Folk/Country — All Formats  

A beautiful 2CD set of long buried Townes Van Zandt recordings from the early 70s – a period that you can easily argue was his peak – even though few people were buying his records at the time! You get a pretty solid representation of 2 sides of the Townes sound on this great compilation from Omnivore. Disc One features alternate studio versions of some of our favorite songs – a good deal of which were produced by Cowboy Jack Clement at his Nashville studio in 1972 – plus a handful that Townes recorded in LA a year earlier. These have a sound that are fleshed out enough instrumentally, but without the horns, strings and some of the other grander aspects of the officially released album versions in hopes of breaking Townes through to a larger audience at the time. Ironically, it's the rawness and intimacy that Townes fans are drawn to – and that's what you get here! The second disc features demos that mostly feature just Townes's voice and acoustic guitar – and it's achingly beautiful! Despite the familiar track list, every song on this 2CD set is previously unreleased – and essential for longtime Townes fans and newbies alike! Includes "T For Texas", "Who Do You Love", "Sunshine Boy", "Pancho & Lefty" (an alternate 1972 mix without strings and horns), "Sad Cinderella", "Lungs", "Mr. Mudd & Mr. Gold", "White Freight Liner Blues", "Two Hands" and more on the studio sessions disc – and the titles on the disc of demos includes "Heavenly Houseboat Blues", "Diamond Heel Blues", "Tower Song", "Hightway Kind", "Old Paint", "Standin'" and more. 28 tracks in all – and it features some excellent notes by Colin Escott.

A pair of mid 70s album by Bobby Bare – the ambitious, concept-driven Hard Time Hungrys – and the easygoing The Winners & Other Losers – two worthy efforts from one the most unique voices and personalities of his era! Both albums are heavy with songs written by Bare family friend and frequent songwriting partner Shel Silverstein. Johnny Cash gets all the mainstream attention for collaborating with Shel on "A Boy Named Sue", but Shel and Bare have a far richer collaborative history together. Home For The Hungrys tells the story of the impoverished, with the title track, "Back Home In Huntsville Again", "Bottles And Boxes", "Truck Driver, Truck Driver", "The Unemployment Line" and more. The Winners And Other Losers is simply a great batch of tunes, sans concept, with the enduring "Drop Kick Me Jesus", "My Better Half", "Keeping Rosie Proud Of Me" and more. 24 tracks in all.

A mid 70s album by Bobby Bare – the easygoing The Winners & Other Losers – a worthy effort from one the most unique voices and personalities of his era! This album is heavy with songs written by the Bare family friend and frequent songwriting partner Shel Silverstein. Johnny Cash gets all the mainstream attention for collaborating with Shel on "A Boy Named Sue", but Shel and Bare have a far richer collaborative history together. The Winners And Other Losers is simply a great batch of tunes, sans concept, with the enduring "Drop Kick Me Jesus", "My Better Half", "Keeping Rosie Proud Of Me" and more.

Nick Drake's second album, and a fantastic batch of jazz-tinged folksy tracks that's virtually unlike anything else ever done on this planet! The compositions are amazing, and Drake's execution of the material is masterfully produced by Joe Boyd, who brings out all the rich tonal qualities of the music. Drake's work is impossible to describe adequately, but if you've ever heard him, you probably stopped dead in your tracks the minute you first caught his voice. We still do the same – and it's a pleasure to have this one in stock! Titles include "Fly", "At The Chime Of A City Clock", "Hazy Jane", "Poor Boy", and "One Of These Things First".

This album has Jack Elliott singing the songs of his mentor, Woody Guthrie. He includes some of Guthrie's best known songs like "Pretty Boy Floyd", "This Land Is Your Land", and "Hard Travelling" and others such as "1913 Massacre", "So Long", "Dust Storm Disaster", "Howdido", and "Philadelphia Lawyer". Elliott's guitar playing is excellent and his versions of the songs are faithful and very pretty.

