|
Artist |
Album |
Genre |
Notes |
|
Quicksilver Messenger Service |
any of their releases |
Rock |
One of the original San Francisco psychedelic rock
bands… and perhaps the best. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Eric Satie |
3 Gymnopedies |
Classical |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ahmad Jahmal |
Ahmad's Blues |
Jazz |
Virtuoso jazz pianist & composer. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mutubaruka |
Any Which Way.. Freedom |
Dub Poetry |
Heavy political comment in poetry set to music. Like Gil
Scott-Heron, some have said Mutubaruka's work set the
stage for the rise of rap. If so, that's a bad thing but
it doesn’t lessen his work. |
| |
|
|
|
|
Bob Marley |
Babylon by Bus |
Reggae |
Live album and catches a little of the magic that was a
Bob Marley concert. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Steeleye Span |
Below the Salt |
English Folk Rock |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Big Shoulders |
Big Shoulders |
Folk Rock |
Chicago blues/folk influenced rock. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ike Quebec |
Blue & Sentimental |
R&B |
Great 50s juke jazz sax. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dick Dale |
Calling Up Spirits |
Surf Guitar |
The King of the Surf Guitar. 'Nuff said. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
(multiple artists) |
Camp Cuisine Tapes |
Singer/Songwriter |
Great music from the campfires at the Kerrville Folk
Festival. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Pete Seeger, Si Kahn & Jane Sapp |
Carry It On |
Topical |
Union folk music |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Richard & Mimi Farina |
Celebrations for a Grey Day |
Singer/Songwriter |
60's folk revival featuring Appalachian dulcimer.
Richard Farina died too young. A pity. |
| |
|
|
|
|
Clannad |
Crann Ull |
Celtic |
Clannad's first five albums were exemplary traditional
Irish Celtic music, much of it in Gaelic. There later
work, as they began to move into the pop culture
mainstream, is disappointing. |
| |
|
|
|
|
Pentangle |
Cruel Sister |
English Folk Rock |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings |
Dap Dippin' |
R&B |
This group actually does _true_ R&B (not "Contemporary
R&B") today. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Nick Drake |
Five Leaves Left |
Singer/Songwriter |
Coin toss between this and Pink Moon. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Alturas |
From the Heights |
World |
Andean folk music |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Maloney, O'Connell & Keane |
Green Fields of America |
Celtic |
Live in Concert |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dick Gaughan |
Handful of Earth |
Celtic Singer/Songwriter |
Scottish celtic traditional music & original songs with
a political bent. |
| |
|
|
|
|
(multiple artists) |
Hard Cash |
Singer/Songwriter |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Stan Rogers |
Home in Halifax |
Singer/Songwriter |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tom Russell |
Hurricane Season |
Country |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Utah Phillips |
I.W.W. Rebel Voices |
Topical |
Activist, anarchist & great story teller. This is
actually a multi-artist CD. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Vernard Johnson |
I'm Alive |
Gospel |
You don't often hear sax in gospel music, but Vernard
Johnson does it and he wails. |
| |
|
|
|
|
Fairport Convention |
In Real Time |
English Folk Rock |
Hard to choose only one, but let's go with this live
reunion from long after their heyday. |
| |
|
|
|
|
Stevie Ray Vaughan |
In Step |
Blues |
Nobody bent notes like Stevie. "Riviera Paradise" is
quietly beautiful, somehow appropriate for the final
track on his final album. |
| |
|
|
|
|
Bill Morrissey |
Inside |
Singer/Songwriter |
Folk singer/songwriter with quietly beautiful lyrics
about life in New England. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
It's a Beautiful Day |
It's a Beautiful Day |
Rock |
San Francisco psychedelic rock with violin. Excellent. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Klezmatics |
Jews with Horns |
Klezmer Rock |
Klezmer rock? Yes. And its good. Check out "Rhythm &
Jews" also. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Frank Zappa |
Joe's Garage, Acts I, II & III |
Avant-garde Rock |
The Mothers of Invention's first album -- "Freak Out" --
literally changed my life. Zappa was a very interesting
cat and created a lot of very interesting music, though
most of it certainly didn't seem so on the surface. And
he was infatuated with doo-wop. Why? I guess we
shouldn't ask such questions of people who may well have
been geniuses. I absolutely love Joe's Garage but be
forewarned... Zappa was fearlessly uninhibited and this
one will probably offend more than amuse most people. |
| |
|
|
|
|
Bob Dylan |
John Wesley Harding |
Singer/Songwriter |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rusty Wier |
Kum Bak Bar & Grill |
Country |
Great Texas roadhouse country performer. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sun Ra |
Lanquidity |
Jazz |
Some of the most avant-garde jazz ever. Sun Ra
steadfastly maintained he was born on the planet Saturn
and listening to his music you sometimes wonder if that
was true. Most difficult for many people to listen to
but there is undeniable brilliance in much of it.
Unfortunately many of the recorded performances were
sloppy and mailed in. This album is not the most
representative I could have selected -- I think it is,
by far, his most accessable recording -- but its the one
I've decided to take with me. |
| |
|
|
|
|
Warren Zevon |
Learning to Flinch |
Rock |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Fairport Convention |
Liege & Lief |
English Folk Rock |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Clash |
London Calling |
Punk |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mary Gauthier |
Mercy Now |
Singer/Songwriter |
I'm new to Gauthier so this is a bit of a gamble but I
think she's going to be in my ears for a long, long time |
| |
|
|
|
|
B.W. Stevenson |
My Maria |
Country |
B.W. would have been big in Progressive Country if the
genre had existed while he was alive. |
| |
|
|
|
|
Bruce Springsteen |
Nebraska |
Singer/Songwriter |
Springsteen is clearly one of the consumate rockers of
all time. But "Nebraska" is spare, quiet & masterful.
