Now Playing on Festival Radio
Sunday, October 10, 2004
John Wesley Harding, Hem, and Cowboy Music
Once again, I have failed to win either a Nobel Prize or a MacArthur "genius grant."
You have to admire the chutzpah of someone who, in his early 20s, performs under a stage name taken from a Bob Dylan album, proclaims himself the "bastard son" of Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, and then records his debut CD as a solo live album. Well, that's John Wesley Harding, and Appleseed Records has just re-released that solo live album (It Happened One Night) as a two-CD set with a second CD of unreleased studio tracks from around the same time period (It Never Happened At All) including many of the same songs. It's interesting to see several of the songs "in process," as a couple tunes eventually saw studio release on later albums. Overall, a must-have for any John Wesley Harding fan, and an early look at what JWH does best - one man with a guitar conquering a stage.
The new Hem CD, Eveningland, is simply gorgeous. I had to drive out to the suburbs for a church meeting the evening after it arrived in the mail, and I took it with me, and it blissed me out so much that it didn't stress me out too much when some moron in an SUV with a W04 sticker nearly ran me off the road. Anyway, Eveningland is filled with lushly arranged , country flavored slow- and mid-tempo tunes featuring the phenomenal voice of Sally Ellyson.
I received an excellent collection of Western music this last week, and have decided to pronounce next week as "Cowboy Week" on the Online Folk Festival.
Any time I get a CD where the bio proclaims the artist as a Kerrville New Folk Finalist, I sit up and pay attention. Not surprisingly, Eric Balkey's CD, While the Paint Dries, is a fine collection of acoustic folk. The standout track is a tribute to Dace Carter, "God's Poet Now."
I found the new gospel CD from Chanticleer at Used Kids on Saturday morning. Man, is that CD fine. The guys in Chanticleer, one of the premier classical vocal groups, throw down on a mess of spirituals with special guest Bishop Yvette Flunder. If you like gospel music driven by tight vocal harmonies, with creative arrangements, then track down How Sweet The Sound.
Nathaniel Maloney is a young singer/songwriter from Northeastern Ohio. While most of his album is indicative of his youth (cliched, often trite, with a significant amount of syllables forced unnaturally into the meter), there were a couple songs I found I could play.
Kathy Fleischmann is a singer/songwriter from New York. She has a pleasant voice, and her album Unresolved contains some excellent acoustic folk.
You have to admire the chutzpah of someone who, in his early 20s, performs under a stage name taken from a Bob Dylan album, proclaims himself the "bastard son" of Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, and then records his debut CD as a solo live album. Well, that's John Wesley Harding, and Appleseed Records has just re-released that solo live album (It Happened One Night) as a two-CD set with a second CD of unreleased studio tracks from around the same time period (It Never Happened At All) including many of the same songs. It's interesting to see several of the songs "in process," as a couple tunes eventually saw studio release on later albums. Overall, a must-have for any John Wesley Harding fan, and an early look at what JWH does best - one man with a guitar conquering a stage.
The new Hem CD, Eveningland, is simply gorgeous. I had to drive out to the suburbs for a church meeting the evening after it arrived in the mail, and I took it with me, and it blissed me out so much that it didn't stress me out too much when some moron in an SUV with a W04 sticker nearly ran me off the road. Anyway, Eveningland is filled with lushly arranged , country flavored slow- and mid-tempo tunes featuring the phenomenal voice of Sally Ellyson.
I received an excellent collection of Western music this last week, and have decided to pronounce next week as "Cowboy Week" on the Online Folk Festival.
Any time I get a CD where the bio proclaims the artist as a Kerrville New Folk Finalist, I sit up and pay attention. Not surprisingly, Eric Balkey's CD, While the Paint Dries, is a fine collection of acoustic folk. The standout track is a tribute to Dace Carter, "God's Poet Now."
I found the new gospel CD from Chanticleer at Used Kids on Saturday morning. Man, is that CD fine. The guys in Chanticleer, one of the premier classical vocal groups, throw down on a mess of spirituals with special guest Bishop Yvette Flunder. If you like gospel music driven by tight vocal harmonies, with creative arrangements, then track down How Sweet The Sound.
Nathaniel Maloney is a young singer/songwriter from Northeastern Ohio. While most of his album is indicative of his youth (cliched, often trite, with a significant amount of syllables forced unnaturally into the meter), there were a couple songs I found I could play.
Kathy Fleischmann is a singer/songwriter from New York. She has a pleasant voice, and her album Unresolved contains some excellent acoustic folk.