A pair of 60s folk albums from Paul Evans – back to back on a single CD! Folk Songs Of Many Lands is a record that lives up to its title, given that material is from a variety of global sources – but the delivery is definitely American – and particularly that folk revival mode of the early 60s – done by Evans with a style that's never too poppy, and which has a nice sense of sincerity in his phrasing of the lyrics. Instrumentation is mostly acoustic guitar, and titles include "Mister Hangman", "Tzena Tzena", "Wee Cooper O Fife", "Buckeye Jim", "Passing Through", and "Poor Boy". Another Town Another Jail is a great early set in the outlaw mode – a record that has Paul Evans moving from folk a bit more into country – with backings that definitely echo that feel! Given Paul's clean cut look at the time, it's hard to imagine that he did any time in stir – but his vocal presentation definitely matches that of his prison-sensitive contemporaries. Titles include "I Got Stripes", "Allentown Jail", "Ninety Nine Years", "Another Town Another Jail", and "John Hardy". CD features the bonus track "Midnite Special".

The first true moment of genius from the legendary Curt Boettcher – an early 60s folk-rock set that's already overflowing with the warm harmonies and creative arrangements of his later classics! The Goldebriars boast some incredible vocals in the duo of Sheri and Dottie Holmberg – both of whom take the lead on most tracks here, sometimes singing solo, but often harmonizing beautifully – in a mode that's nearly timeless, but which has some incredible musical touches from Boettcher, who pushes the vocals far from traditional folk mode, into a really unique sound that points the way towards countless post-folk imitators in years to come! Titles include "Long Time Travellin", "No More Auction Block", "Voyager's Lament", "Railroad Boy", "Come Walk Me Out", and "He Was A Friend Of Mine".

Some of the best early heartbreaking country numbers you're likely to hear – the hugely underappreciated earlier records cut by singer Goldie Hill in the 50s – work the influenced some of the very best female honky tonk singers of 50s, 60s & 70s – but Goldie still doesn't get the credit she deserves for it! The tunes are full of heartbreak and sadness, par for the course for the much of the post Hank Williams singers of the scene, but it's done her with a sweet tenderness, and a perceptive truthfulness in her tone – it's impossible to imagine Loretta Lynn doing what she did in the 60s & 70s if Goldie didn't get there first! Titles include "Call Off The Wedding", "Don't Send No More Roses", "Waiting For A Letter", "I'm The Loneliest Gal In Town", "Fickle Heart", "Why Talk To My Heart", "I'm Yesterday's Girl", "Miss You So", "Please Don't Betray Me", "Young At Heart", "Say Big Boy", "Treat Me Kind" and "Why Don't You Let Me".

A sprawling compilation of the folk rock, Brit blues, jazzy songcraft, oddball comedic and otherwise boundlessly fresh music from the roster of Transatlantic Records in the 60s & 70s! It's a mix of the still revered and largely forgotten – and the quality is high on both sides of that spectrum! Includes numbers by Bert Jansch, The Dubliners, Ralph McTell, Gerry Rafferty, Pentangle, Gryphon, The Purple Gang, Alberto Y Los Trios Paranoias, Stefen Grossman and many more. 42 tracks on 2CDs: "Ye Jacobites By Name" by The Johnstons, "Wild Rover" by The Dubliners, "Streets Of London" by Ralph McTell, "Come Sing Me A Happy Song. . ." by Bert Jansch, "The Handsome Meadow Boy" by Dransfield, "Mother Nature's Son" by Gryphon, "Sign On The Dotted Line" by Gerry Rafferty, "Summertime Blues" by Mick Farren, "In Time" by Pentangle and many more.

Nick Drake's second album, and a fantastic batch of jazz-tinged folksy tracks that's virtually unlike anything else ever done on this planet! The compositions are amazing, and Drake's execution of the material is masterfully produced by Joe Boyd, who brings out all the rich tonal qualities of the music. Drake's work is impossible to describe adequately, but if you've ever heard him, you probably stopped dead in your tracks the minute you first caught his voice. We still do the same – and it's a pleasure to have this one in stock! Titles include "Fly", "At The Chime Of A City Clock", "Hazy Jane", "Poor Boy", and "One Of These Things First".

