VA - Slavery in America : Redemption Songs 1914-1972 (3 CD, 2014/FLAC)

 

Work songs, ritual and festive music... the slavery sounds and rhythms have left a considerable mark on American popular music. In a 44-page critical essay Bruno Blum here details recordings inspired by that legacy, alongside performances of music composed in the days of slavery. He shows their influences from the Congo to the Caribbean and from Brazil to the USA. The intensity of these magnificient recordings – from songs of hope to the abolition of slavery, up to the Civil Rights movement and the flowering of free jazz – is a testimony of human resiliency. The titles included here recount the course of a major socio cultural event in our history. 

 

VA - American Primitive Vol. I + II (3 CD, 1997-2005/FLAC)

 

Early gospel and blues from the collections of Gayle Dean Wardlow and John Fahey.

John Aloysius Fahey (February 28, 1939 – February 22, 2001) was an American fingerstyle guitarist and composer who played the steel-string acoustic guitar as a solo instrument. His style has been enormously influential and has been described as the foundation of the genre of American primitive guitar, a term borrowed from painting and referring mainly to the self-taught nature of the music and its minimalist style. Fahey borrowed from the folk and blues traditions in American roots music, having compiled many forgotten early recordings in these genres.

Gayle Dean Wardlow (born August 31, 1940) is an American historian of the blues. He is particularly associated with research into the lives of the musicians Charlie Patton and Robert Johnson and the historical development of the Delta blues, on which he is a leading authority. 

 

Lead Belly - Lead Belly Legacy Vol. 1-3 (3 CD, 1996-1998/FLAC)

 

The bulk of the best performances by Leadbelly -- whose influence on the folk revival of the 1950s and '60s cannot be overstated -- were recorded during the '40s for Folkways Records founder Moses Asch. Inferior copies and re-recordings of these tunes have appeared over the years, but the original masters have sat in the vaults of Folkways. The three-volume Where Did You Sleep Last Night: Lead Belly Legacy collection shows what we've been missing: the compilers dug out the best available versions of Leadbelly's finest songs and carefully transferred them from the original acetate masters. As the liner notes promise, "these recordings can again be heard the way they sounded in the early 1940s, for in the original masters you can still hear the ringing of the guitar and thumping of the bass." This 34-song first volume is a must for anyone interested in the roots of American folk. It opens with "Irene," which (as "Goodnight Irene") became a national hit for the Weavers less than a year after Leadbelly died on welfare; it includes many more of his most-famous tunes, among them "Rock Island Line," "Cotton Fields," and "Good Morning Blues."

 

 

VA - Negro Folk Music of Alabama (6 CD, 2012/FLAC)

 

American folklorist Harold Courlander compiled this series (Negro Folk Music of Alabama) from recordings he made in rural Alabama in 1950. The album is an attempt to counter the stereotypes of black music that were popular in America during the middle of the 20th century. 

 

 

Odetta - 7 Classic Album Plus Bonus Radio Tracks (4 CD, 2011/FLAC)

 One of the strongest voices in the folk revival and the civil rights movement, Odetta was born on New Year's Eve 1930 in Birmingham, AL. By the time she was six years old, she had moved with her younger sister and mother to Los Angeles. She showed a keen interest in music from the time she was a child, and when she was about ten years old, somewhere between church and school, her singing voice was discovered. Odetta's mother began saving money to pay for voice lessons for her, but was advised to wait until her daughter was 13 years old and well into puberty. Thanks to her mother, Odetta began voice lessons when she was 13. She received a classical training, which was interrupted when her mother could no longer afford to pay for the lessons. The puppeteer Harry Burnette interceded and paid for Odetta to continue her voice training.

 

 

Sister Rosetta Tharpe collection [1996-2011]

 

Sister Rosetta Tharpe (March 20, 1915 – October 9, 1973) was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and recording artist. She attained popularity in the 1930s and 1940s with her gospel recordings, characterized by a unique mixture of spiritual lyrics and electric guitar that was extremely important to the origins of rock and roll. She was the first great recording star of gospel music and among the first gospel musicians to appeal to rhythm-and-blues and rock-and-roll audiences, later being referred to as "the original soul sister" and "the Godmother of rock and roll". She influenced early rock-and-roll musicians, including Little Richard, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis.

 

1996 - Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order [Document Records] (3 CD) 

1998 - Complete Sister Rosetta Tharpe Vol. 1 (1938-1943) (2 CD) 

2000 - Complete Sister Rosetta Tharpe Vol.2 (1943-1947) (2 CD) 

2003 - Complete Sister Rosetta Tharpe Vol.3 (1947-1951) (2 CD) 

2005 - Complete Sister Rosetta Tharpe Vol. 4 (1951-1953) (2 CD) 

2005 - From Blues To Gospel (2 CD) 

2005 - Gospel Train 

2005 - The Original Soul Sister - (4 CD) 

2007 - Gospel Feeling - Live at the Hot Club de France 

2008 - Complete Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Vol. 5 (1953-1957) (2 CD) 

2011 - Complete Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Vol. 6 (1958-1959) (2 CD)

Golden Gate Quartet - Complete Recorded Works Vol. 1-6 (1996-1999/FLAC)

 

Pioneer Virginia gospel/pop quartet of the '30s and '40s. Calling their innovative approach to sacred hymns "jubilee" singing, the Golden Gate Quartet, propelled by Willie Johnson and William Langford, enjoyed massive acceptance far outside the church. Their smooth Mills Brothers-influenced harmonies made the Gates naturals for pop crossover success, and they began recording for Victor in 1937. National radio broadcasts and an appearance on John Hammond's 1938 "Spirituals to Swing" concert at Carnegie Hall made them coast-to-coast favorites. By 1941 the Gates were recording for Columbia minus Langford, and movie appearances were frequent: Star Spangled Rhythm, Hollywood Canteen, and Hit Parade of 1943, to name a few. Some experiments with R&B material didn't pan out during the late '40s, and Johnson defected to the Jubilaires in 1948. The group emigrated to France in 1959; led by veteran bass singer Orlando Wilson, the Golden Gate Quartet's vocal blend is as powerful as ever. 

VA - Goodbye, Babylon [6 CD, 2004]

 

Goodbye Babylon is a 6 CD gospel reissue collection. 5 CDs contain 135 songs from 1902-1960 and the 6th disc is comprised of 25 sermons recorded between 1926-1941. Also included is a 200 page book complete with Bible verses, lyric transcriptions, and notes for each recording, plus over 200 illustrations.

Art direction and design by World of an Archie, the Grammy winning team behind "Screamin' and Hollerin' the Blues: The Worlds of Charley Patton," and other fine works such as "Dock Boggs Country Blues," and "Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music, Volume IV." - Sound restoration and mastering by Airshow Mastering, the team that restored the "Anthology of American Folk Music" (Smithsonian Folkways, 1997), and won a Grammy for their work on "Screamin' and Hollerin' the Blues: The Worlds of Charley Patton".

Reverently packed in raw cotton and housed in a deluxe 8" x 11" x 2.5" cedar box. Notes and essays by musicologists and scholars, including several Grammy winners. - Contributors include Lynn Abbott, David Evans, Ray Funk, Anthony Heilbut, Kip Lornell, Luigi Monge, Paul Oliver, Opal Louis Nations, Bruce Nemerov, Guido van Rijn, Ken Romanowski, Tony Russell, Doug Seroff, Dick Spottswood, Warren Steel, David Tibet, Gayle Dean Wardlow, and Charles Wolfe.