Bluegrass! with The Lonesome Pine Fiddlers

The Lonesome Pine Fiddlers were an early band known mostly for their contributions to the world of bluegrass music. Formed way back in 1938 by cousins Ray, Ezra, and Ned Cline, they went through a number of personnel changes (including one that was needed after Ned Cline died in World War II), and eventually disbanded around 1966.

Although founding member Ezra Cline passed away in 1984, the band reunited for a reunion album in 1988, with Ray Cline's son taking Ezra's place. In October of 2009, the group was inducted into the International Bluegrass Hall of Fame.

I haven't been able to get much info on this specific album, but it appears to be a compilation, and it's positively SIZZLING. These guys can really play, and since this is truly first-generation, "old school" stuff, it's about the purest bluegrass music I've ever heard. One stand-out track is their recording of "Blue Moon of Kentucky" (track 3). Written by "The Father of Bluegrass", Bill Monroe, originally as a slow waltz in 3/4 time, the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers crank up the tempo and play it in 4/4 time instead. This song was later recorded by a number of other artists, including Elvis Presley and Paul McCartney, among others.

... ok, seriously now.

Readers, Fans, Music Lovers ... lend me your ears.

As you may have guessed, that last post ("What Is Money, Anyway?") was an April Fool's joke, since, of course, very few people actually like income tax season, and while a presentation about the history of money may by interesting in some regards, it ain't exactly "good time listening". More "serious" posts are coming soon, but I wanted to take a minute to clarify a few things about this blog, and its possible future.

After I started this blog, I often wondered about the legal issues around it, specifically with regards to copyright issues. After all, one of the great things people love about The Vinyl LP Resurrection Collection is that you can come and check out all this free "resurrected" music. However, having this available requires taking a certain amount of liberties with greyish-area legal matters. On one hand, most music is copyrighted in some way, but since in most cases, this is music from old records, the copyright holders are less likely to take issue with it being freely available. I almost like to think that some people might come to this blog, learn about an artist and their music, and maybe even buy an album of theirs based on what they discover here.

This issue hit home recently when a post on this blog was removed after a copyright violation was reported. Regular readers might remember a post featuring 1970s funk/disco group Shalamar and their album Uptown Festival on this blog for a short while, but since removed. So, to help avoid having this happen again (and for the greater good, since further infractions might result in the whole blog being removed), I have removed the links from each post that allow you to download the whole album, and want to stress that the music on this blog is for previewing purposes only.

If you are copyright holder of any of this music, and would like to have it removed, kindly let me know first, before reporting it to the good folks at Blogger, or the equally good folks at Box.net, our media storage provider. I will be happy to remove it as soon as possible.

Hopefully these measures will help everyone to be able to continue discovering all this great music that might be forgotten otherwise. Thanks for your continued support!

Cheers, Ryan

What Is Money, Anyway?

Ah, it's that time of year again - everyone's favourite season. INCOME TAX SEASON. My oh my, just the sound of those three words is enough to make any working person sigh contentedly and think of those joyful months of February through April, where we communally experience that magical thing we call "doing our income taxes". With all those long hours of confusing-but-exhilarating number crunching (and who doesn't love a challenge?) and barely understandable little rules and exceptions (but figuring them out is fun!), combined with the excitement and suspense of waiting to find out whether you'll have to pay MORE taxes rather than getting money back, I think it's safe to say that EVERYONE loves this season way more than any other annual holiday or event, including Christmas. VIVA INCOME TAX SEASON!

So, since we just can't seem to get enough "money talk" this time of year, and never get tired of thinking about it, let's delve a bit deeper into the history of money itself with a fun little audio presentation called "What Is Money, Anyway?", brought to us by the good folks at Standard Life. A great way to make the already super-fun INCOME TAX SEASON even more super-fun!

As a Canadian production, this program is also offered en francais with the title "L'Argent, C'est Quoi En Realité?".

