children's author, but also was a Playboy cartoonist who couldn't resist a dirty joke. He penned novelty songs, but also could write songs as heart-wrenching as "Silvia's Mother" and "Once More With Feeling." He was also a terrific ...
British Columbia's Be Good Tanyas took their bluesy, north country folk to some fairly dark places on 2003's Chinatown, and while some of those shadows may have wandered into the studio during the recording of their third full-length collection Hello Love, the homespun Canadian trio seem bent on pulling the blinds up this time around and letting ...
Canadian folkies the Wailin' Jennys aren't opposed to throwing down the occasional sea shanty or English drinking song. Multi-talented singer/songwriters Ruth Moody, Nicky Mehta, and Cara Luft -- the latter left the group soon after the album's release and was replaced by Annabelle Chvostek -- formed the group in 2002 after sharing the stage as ...
Joan Baez's second album, recorded when she was 20 years old, is a hearty helping of folk masterpieces that give ample evidence to exactly how she was established as a leader of the contemporary folk scene of the day. The material chosen is truly exceptional, from the beautifully stark British ballad "The Trees They Do Grow High" to the tragic ...
For many years, this 13-song collection was the best introduction to Peter, Paul & Mary that one could find. Not only did it contain all of the trio's hits, but it was also, until 2005's Warner/Rhino compilation The Very Best of Peter, Paul & Mary, the closest thing to a cross-section of the group's sound that existed. From the acoustic folk sound ...
From the opening track's mournful oboe, cor anglais and uillean pipes it's obvious this will be an excursion into a Celtic evening. But what starts out engaging enough, with David Arkenstone's artful blending of synthesizer and pennywhistle to the vocals of Triona Ni Dhmohnaill and Lisa Lunne's Celtic harp, soon turns dark. The tunes conjure ...
Essentially a compilation for the U.S. market, where the first three albums were unreleased, Rant and Roar samples tracks from the more commercially oriented second and third albums. While some great tracks are missing (notably a few from the first album), the songs included on this collection nevertheless provide a pretty representative and ...
The Rankin/Bass animagic film Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer first appeared on December 6, 1964. Since then, it has become the longest-running of all holiday TV specials (with, we hope, no end in sight). It's fitting that the grandfather of all Christmas specials features Burl Ives, still remembered warmly by millions as the voice behind the film ...
Not to be confused with Anti's excellent POTC movie tie-in Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs & Chanteys, Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: Swashbuckling Sea Songs collects 14 seafaring singalongs that aim their cannons at the children who have spent time on the legendary theme park ride. The goofy renditions of classic sea shanties like ...
Like many Rhino compilations, this is geared more to the novice or the casual fan than the aficionado, but that's not a criticism. If someone wants a basic primer of the bluegrass sound past and present that manages to be accessible and avoid unduly clichéd track selection, this 18-song compilation fits the bill well. Most of the biggest names are ...
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