"DOWN HOME" #15 Sunday, August 23, 1998
Hosted by Chuck Taggart (e-mail chuck) |
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BUDDY MILLER - Nothing Can Stop Me [POISON LOVE/Hightone] Terrific new country music from longtime Jim Lauderdale and Emmylou Harris sideman. THE WACO BROTHERS - Hard Times [DO YOU THINK ABOUT ME?/Bloodshot] One of the flagship bands of "insurgent country" label Bloodshot; their second album. LONESOME RIVER BAND - Devil Chased Me Around the Stump [FINDING THE WAY/ Sugar Hill] Sweet bluegrass from an excellent band which includes Don Rigsby and Sammy Shelor. Produced by Jerry Douglas. GEOFF SEITZ - Suppertime [THE GOOD OLD DAYS ARE HERE/Occana Productions] St. Louis, MO fiddler of the Ill-Mo Boys, whom I met at Clifftop. Superb fiddling on traditional old-time, Irish and even Inuit tunes plus a couple of originals. CLYDE DAVENPORT - Ryestraw [CLYDEOSCOPE/County LP] More fiddlin', this time from Monticello, Kentucky. LLOYD CHANDLER - A Conversation With Death [HIGH ATMOSPHERE/Rounder] An unaccompanied song by a singer from Sodom, N.C. (ain't that some hometown name?) I couldn't let the set get too happy now, could I? WALT KOKEN - Ground Hog [FINGER LAKES RAMBLE/Mudthumper] Formerly of the Highwoods String Band; solo banjo and singin', snickerin' and grinnin'. THE BALFA BROTHERS - J'ai Vu le Loup, Le Renard et La Belette [J'AI VU LE LOUP, LE RENARD ET LA BELETTE/Rounder] A Cajunized version of an old French children's song, from a marvelous album recorded on location in Basile, LA in 1975. CANRAY FONTENOT - Les Barres de la Prison [LES HARICOTS SONT PAS SALES/ Cinq Planètes] Fabulous new release on a French label, the soundtrack of a film made by a French documentarian in Acadiana in the early 70s. Great location recordings of informal jam sessions and performances by some of Cajun and Creole music's greatest. This is Canray's classic Creole blues number, with Bois-Sec Ardoin on accordion and Rodney Balfa on guitar. GENO DELAFOSE AND FRENCH ROCKIN' BOOGIE - Bayou Pon Pon [LA CHANSON PERDUE/ Rounder] A zydeco-ized version of a traditional Cajun song from Geno's excellent new release. WOODY GUTHRIE - Philadelphia Lawyer [THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND: THE ASCH RECORDINGS, VOL. 1/Smithsonian-Folkways] Woody wrote this song after reading a newspaper article about a "Philadelphia lawyer" (a term for a shyster) getting shot by a jealous cowboy, and thinking it was funny. With Cisco Houston on harmony vocal. GILLIAN WELCH - Miner's Refrain [HELL AMONG THE YEARLINGS] From her superb second album. Hmm, I shoulda played this one with some Hazel Dickens coal mining songs, but I forgot her record. Ah well ... I'll do a miner's set in a few weeks. CHRISTY MOORE - Blackjack County Chains [single, B-side of "Welcome to the Cabaret", SMOKE AND STRONG WHISKEY/Newberry] Excellent version of Red Lane's song that I last heard on the last Del McCoury album. This version differs from the album version in that it has an uilleann pipe solo that's missing from the album ... very cool. JOE HENRY - Good Fortune [SHORT MAN'S ROOM/Mammoth] 1992 release, featuring the Jayhawks on harmony vocals. LA BOTTINE SOURIANTE - Le Rap à Ti-Pétang [LA MISTRINE/Milles-Pattes] My favorite Quebecois band ever, and one of my favorite bands period. ALEX FRANCIS MacKAY - McGlashan Jig [A LIFELONG HOME/Rounder] Traditional fiddler from Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia MARY JANE LAMOND - Bòg a'Lochain [SUAS É!/BMG] A strathspey with Gaelic vocals, from Cape Breton. I like this album a lot. THE IGUANAS - Arrimate [SUGAR TOWN/Blowout Records] New self-release from one of the best bands in New Orleans; traditional Mexican music and Latin R&B filtered through a New Orleans groove. LYDIA MENDOZA - Aunque Venga Muy Borracho [LA GLORIA DE TEXAS/Arhoolie] Ballads and 12-string guitar, from a legend in Tejano music; she began her recording career in 1928. GUARDABARRANCO - Canción Pequeña [CASA ABIERTA/Redwood] Brother-sister folk duo from Nicaragua. JUAN LUIS GUERRA - Fogarate! [FOGARATE!/Karen-BMG] Superstar merengue musician's version of a soukous song by Diblo Dibala. CHERISH THE LADIES - Miss Maule's/Alta's Reel/The Five of Diamonds/ The Pilltown Reel [THREADS OF TIME/RCA Victor] A blast of reels from some of the finest women artists in Irish music, who've gathered in various incarnations for 11 years. ALTAN - Tuirse Mo Chroí (Tiredness of my Heart) [ALTAN LIVE/Green Linnet] Altan were performing during my shift, at the Neighborhood Church in Pasadena. SAM BARTLETT - Anderson's [SWAMP CEILI/Stuntology and Tuneology] Tenor banjoist from a variety of New England contradance bands goes Irish with the help of a bunch of Cajun musicians (including Christine Balfa and Dirk Powell) BUTCH CAGE AND WILLIE THOMAS - Forty Four Blues [I HAVE TO PAINT MY FACE/ Arhoolie] From a compilation of Mississippi blues, recorded in 1960; Cage was a fiddler born in 1894. MERCY DEE - Five Card Hand [MERCY'S TROUBLES/Arhoolie] Texas piano blues, recorded in 1961, a year before Mercy Dee Walton's death. OCTA CLARK - Black Top Blues [YOU CAN'T GO WRONG... IF YOU PLAY IT RIGHT!/ Field Span Music] Recorded when Octa was 89; he's been playing accordion now for 84 years, and to the best of my knowledge still plays dances on occasion. BOIS-SEC ARDOIN - Allons danser (un autre petit bout) [ALLONS DANSER/Rounder] A brief snippet recorded live during Cajun Week at the Augusta Heritage Workshop, Elkins WV, in 1994. DWIGHT DILLER - Muskrat [NEW PLOWED GROUND/Yew Pine Mountain Music] With Peter Irvine from Cordelia's Dad on bones THE FREIGHT HOPPERS - Dark Hollow Blues [WHERE'D YOU COME FROM, WHERE'D YOU GO?/Rounder] One for the Deadheads, as we head into Sarcastic Deadhead and The Grateful Dead Hour... |