Happy Love Day

In celebration of Valentine's Day, we have two "love album" selections for you and your sweetheart's listening pleasure.
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First is the aptly-titled LP "The Love Album" by Trini Lopez, an American singer of Mexican descent who was very popular in the 1960s for his "Latinized" versions of American pop hits, and still performs today.


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Second, we have selections from "Open Fire, Two Guitars" by Johnny Mathis, an icon in the realm of "romantic" music. I say "selections from" because this LP was not in the best condition; as a result, a few tracks were unplayable. The upside is that it's still a bit "crackly", so it's perfect if you have a fireplace to sit in front of with your sweetie, and let the album crackles complement the fireplace crackles.

Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah, singin' fi, fie, fiddly-i-o

Born Maurice Beaulieu in Edmunston, New Brunswick in 1920, Maurice Bolyer became known as "Canada's King of the Banjo".

He performed frequently on various radio and television shows in Canada and the United States, most notably as a regular on The Tommy Hunter Show in the 1960s and 70s. Aside from the banjo, he was skilled at a number of other instruments, particularly the piano. He passed away in 1978, but was eventually inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame.

I bought this album for next to nothing, mainly for a larf, but WOW ... I had no idea how good he was. This guy could strum on the ol' banjo like nobody's business - and did so with a big smile on his face the whole time (check out the cover, or watch this YouTube video). The LP itself was pretty beaten up, so I had to take a few tracks out completely, and it's a bit "noisy" in spots. But worry not, because Maurice's mad banjo skills will make you forget all of that.

Feel like crying?

Are you sad because Santa didn't bring you what you wanted? Or because you don't have someone to kiss at midnight on New Year's Eve?

Well, at least you don't have it as bad as these poor folks seem to think. This is a compilation of 24 "sad" songs from our friends at K-Tel, the Winnipeg-based company that churned out all kinds of compilations in the 60s, 70s, and beyond (along with various non-music items like "The Micro-Roast", designed to help you prepare "perfectly browned, crispy, juicy meats in your microwave!").

The "cornball factor" is through the roof on a lot of these songs, so you may be less likely to cry, and more inclined to laugh in some cases. The lead-off track, "Tell Laura I Love Her", the woeful tale of a young man who enters himself in a car race, in order to win money to buy a wedding ring for the love of his life (sniff!), has always been notable for me as a prime example of this kind of "teenage tragedy song". "Two Faces Have I" (ah-I ... yi-yi-yi-yi-ya-ha-hi!!) actually made me chuckle out loud when I first heard it.

Another crying shame is the fact that this album had a few irreparable skips on it. Normally in a case like this I'd leave the track out, but for the sake of "completeness", I've added non-skipping versions of each track anyway (to the hard-core vinyl purists, I apologize).

Finally, is it me, or does the motorcycle guy on the cover look like he's trying to help take the tears away by putting his hand down his pants? :D

Thanks to the fans of this blog for a great 2009! Happy New Year, and see you all in 2010!!

I'm dreaming of a ...

White Christmas is comprised of selections from the soundtrack to the highest-grossing movie of 1954, a Christmas-themed movie starring Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye. The film is a story about two entertainers, formerly army buddies, who put on a Christmas show to help their former commanding officer out of a jam.

Most of the songs are not even Christmas songs, except for the title track, so if you're sick of Yuletide tunes already, not to worry.

There might be a wee skip here and there but nothing major. Enjoy, and may all your Christmases be white!

A Christmas Together

A Christmas Together is the soundtrack of a 1979 television Christmas special starring the late, great John Denver along with the cast of The Muppets, the brainchild of the late, great Jim Henson.

There are lots of fun little songs on this album, from holiday classics performed by the whole cast ("The Twelve Days of Christmas", "Deck The Halls"), to original songs written specifically for this TV special ("When The River Meets The Sea"). The in-house band, Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, do their take on "Little Saint Nick", a Christmas song originally performed by The Beach Boys.

Getting the original video can be difficult, since it has never been "officially" issued on DVD or even VHS, however it appears some people who had the foresight to record this (and actually HAD a VCR in 1979, relatively few did) are now offering "bootleg" DVD copies for sale. I wouldn't wanna rat anyone out, but they're around.