Also check out "The Ghost of Tom Joad" (which I
dismissed on first listen but grew to love) and "The
Seeger Sessions", which is Springsteen as a string band
leader and clearly having a great time. |
| |
|
|
|
|
Robert Earl Keen |
No Kinda Dancer |
Country |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tom Waits |
One From the Heart |
Singer/Songwriter |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Al Stewart |
Past, Present and Future |
Pop |
A guilty pleasure of mine. Stewart is barely rock,
really closer to pop, but he writes such literate lyrics
and the music is quite nice if not very substantial. |
| |
|
|
|
|
Pete Seeger |
Rainbow Race |
Folk |
So much to chose and only one I can select. OK, I'll
close my eyes and pick this one. |
| |
|
|
|
|
Tom Paxton |
Ramblin' Boy |
Singer/Songwriter |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Igor Stravinski |
Rite of Spring |
Classical |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sonny Rollins |
Saxophone Collosus |
Jazz |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Michell Shocked |
Short, Sharp, Shocked |
Singer/Songwriter |
Great folkie type album. The later Captain Swing was
also good but everything else has disappointed. |
| |
|
|
|
|
Tom Waits |
Small Change |
Singer/Songwriter |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Magic Slim |
Snakebite |
Blues |
No frills, house-rocking Chicago blues. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Spirit of the West |
Spirit of the West |
Folk Rock |
Canadian folk rock. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan |
Swan Song |
Qawwali |
Sufi Qawwali devotional music of the first order. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Billy Bragg |
Talking With the Taxman About Poetry |
Folk/Punk |
Folk/punk, often with a political bent. An amalgam of
his first three releases. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sonny Rollins Quartet |
Tenor Madness |
Jazz |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Incredible String Bad |
The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion |
Psychedlic Folk Rock |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
John Renbourn Group |
The Enchanted Garden. |
Celtic Rock |
English folk rock. "Sidi Brahim" is particularly
notable. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bruce Springsteen |
The Ghost of Tom Joad |
Singer/Songwriter |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ted Hawkins |
The Kershaw Sessions |
Singer/Songwriter |
A street musician by choice, Hawkins songs always stay
with me. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Keith Jarrett |
The Koln Concert |
Jazz |
Virtuoso jazz pianist. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Traffic |
The Low Spark of the High-heeled Boys |
Rock |
Heavily jazz-influenced rock. Traffic actually
introducted me to jazz. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
(multiple artists) |
The Silverwolf Homeless Project |
Singer/Songwriter |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bob Dylan |
The Times They Are A-Changing |
Singer/Songwriter |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Steve Earle |
Train A Comin' |
Alt Country |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Captain Beefheart |
Trout Mask Replica |
Avant-garde Rock |
Jazz influenced avant-garde rock of the highest order. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Judy Collins |
True Stories & Other Dreams |
Singer/Songwriter |
The last interesting album from Judy Collins. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Jeff Beck |
Truth |
Rock |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Fats Domino |
Walkin' to New Orleans |
R&B |
One of the prime movers in 50's New Orleans R&B. This
album also features Ray Charles & Jerry Lee Lewis. Great
stuff. |
| |
|
|
|
|
Judy Collins |
Whales & Nightingales |
Singer/Songwriter |
This is a very good album but its really here because
occasionally my soul simply must hear "Farewell to
Tarwaithie" again. |
| |
|
|
|
|
Velvet Underground |
White Light/White Heat |
Rock |
Punk long before punk. Brilliant and still influential.
Their debut (The Velvet Underground and Nico, aka Peel
Slowly and See) would be my second choice. |
| |
|
|
|
|
Gil Scott-Heron |
Winter in America |
Jazzistry |
Politically-charged street poetry set to music. If
Scott-Herons' work set the stage for the rise of rap --
as some opine -- that's a bad thing but I always heard
him more in the lineage of the beat poets but formed by
the political turmoil of his time. |
| |
|
|
|
|
Armor & Sturtevant |
You Dance Like You Drive |
Singer/Songwriter |
I don't know anything about these folks but I sure do
like the album. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cherry Poppin' Daddies |
Zoot Suit Riot |
Swing |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dougie MacLean |
|
Celtic Folk Rock |
Celtic folk rock with a political bent |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Roomful of Blues |
|
Jump Blues |
One of the best and longest lasting jump blues bands
around. The list of graduates from Roomful of Blues is
simply mind-boggling, including Duke Robillard, Lou Ann
Barton, Al Copley, Ronnie Earl, Ron Levy & Curtis
Salgado, among others. |
| |
|
|
|
|
Steve Goodman |
|
Singer/Songwriter |
What a wonderful songwriter Goodman was. I don't often
care for novelty songs but Goodman wrote a lot of them
and I can still listen to all of them over and over
again. |
| |
|
|
|
|
Ravi Shankar |
|
Indian |
Needs no introduction or explanation. His daughter
Anoushka updates classical Indian music in most
interesting ways. |