From: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org (shindell-list-digest) To: shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Subject: shindell-list-digest V9 #106 Reply-To: shindell-list@smoe.org Sender: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk shindell-list-digest Thursday, June 28 2007 Volume 09 : Number 106 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [RS] Fast Folk: rarities, gems and stinky-o's [Jim Colbert Subject: [RS] Fast Folk: rarities, gems and stinky-o's > Hey, that's cool that you were involved with nailing down track IDs > for > Folkways. Thank goodness for the FF volunteers helping to get this > stuff > down in the first place. I'm having a great time going through the > Fast Folk > recordings on Rhapsody. You know how it actually came about, I thought I had found a couple REAL Shindell rarities, probably three songs whose titles I had never heard. (Which should have sent up a warning flag right there, given how long I've been listening.) I buy 'em, download em, and I hear, like, Richard Meyer and David Massengill - nothing wrong with them, mind you, but the artists were clearly mislabeled on the tracks. Anyway, having had quite a few years of FF on vinyl, I offered to go through and help get things straightened out. And most of it was right, but some - for some reason, almost every track that included Christine Lavin - were way off! They gave me a number of album downloads as thanks, but that was a bonus after the fact - but I just wanted them to be right, y'know? (It was pretty much worth the time to me just to hear Gorka doing Leaving Soweto without the big pops and clicks that had always been on my vinyl.) Yeah, given the transient nature of the city and musicians and how hard it is to get volunteers, it was amazing they kept FF going as long as they did. From the stories I've heard, it was a challenge. And there really is some cool stuff in the FF vaults - the version of May with the extra half-verse (played on bouzouki, if I recall correctly); I've always been fond of that version of Memory of You. To this day, I prefer some of the FF live tracks to the Courier ones - - I like the starker, more raw feel. - -Jim C ps some of my other favorites from those Fast Folk days: Eddy Lawrence, Michael Jerling, Richard "hanging out with Norah Jones now" Julian, Frank Tedesso - and there's some neat stuff from familiar names like Gorka, Colvin, Tom Russell, even Lyle Lovett doing The Boat Song which preceded even his first album. Lest it sound like too much of a tasty folk buffet, though, there's also a lot of stuff that Lee Wesmman would have filed under "Stinky- o's," too. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2007 14:19:08 -0400 From: "Vanessa Wills" Subject: Re: [RS] Fast Folk: rarities, gems and stinky-o's On 6/27/07, Jim Colbert wrote: > > You know how it actually came about, I thought I had found a couple > REAL Shindell rarities, probably three songs whose titles I had never > heard. (Which should have sent up a warning flag right there, given > how long I've been listening.) I buy 'em, download em, and I hear, like, Richard Meyer and David > Massengill - nothing wrong with them, mind you, but the artists were > clearly mislabeled on the tracks. Bummer! Well, good that something good came out of it in the end. :) I'm sure you spared many RS fans from similar mishaps. And there really is some cool stuff in the FF vaults - the version of > May with the extra half-verse (played on bouzouki, if I recall > correctly); I've always been fond of that version of Memory of You. > To this day, I prefer some of the FF live tracks to the Courier ones > - I like the starker, more raw feel. Some of those FF tracks are just gorgeous. May stands out in particular--I always forget that extra half-verse is there and am struck by how much it adds to the song. The words are so simple "They'll be watching you, do not trust the phone," but something about the delivery just gets me every time. But then, May is one of my favorite songs, anyway--didn't we have a discussion onlist a while back about how it would fit perfectly in a film? It has such a cinematic quality to it. - --V - -- "True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring." - --Martin Luther King ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2007 15:12:26 -0400 From: "Vanessa Wills" Subject: Re: [RS] A beautiful cover of The Next Best Western On 6/19/07, Matthew Bullis wrote: > > Hello, I can't stop listening to this cover version of the song, as done > by > Lucy Wainwright Roche. I haven't heard Lucy W. R.'s version yet, but speaking of Next Best Western covers, there's one that a singer named Drew Nelson did a few years back on his album "Immigrant Son." I can't find any sign of it's being mentioned onlist. It's available on Rhapsody (I swear I do not draw a commission from this! lol). It's not bad at all, but maybe a little *too* faithfully rendered. I'm usually looking for an artist to put a little more of his or her own stamp on a song. By the way, some things on the Fast Folk recordings are still mislabeled. For instance, track two on Vol. 8, No. 8 is "The Next Best Western" performed by Richard himself, not a cover by Richard Meyer, Jack Hardy, Chuck Brodsky, and Catie Curtis the way it's listed on the Folkways website, or a cover by just Catie Curtis, which is how it's listed on Rhapsody. So if you're looking for Richard's Fast Folk stuff on Rhapsody or directly through Folkways, be sure not to miss that track. Anyway, speaking of covers, what does everyone here look for in a cover? [/shameless ploy to drive up list traffic] - --V - -- "True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring." - --Martin Luther King ------------------------------ End of shindell-list-digest V9 #106 ***********************************