Filmi Fest

Most people have some kind of "I've always wanted to go there, ever since I was young" kind of place. Ten years ago this month, I was lucky enough to be able to go to that place, after about a year of working two jobs and saving whatever extra money I had. For some people, it's all about backpacking around Europe; for me, I was always fascinated by India. So in November of 1999, I packed my bags and took off to India to just do "whatever" for a few months.

While there, I managed to see a few of the latest "Bollywood blockbusters" of the time - two of them at the stunning Raj Mandir Cinema in Jaipur, Rajasthan. Since there were no subtitles, I really didn't understand much (although Indian movie scripts often have this weird tendency to switch randomly from Hindi to English every so often), but it's always a good time, and I've always liked Indian music. So, to mark this anniversary, I offer a few of the Bollywood movie soundtracks I have collected on vinyl - in all cases, I wasn't really searching for these albums, they just turned up in record shops, often in the "world music" section.
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Hariyali Aur Rasta ("The Greenery and the Road") is a black-and-white oldie from 1962, so the music is definitely not like anything you'd hear these days. It's a romantic flick, so most of the songs are melodious love songs backed up by string orchestra, which has always been popular in Bollywood music, particularly back in the "old days".

Most songs are sung by hugely popular Lata Mangeshkar, whose music was featured in a previous post on this blog, in some cases doing a duet with the equally famed male singer Mukesh.

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Nikaah (an Arabic word roughly translated as "marriage contract"), released in 1982, was a film that dealt with the relatively touchy subject (for the time) of divorce within the Indian Muslim community.

It was directed by B.R. Chopra who was well-known for directing these types of "social commentary" films. As is often the case with people in the Hindi film industry, Chopra is from a "film family"; his brother Yash Chopra (see next entry) and nephew Aditya Chopra are also popular film directors.

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Directed by Yash Chopra, Chandni ("Moonlight"), released in 1989, became a huge box-office hit. It's basically the same love-triangle story that has been explored in countless other Hindi movies, but for some reason it struck a chord and eventually had a major influence on the industry. Its massive success, along with other films of the day, helped bring about a shift away from the violent action movies popular in the late 1980s, towards films with more romantic and family-based themes.

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Contrary to what I just said about the shift to fewer violent action films in the late 80s, Tujhe Nahin Chhodunga, also released in 1989, is clearly a bloody shoot-'em-up affair. Based on the cover, everybody has a gun, or possibly a grenade, and is about to kill or get killed (or, in the case of the young lady, perhaps have bad things happen to them after their judgment is impaired by drinking two glasses of wine at a time).

While most of the of music on the other albums featured here is carefully crafted, this is more of the hastily-thrown-together "potboiler" stuff, often featuring synths and disco beats. The track "Bum Chic Bum" is particularly notable for this.

Kinda punk, kinda lounge, kinda-sorta funk ... rich and tasty like Butter (08)

Released in 1996, this album is not from the "golden vinyl era" by any means. I just happen to have it on vinyl, since 1996 was a year of "vinyl obsession" of sorts for me and I tended to buy anything I could on LP instead of CD. Listening to this album again recently, I was reminded of how thoroughly it rocks, so I felt it needed to be resurrected.

Butter 08 was a collaboration of several musicians from different groups, including Yuka Honda and Miho Hatori from Cibo Matto, and Russell Simins from the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. Intended to be a side project, they released only one self-titled album, on the Beastie Boys' now-defunct Grand Royal label. I was really into Cibo Matto at the time (still am), so I was compelled to see them during what was probably their only tour, at Lee's Palace in Toronto. It was an incredible, high-energy show that included a big freaky guy in a Yoda mask who busted out on stage and started jumping around and providing "yelling" vocals (you can hear him on the track "Degobrah").

The music is a mish-mash of raucous neo-punk ("9MM", "It's The Rage", "Degobrah"), laid-back lounge ("How Do I Relax"), funky guitars ("Shut Up", "Hard To Hold"), and Beck-esque lo-fi grooves ("What Are You Wearing", "Sex Symbol"). It's not for everyone, to be sure, but if you like any of these genres, or if you're a Cibo Matto fan, you'll likely dig some of the stuff from Butter 08.

