Monday, May 29, 2006

Alright it's Folk Music Week again, just like I threatened. Er, promised! No Rock and Roll, no progressive rock, psychedelic rock, or krautrock. Just folky-type stuff. Great stuff all around though, hope everybody finds at least one thing this week that they like.

John Martyn - The Road To Ruin (1970)

'The Road To Ruin', John and Beverley Martyn's second studio album, released in 1970 was the follow up to the couple's excellent alternative folk-jazz styled debut album released earlier that year. Many listeners think of John Martyn, the solo artist but reality is that before that, he and his wife Beverley put together two excellent and often overlooked albums. These ultimately kick-started John Martyn's career and allowed him to be more noticed when he began his solo work.

'The Road To Ruin' is quite simply a brilliant album from start to finish. John Martyn himself didn't think this album was as good as their first effort, saying it lacked spontaneity but in my opinion, this album is far superior to their Stormbringer debut. Aside from being husband and wife, John and Beverley Martyn were an excellent match as musicians too. Beverley Martyn has a brilliant voice, it has a unique flow to it. Sadly she never really did any solo work herself after this - her voice is so, so underrated. John Martyn himself is an excellent musician. His guitar playing is first rate, as are his jazzy performances on the piano. His singing on this album is much clearer than in later works where he adopts a more drawling style. There's great incorporation of other instruments on the album such as the saxophone which works very well. Also, the backing musicians which feature in part on this album were those who were to form the nucleus of John Martyn's solo work instrumentation.

The 9 tracks on the album are an excellent mix of folk and jazz styles. 'Primrose Hill' opens with a great piano sequence before Beverley sings the lyrics serenely, with the saxophone cleverly intertwined into her words. 'Parcels' has a style to it which would characterise much of John Martyn's later work, with his characterful acoustic guitar playing. 'Auntie Aviator' is a 6 minute masterpiece and in my opinion is the best on the album. Beverley Martyn sings about flying through the sky and you literally feel as though you are when you listen to it. 'New Day' makes a relaxing acoustic track with a great flute charcterising the track, John Martyn sings this one. 'Give Us A Ring' is much more mellow in its style but it has a great chorus to it with John and Beverley harmonising. 'Sorry to be so long' is much more upbeat with a real jazzy style and is followed by 'Tree Green', more reflective where John Martyn sings about time passing by. 'Say What You Can' is another jazzy track, with a killer piano part and plenty of vocals with real presence from Beverley. 'Road To Ruin' is a great finisher. John Martyn starts this one off very thoughtfully but it progresses in a much more brighter section with a great climax.

'The Road To Ruin' is a classic which many people will not be simply aware of. Its a shame the couple couldn't do any more albums but sadly pressure from John's record company for him to go solo, his drug addiction and subsequent divorce from Beverley prevented this. This is a great album which will not disappoint you - its really relaxing to listen to after a long, hard day. (amazon.com)

Download

Gurnemanz - No Rays Of Noise (1977)

This is an awesome album of progressive folk-rock from German group Gurnemanz. Very much in the style of UK folk-rock ala Fairport Convention or Spriguns, singer Manuela Schmitz has an amazing voice and could give Sandy Denny a run for the money!The male vocalist, Lukas W.Scheel, has got a real Fairport-y delivery also. The musicianship is stellar and the songs, whether sung in English or German, are great. The version of John Barleycorn is one of the best I've heard. Not to be missed by anyone who likes the music of Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span, or Mandy Morton/Spriguns.

Part 1 Part 2

Caedmon - Caedmon's Hymn (1978)

Precious little information about this obscure Irish folk-rock group is available. All I could find was this blurb from the label, Kissing Spell: "Caedmon's privately issued 1978 LP, has since it's rediscovery in 1992, been established as an expensive collectors item, rated as the best folk-rock album ever made, perhaps 2nd only to “Mellow Candle”. The sublime sound of Caedmon results from an unusual blend of styles, the fragile female vocals, admirable use of tension and atmosphere, savage fuzz-guitar, art rock leanings - everything from exquisite understatement to frantic show-off musicianship - a classic, by golly!".

Download

Hank Williams - Beyond The Sunset (1963)

Collecting together all of Hank Williams' recordings done under the name of Luke the Drifter, this is the most preachy, weepy, maudlin album you will ever hear! My God. Little boys' funerals. Alcoholism. Heartbreak. Songs to dead relatives. There is something definitely a little spine tingling, listening to Hank Williams talking and preaching above a churchy organ. You really have to hear this. Well if you're a Hank Williams fan anyway.

