Folk /
Guitar soli
The debt that modern guitarist composers owe to the late Robbie Basho can hardly be overstated. Though Fahey invented the genre and Kottke proved its marketability, it was Basho's technique, vision, and self-image that resonated most strongly with Will Ackerman and the so-called New Age guitar movement he founded. It's a crime Basho's music hasn't been available on record for many years. Now older guitar fans can welcome back an old friend and newer ones can learn where it all came from on this …
America
Though America was released in 1971 as a single LP, finger-style guitarist John Fahey conceived it as a double album. This CD finally allows Fahey's full vision to be heard (an additional nine tracks are included here for the first time). It's a true treat for Fahey lovers. The title track features the guitarist on the 12-string guitar, sounding more resonant than ever on the seven-minute composition. "Dvorak" is based on the composer's Eighth Symphony, which Fahey tackles in fine fashion. Fahey…
It's So Hard To Tell Who's Going To Love You The Best
Now Available on Special Edition CD & DVD Set* Living in a media-saturated era where an artist can go from utter obscurity to 'the greatest' within a matter of mere months, it really does pay to look backwards and dig-out genuine gems that have shouldered the weight of a few decades and seem all the fitter for it. 'It's So Hard To Tell Who's Going To Love You The Best' from the late Karen Dalton is one such record. The subject of fevered crate-digging by those in-the-know for years, 'It's So Har…
Radio Algeria
2006 release, repressed! Radio Algeria is a multi-dimensional assembly of audio culture from the Mediterranean coast to the undefined border areas of the Sahara Desert and beyond. This is perhaps the most diverse collection of the Algerian listening experience ever presented featuring raw Berber folk, modern Arabic pop, sacred Islamic traditional, Andalusian orchestral, Guesba (the origin of Rai), classic early Rai, Khabyle, Tuareg, Saharaui, and hybrid music styles influenced by Europeans to th…
Our Times
Homestead & Wolfe was a very obscure folk-harmony group based around the United Methodist Good Samaritan Church in California. The songs were recorded between 1973-75 and released with few copies. The album was almost forgotten until it was reissued in 2004. Comprised of two female vocals, one male vocal with superb male and female harmonies throughout. The group performed original material in a rich, melodic folk-rock-country style that is well executed, as well as earnest and personal.
Southern Comfort
Recorded when legendary blues harpist Walter 'Shakey' Horton visited the UK in 1968, "Southern comfort" is a superb showcase for his talents as well those of bass player Jerome Arnold (BUTTERFIELD BLUES BAND), drummer Jessie C. Lewis (BUTTERFIELD BLUES BAND) and trailblazer guitarist Martin Stone (SAVOY BROWN/MIGHTY BABY). Though mostly a superb blues set, however, it is best known today for the epic closing track (over 12 minutes) one of the most mind blowing psychedelic workouts ever recorded.
Orient Express
Recorded by a Frenchman, a Belgian and an Iranian whod wound up in New Yorks East Village via extensive travels out East, this 1969 classic is arguably the finest fusion of traditional Middle Eastern music and psychedelia ever recorded. Featuring guitar and drums as well as oud, electric sitar, melodica, dumbek and minitar, its a hypnotic, compelling blast from start to finish. As the original sleevenotes state: Like the train whose name they bear, the Orient Express travels easily from West to …
Holy Music
Recorded in San Francisco in August 1966, and originally released on the M.G.M./Verve label, this collection of lengthy, acid-tinged folk instrumentals is one of the earliest specifically psychedelic albums ever recorded, and it makes its CD debut here. As the original sleevenotes state: "Malachi's music transcends the traditions of East and West, and represents the new synthesis which is still being worked out in aesthetics, philosophy and religion by those participating in the psychedelic revo…
At Home
Dennis Lambert and Craig Nuttycombe had been on the fringes of LAs music scene for some time, including stints with bands such as the East Side Kids and the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, when they decided to proceed as a duo. This beautifully intimate 1970 release was recorded live at the home they shared in Sausalito, California, and co-produced by David Anderle (The Doors, Love), Chad Stuart (Chad and Jeremy) and Glyn Johns (the Beatles, the Rolling Stones). A mellow collection of self…
Light Of Day
This higly original 1966 collection has been called the first acid folk record of all time. Certainly its hippy themes and exotic instrumentation are well ahead of their time, but Kilroy died tragically young and his album has largely been neglected ever since, despite featuring legendary guitarist Stefan Grossman. This is its first CD appearance, and comes complete with explanotory liner notes making it a must for all fans of psychedelic singer-songwriters. Eastern dreamy and trippy trance/dron…