Listen for the incongruous Hall & Oates homage at the beginning of "It's The Rage". They also made a video for the track "Butter 0f 69" that I didn't know about until I started writing up this blurb - it can be found here:

[Link to "Butter Of 69" video]

Happy Birthday to Blog!

Well, it's about two weeks late, but The Vinyl LP Resurrection Collection has a birthday this month! To celebrate one year of resurrecting vinyl recordings to today's convenient digital format, we'll take a cue from the very first post on this blog, and go around the world again!

Last year, we went to New Orleans, hopped over to Greece, went back to the Americas into Trinidad and Tobago, and then finished our world tour in India.

This time, let's start in the east and head west: this year's world tour will start in China, then to South Africa. After that, we jet over to Brazil, and then relax for a while in sunny Barbados!
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Paul Horn is an American jazz/New Age flautist known as an innovator who has recorded a number of albums in "sacred" places, such as the Taj Mahal in India and the Potala Palace in Tibet. On this album, simply titled "China", he is given permission to play in the Temple of Heaven outside the Forbidden City in Beijing. Accompanying him is David M.Y. Liang, who plays along on other Chinese instruments.

The pieces on the first side are best described as a fusion of modern jazz and traditional Chinese, but the second side (track 4 onward) is where the more traditional pieces are found. Particularly beautiful is track 7, "Riding On The Wind", a sparse, ethereal piece featuring a bass flute and a Chinese zither called a ch'in.

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Amaduduzo is a Mbube group from South Africa. Mbube is a musical genre popularized in large part by the group known as Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and may sound familiar to anyone who has heard Paul Simon's 1986 album Graceland.

A good chunk of the music on Siyabamukela consists of a cappella voices, while some passages feature light instrumental backup by traditional African instruments. A few songs are complete with full-on synthesizers and thumping bass beats. Personally I prefer the more subdued, traditional stuff, so if you're like me, you may want to skip the title track (track 1), and its reprise on track 5.

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I bought this album several years ago, and have always enjoyed listening to it. Unfortunately I have not been able to find much info on Clara Petraglia online, but one source put the release of this album in 1958. I can describe it as very simple folk songs sung in two-part harmony - Ms. Petraglia's voice is double-tracked and she accompanies herself on the guitar.

Sadly, some damage on the edge of this album has rendered the first track of both sides unplayable, and the album is a bit scratchy, so getting rid of all of the noise was neither easy nor entirely possible. Nevertheless, I think you'll enjoy this just the same.

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The Merrymen are a very popular and long-running group from the island of Barbados. Formed in the early 1960s, they became key players in the popularization of Barbadian calypso in the 60s and 70s. They became popular beyond the shores of Barbados, particularly in Europe, and even played at Carnegie Hall, in New York City, early in their career. They are still releasing albums as of the mid 2000s.

The Barry Sisters RELOADED

Just in time for Rosh Hashanah, we have more sweet tracks from our favourite swingin' Yiddish siblings, The Barry Sisters!

This album, "The Barry Sisters Sing", is brought to us by my new pal and a reader/listener of this blog, Ron Caddigan. You see, a few months ago, I posted an album of 'greatest hits' from the Barry Sisters, which prompted a comment from Ron saying how much he liked them as well. Since I didn't know Ron's name previously, I thought he was just a "random" person who had happened to visit this blog, but I found out later we were linked by about three or four degrees or separation, with Ron being the boyfriend of the daughter of the husband of an old friend of mine. So, we arranged to meet for lunch, and he entrusted me with this LP, so it could be featured on this blog as a sort of "Barry Sisters Part 2" kind of thing.

Like the 'greatest hits' album, this is full of sprightly tunes sung mostly in Hebrew/Yiddish (although there are some performed in English) by these two ladies who, perhaps by virtue of being sisters, have voices that seems to be meant to sing together. Lovely!