Download

Clannad - Clannad 2 (1974)

Here on their second long player, Clannad 2, the family band from Ireland's county Donegal is at their finest. Anchored by the lovely haunting vocals and harp of Maire Ni Bhraonian, with deft backing instrumentation and harmony from her two brothers and twin uncles, Clannad makes deliciously mournful folk rock of traditional tunes. While synthesized New Age territory has become their stock in trade through the group's evolution, the band's early sound puts them in the beloved peer group with the likes of Planxty, Fairport Convention, the Incredible String Band, and Steeleye Span. Whistles, electric piano, mandolin, and guitars form the framework for 11 stunning pieces, sung in Irish and complemented by surprisingly tasteful flute leads. Clannad 2, highly recommended, is gently psychedelic Britfolk with a dark medieval undercurrent. (Paige La Grone-amazon.com)

Download

Bob Dylan - The Emmet Grogan Acetates (1963-1965)

This is a great sounding boot of outtakes from the sessions for "The Times They Are a-Changin", "Another Side of Bob Dylan", and "Bringing It All Back Home". Not really much more to be said I guess - it's Bob Dylan!

Download

Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys - Live 1969

Recorded at Watermelon Park, Berryville, VA, this is a great show featuring some bluegrass classics like "Man of Constant Sorrow", "Pretty Polly", "Hills of Roan County" and on and on, seventeen tunes in all. For fans of the high lonesome sound.

Clinch Mountain Boys:

Larry Sparks - guitar
Curly Ray Cline - fiddle
Ed Ferris - bass
Lonnie Bolen - guitar

Download

John Prine - Diamonds In The Rough (1972)

The fireworks that accompanied the appearance of John Prine's 1971 debut cast a long shadow over its deceptively modest follow-up.Diamonds in the Rough admittedly isn't as laden with contemporary folk standards in the making as its predecessor, but it stands with 1978's Bruised Orange as one of Prine's most unified collections. Working in an acoustic setting, the raw-voiced wordsmith explores a melancholy milieu with "The Torch Singer," "Souvenirs," and "Rocky Mountain Time." "Everybody" recounts a conversation with a down-to-earth Almighty while "Billy the Bum" and "Take the Star Out of the Window" focus respectively on a local character and a weary Vietnam vet. Those are all excellent songs, but Diamonds in the Rough's strength lies less in the tunes themselves than in how sympathetically they're performed and sequenced. (Steven Stolder-amazon.com)

Download

Richard & Linda Thompson - Before Joe Could Pull The Trigger

This bootleg contains the original tracks of "Shoot Out The Lights", recorded with producer Gerry Rafferty. Richard was disappointed in the results and scrapped the project, recording the album again, starting from scratch, with new producer Joe Boyd. Richard and Linda sometimes swap vocal parts, different instruments are used, lyrics are changed sometimes. A very interesting album that also includes some demo versions and unreleased tracks as bonus material. Every Richard Thompson fan needs this one!

Part 1 Part 2

Steeleye Span - Hark! The Village Wait (1970)

Originally released by British RCA, this debut album by Steeleye Span's original lineup -- Ashley Hutchings (bass), Tim Hart (electric guitar, electric dulcimer, banjo, harmonium, vocals), Maddy Prior (vocals, banjo), Terry Woods (mandola, mandolin, electric guitar, vocals), and Gay Woods (vocals, concertina, bodhran) -- barely made it out the door before Gay and Terry Woods exited. This was probably the best singing edition of Steeleye Span, with Gay Woods and Maddy Prior melding beautifully on tracks like "Dark-Eyed Sailor" and "My Johnnie Was a Shoemaker," and Terry Woods adding some realistic coarseness on "The Hills of Greenmore." The sound is fully electric here (with superb playing on the epic "Lowlands of Holland"), if not as aggressive as later albums -- Hart, Hutchings, and Woods comprise a good core band, and Gerry Conway and Fairport Convention's Dave Mattacks sit in on drums. (Bruce Eder, All Music Guide)

Download

OK that's it for this week!

20 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Great Eclectic set of Roots/Folk LP's. I love these occasional excursions into Folkdom. Many thanks for these

3:10 AM, May 30, 2006  
Blogger rich said...

There's a great variety found during folk week! I find myself naturally drawn to the Germanic sounds of Gurnemanz, I don't know why. Never heard of it before so props to Gar as always.

3:35 AM, May 30, 2006  
Blogger Paxjorge said...

Thank you so much for the John Martyn album! I got to know his music as a student and have been looking for this album ever since! Wow, thanks.

4:12 AM, May 30, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

great set of albums -- Clannad 2 in particular is an old fave.

10:29 AM, May 30, 2006  
Blogger Ben said...