Moyshe McStiff And The Tartan Lancers Of The Sacred Heart
Featuring Incredible String Band founder Clive Palmer, COB (an acronym for "Clive's Original Band") made some of the most imaginative and moving music of their time, and this 1972 masterpiece is considered by many to be the finest folk record ever to emerge from the British Isles. Along with members Mick Bennett and John Bidwell, Moyshe McStiff and the Tartan Lancers of the Sacred Heart is an overwhelmingly beautiful and compelling collection of songs set to Eastern-tinged arrangements and Celti…
Requia & Other Compositions
In his liner notes to this release, John Fahey mentions his desire to have an entire world orchestra in his guitar, Western to Eastern, bagpipes to gamelan. Perhaps it's this mental approach that sets his music so deliciously far apart from other so-called folk guitarists. Requia is essentially in two sections. One is a series of blues-based pieces in line with music he had previously recorded. These include the lovely "Requiem for John Hurt" and a wry "Fight On Christians, Fight On," both of wh…
Of Rivers And Religions & After The Ball
This German Warner Bros. reissue is a nice repackaging of the late John Fahey's 1972 album Of Rivers Religion and his wonderfully genteel 1973 release After the Ball from his all too brief sojourn with the label. These recordings represent a shift for Fahey, playing both solo and with an ensemble. On Of Rivers Religion, the ensemble included many of the New Orleans players who performed on Walt Disney's Song of the South film soundtrack. Gorgeous, slow, ringing slide and fingerplucked tones esta…
Happy Sad
One of the best albums of the late '60s and Tim Buckley's most underrated album, Happy Sad was a change-up pitch for the eclectic L.A. singer/songwriter. Sounding like a bit like Fred Neil's Capitol-era albums, Buckley and his small, acoustic-based ensemble create beautiful, jazz tinged folk-rock.
Dream Letter: Live In London 1968
Recorded in London's Queen Elizabeth Hall on July 10, 1968 this impressive 2-hour live concert presents the Washingtonian prodigy folk singer at his best. He was only 21 years old when he had this incredible chance to show the world his talent which would carry him through a short but prolific career -- 9 albums released between 1966 and his death in 1975. Accompanied by Lee Underwood, David Friedman and Pentangle's bass player Danny Thompson, Buckley caressed his 12 string acoustic guitar in an…
Seal Of The Blue Lotus
Seal of the Blue Lotus is the 1965 debut from the extraordinary folk guitarist Robbie Basho, who released numerous albums for John Fahey's Takoma label during the '60s. His mystical approach to six- and 12-string guitar improvisation shares many similarities to John Fahey in that Basho, too, was inspired by Eastern modalities -- his six-string melodies recalling the Indian ragas of Ravi Shankar's "Dhun in Musra Mund." "Mountain Man's Farewell" is an outstanding piece that displays the early seed…
Dr. Boogie Presents Rarities from the Bob Hite Vaults
These rare pieces are taken from Bob Hite's fabulous collection of 78rpm records. A historical collection that helped, in its own way, save from oblivion the rural bluesmen who have dropped out of the scene decades ago and made possible their reintegration to history. Everyone is now entitled to hear this chunk of the treasure. Compiled by the famous DJ Dr Boogie with the help of Fito De La Parra (Canned Heat drummer).
Dr. Boogie Presents Shim Sham Shimmy
Is it really possible to imagine what modern music would sound like if a few pioneering geniuses had not had the idea of electrifying their instruments, especially guitar and harmonica, between 1945 and 1950? Some purist will regret this evolution, but, in the '50s, the new sound will be heard in all the studios and night clubs of the United States; it will become a staple on the radio, in stores, at weddings, and private parties. It will radically transform the music scene and allow hundreds of…
Oh, Run Into Me, But Don't Hurt Me! - Female Blues Singers (Rarities 1923 - 1930)
...Female Blues Singers - Rarities 1923-1930. LP version, previously issued on CD. The Sub Rosa label presents a collection of works from obscure and forgotten female blues singers. These voices have survived, through hardship and death, through the dark years of The Great Depression, when profoundly sincere and ferociously ironic blues were at their peak. However, this selection does not constitute a theme-based anthology: it is simply a few little-known female blues singers whose ambiguous lea…
s/t
The classic 1969 recording, originally released on the Poppy label, was Texas country blues & folk singer Townes Van Zandt's third full-length release...influenced by Hank Williams, Bob Dylan and Lightnin' Hopkins, Van Zandt's unique style -- at times brooding and introspective, at times relentlessly forceful and dynamic -- spoke to the dark corners of the human soul, and has been claimed as an influence by everyone from Sonic Youth to Willie Nelson...