Deep River of Song: Georgia [Original recording remastered] Review

To a certain extent, in terms of historical purposes, I feel that almost all the Lomax recordings are essential documents. Having said that, they all attain various degrees of musical success. What I mean is, some you'll want to hear over and over again, and others you'll feel you can do without.
This is one of my favorite discs in the Deep River Of Song Series.
I have noticed that this website doesn't bring up every disc in this series with just a "Deep River Of Song" search. In the interest of helping people find these discs here, I'll name every other disc in the series.
South Carolina
Bahamas 1935
Bahamas 1935 Volume 2
Mississippi: The Blues Lineage
Mississippi: Saints and Sinners
Black Texicans
Big Brazos
Black Appalachia
Virginia and the Piedmont
Alabama
Now, onto Georgia. First and foremost, this disc is an essential purchase for Blind Willie McTell fans. From a handful of excellent performances to some commentary and small interviews interlaced with the music, he once again displays his full wealth of musical and emotional power. Just hearing him talk about parents in the fields singing during the old days will be enough to get you all choked up.
There are also a couple good tracks of some of the music from one of the Georgia Sea Islands.
If you are wondering which few discs to pick and choose from the Deep River Of Song series, I would definitely recommend this be one of the ones you choose to buy.

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Dead Man Walking [Soundtrack, Import] Review

This isn't exactly a review of the Dead Man Walking Soundtrack -- you can find that under one of the other listings for that CD.Rather, it's a Eddie Vedder/PJ-centric review of this particular Legacy Edition version of the CD.The Legacy Edition of the Dead Man Walking Soundtrack is a bit different in that it includes Eddie Vedder's "Dead Man," which was originally left off the original soundtrack (and the movie) because it conflicted with Bruce Springsteen's eponymous tune.Not exactly a reason to go out and buy this CD, since "Dead Man" can already be found on PJ's "Lost Dogs" album.Likewise, while the Vedder duets with undisputed master of Quawali, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, "Face of Love" and "Long Road" are pretty awesome, the complete extended versions are on the Dead Man Walking Score (not soundtrack), along with some other tunes featuring Nusrat, so you should buy that instead.

The reason to buy this Legacy Edition package is that it includes a DVD of the "Not in Our Name" charity concert denouncing capital punishment at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles in 1998.Politics aside, the concert includes Steve Earle, Lyle Lovett (accompanied by cellist John Hagen), Ani DiFranco and then a very cool set by Eddie Vedder with Jeff Ament, John Densmore (from the Doors), David Robbins (Tim Robbins' brother, who did the movie score), along with Nusrat's nephew, Rahat Nusret Fateh Ali Khan and Dildar Hussain (on tabla).Nusrat died in early 1998, so couldn't make it here, and the acoustic mini-set by Vedder and Co. is something of a tribute concert.First, Vedder plays the Cat Stevens tune, "Trouble," a nice plaintive tune with Ed on vocals and acoustic guitar.Pretty cool.Then he does "Dead Man" with Jeff (who's on acoustic bass) -- this is such a great song and apparently one of PJ's favorites.Finally they sit down with the rest of the players for "Long Road" and "Face of Love."Everybody's pretty chill, sitting cross-legged out on a rug spread onstage, and the group tunes have great interplay between Rahat and Eddie.Eddie's even doing the Nusrat parts near the end.Of course, Rahat is no Nusrat, so it's not quite as good as the score, but it's live and pretty inspired.Parts of the mini-set used to be available on YouTube, but no more -- someone from Sony must have gotten upset -- so here's where to go for the music and the footage.

Ed clearly revered Nusrat and was influenced by his singing (e.g., "Arc" on 'Riot Act'), and it's a pity they didn't have the chance to collaborate more.But this gives you some idea of the potential, and this 30 minutes of music was well worth the (used) price I paid for the soundtrack.

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Afro-American Blues and Game Songs Review

This is possibly the worst transfer of data into digital format that I have ever heard.I have a 30 year old copy of this album on vinyl that I carefully recorded in MP3 format.The quality of this home recording maintains the fidelity of the original recording infinitely better than this CD.I bought the CD hoping for a better digital format, not worse.I am sending back this opened and played CD to Amazon.com today.Let's see how they respond to a return that is based soley on the fact that it is an incredibly inferior product.One final note.The music of the original recording will make any effort you take to find one of the older vinyls well worth your effort.

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Salvatore Adamo en Chile [Live][Import] Review

If you whant 1 cd from Adamo, thats the one you have to get. You're live in de stade de Chile while playing this music.

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Blue's [Import] Review

The Blue's album ment Zucchero's breakthrough in Italy and certain parts of Europe, it's a nice mixture of rock, soul and a touch of blues. The cd contains many now Zucchero-classics like the original version of Senza una Donna, Con le mani, Pippo, Hey Man and the beautiful Hai Scelto Me. If you like this album you might also want to buy the '95 Spirito DiVino album and the '01 Shake album (featuring a duet with the late John Lee Hooker)!

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Metropolis [Import] Review

How many times we italians who leave in the States are disgusted by the the stuff they sell here as "italian music"? Tired of mandolins from Neaples? Bothered by "Oh sole mio" and "Volare"? Do you want something more than the usual pummarola-music, "facciamoci quattro spaghi, sei italiano dunque mafioso, la pizza si mangia con sopra l'ananas" etc... Here you have Guccini at his best, an experienced musician, a novelist and wine drinker in the "Osterie" (bolognese pubs) all the time. Listen to "Venezia", "Bologna", "Bisanzio", "Black-out"... Juicy! Probably his best album.

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La Tarantella: Antidotum Tarantulae [Import] Review

I heard this recording in a shop on a Friday evening a couple of years ago. I listened for a couple of minutes and I bought it then and there. This is a very unusual Early Music recording.

Instead of the usual polite and rather staid Tarantellas we often hear on recordings of Italian folk music today, this is wild and untamed music, much more suited to dancing tarantula venom out of one's system!

Christina Pluhar's L'Arpeggiata ensemble includes: three singers, 2 Baroque harps, theorbo, 4 Baroque guitars, 2 archlutes, colascione (a kind of lute), 3 "chitarra battente", psaltery, lirone, viola da gamba, cornamuse and percussion. The sounds are very rich and colourful.

The singers, Marco Beasley, Lucilla Galeazzi and Alfio Antico, sing with great verve and "naturalness" - Marco Beasley, for instance, is a tenor, but he doesn't let himself get too bogged down by his Classical technique here. This is music with a Folk origin and everyone concerned with this recording seems to have kept that in mind. The result is full of energy, colour (as I said) and rhythmical energy.

I cannot describe the music on display here, it defies description. However, take my word for it, this is a great recording and I think you will find it as fascinating as it is entertaining.

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