Hey man, I saw your link on RPGTraders. Thought I'd come check it out!

10:53 AM, May 30, 2006  
Blogger jim kosmicki said...

that's it? this is a great collection of downloads. the Thompson boot is the real gem as far as I'm concerned, but this is the best set I've seen you upload yet.

10:13 PM, May 30, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks for the Steeleye Span, been looking for that for a while now.

12:54 PM, May 31, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I used to listen to Steeleye Span's Village album a lot - a long lost friend is finally found -Thank you very much for posting this beautiful album!
If you have more Steeleye Span it would be very much appreciated.
Thank you, thank you.

4:40 PM, May 31, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

hi, i uploaded a chilean band from the 60's called "los vidrios quebrados"...i want to know if you can put the link in your site

10:36 AM, June 01, 2006  
Blogger GarColga said...

Hi j.t. - you're welcome.

Hi rich - Yeah that Gurnemanz is great isn't it? I like it a lot. Thanks to CassandraWitch for that one.

Hi Paxjorge - you're welcome and thanks for the comment!

Hello anonymous - OK!

Hi Ben - I have a link on RPGTraders? I've never played a RPG in my life!

Hi jim kosmicki - thanks.

Hi gammon - you're welcome as always.

Hello anonymous - you're welcome.

Hi anonymous - a Chilean album from the 60's doesn't really fit here. Feel free to post the links in the comments section though.

4:00 PM, June 01, 2006  
Blogger GarColga said...

Hi Wilko - thanks for the kind words. I'm no expert, but I think you are screwed if you want to play mP3's on an audiophile system. No program can replace the information that was lost when the file was compressed. I have a $200.00 Sony receiver and a pair of ancient AR speakers, and mP3's over 128 sound OK, but then I am unable to really crank the volume. So Mp3's are OK for me.

You can find albums posted in lossless formats on torrent sites, but probably not too many of the type I post here.

But hey like I said I'm no expert - maybe somebody else has an answer for you.

12:21 PM, June 02, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

well, here you have the link to download a chilean band from the 60's called "los vidrios quebrados"...it's really good

http://rapidshare.de/files/21291338/Los_Vidrios_Quebrados_-_Fictions.rar.html

2:21 PM, June 02, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Gar,
always appreciate the rare trip into olkdom didn't grab anything this week but had several and know they are excellent...plus when you trip over stacks o albums and cds in your house you have to slow down a little sometimes..keep up the great site and let me know if you are looking for any other weird albums

Thanks,
Ryan

8:11 PM, June 02, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

There is a possibility of analog-like sound. I'm using the Steinberg Wave studio software with lots of plug-ins. Some of them are able to add special types of distortions but it’s not so easy work and not always it means improvement in the sound quality. There is also possibility to buy or build lamp amplifier which is real miracle for this kind of music despite the fact of mp3 compression. I’ll discus with garcolga if he will be willing to add the Steinberg Wave studio on his blog I have a cracked version.

5:32 AM, June 03, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Gee Gar, never thought I'd claim to enjoy a Steeleye Span record! Thanks for that. Major re-appraisal of folk genre in order.

Me in the UK

12:19 PM, June 05, 2006  
Blogger zhao said...

just linked to you...

leo

http://differentwaters.blogspot.com/

2:23 AM, June 10, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

thanks, really enjoyed the RALPH STANLEY, right up on the speedy bluegrass. also the DYLAN is keen, natch.

12:22 PM, July 24, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The track 18-22 are missing fom
Gurnemanz - No Rays Of Noise (1977)

Thank you

2:51 PM, July 26, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I've been searching for 'Auntie Aviator' from 'Road to Ruin' for 20 years. All I could remember was 'Zoom zoom zoom... we won't come down', which had a trancelike effect on me when I heard it back in the 70's.

Later I went thru songs like 'Bless the Weather' expecting to hear the 'zoom zoom' chorus. Started to think I'd imagined it, especially when I remembered that another old favourite, 'Bass Strings' from Country Joe and the Fish 'Electric Music' has a similar chorus, ie 'We'll fly so high, we'll never come down'.

But my memory turns out to be correct, I even remembered the green rough cardboard cover of the LP. Only I thought it was John singing, that's what confused my search.

'Ruin' is harder to find than Stormbringer. Thanks for sharing it, fantastic.

1:16 AM, October 01, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi,

I'm very interested in this record:

Burundi Black / Burundi Black
Label: BCM Records
Track Title
1. The First Part
2. The Voice Of Africa Remix
3. The African Root Remix
4. The Second Part

Can You help me???

With best wishes, Carmen

11:05 AM, November 05, 2006  

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