Powerful, melodic and complicated folk guitar from the John Fahey/Blind Joe Death – two sides of the same man on two separate sides of vinyl! The Blind Joe Death sides features selections from the revered, chronologically confusing work the Fahey recorded between 1959 and 1967 – which established Fahey's skewed, masterful vision of traditional American folk and blues. Tracks include "West Coast Blues", "St. Louis Blues", "I'm A Poor Boy Far Away From Home", "John Hardy" and more. The Fahey side features tracks credited to Fahey, alluding to his own personal vision more than the Blind Joe recordings, albeit with a similar sensibility. Classic work from a master! Tracks include "Transcendental Waterfall", "Desperate Man Blues", "Sun Gonna Shine In My Back Door", "On Doing An Evil Deed Blues" and more.

Nick Drake's second album, and a fantastic batch of jazz-tinged folksy tracks that's virtually unlike anything else ever done on this planet! The compositions are amazing, and Drake's execution of the material is masterfully produced by Joe Boyd, who brings out all the rich tonal qualities of the music. Drake's work is impossible to describe adequately, but if you've ever heard him, you probably stopped dead in your tracks the minute you first caught his voice. We still do the same – and it's a pleasure to have this one in stock! Titles include "Fly", "At The Chime Of A City Clock", "Hazy Jane", "Poor Boy", and "One Of These Things First".

One of the best rock albums of the late 60s, and probably THE best record Gram Parsons ever played on. Parsons spearheaded the sound earlier with the International Submarine Band and the Byrds, but this first Burritos album is where the epiphanies are found. Traditionally structured weepers that bust all boundaries – electric and steel guitar, and wonderful harmonies that shoot straight for the stratosphere rather than dig their heels in rural cliches, and a soulful spirit that suggests the influence of Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions almost as much as the Bakersfield boys. Unprecedented, amazing, beautiful country-rock – two words that worked great together before the Eagles showed up. Tracks include "Christine's Tune", "Sin City", "Do Right Woman", "Dark End Of The Street", "My Uncle", "Wheels", "Juanita", "Hot Burrito No. 1", "Hot Burrito No. 2", "Do You Know How It Feels", and "Hippy Boy".

An early Odetta record where she duets with Larry Mohr for a nice selection of folk songs that have elements of the blues and country. Tracks include "John Henry", "Old Blue", "Water Boy", "Santy Ana", "The Car-Car Song", "Pay Day At Coal Creek", "I've Been 'Buked & I've Been Scorned". They sing together and have solo songs as well.

Another one of the greatest mid 60s Columbia albums by Cash, with a proper CD release! Orange Blossom Special is probably the most successful of Johnny's LPs in which he balances the profound influence of Bob Dylan with his own rough hewn style for something wholly unique. Cash covers 3 of Dylan's tunes on Orange Blossom, "It Ain't Me Babe", "Mama, You've Been On My Mind", and "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright". Other tracks include "You Wild Colorado", "When It's Springtime In Alaska", "Amen", and "Danny Boy". This remastered set includes 3 bonus tracks that were never issued in the US, but can (and should!) also be found on Bear Family's amazing Man In Black: 1963-1969 box set. Those include "Engine 143", "(I'm Proud) The Baby Is Mine", and another version of "Mama, You've Been On My Mind", this one featuring Mariachi horns in the tradition of "Ring Of Fire".

Tremendous work from Biff Rose – a near-lost singer-songwriter from the late 60s, barely remembered as the author of "Fill Your Heart" from David Bowie's Hunky Dory album – but an incredible talent that we'd rank right up there with Van Dyke Parks or early Randy Newman for sheer American brilliance! As in the work of Parks, there's a quality here that's completely unique – informed by the freedoms of the folk generation, but tuned with older-styled arrangements that while full, still manage to convey a sense of person and presence – as in some of the best early recordings of Leonard Cohen. And like Cohen, Rose has a really poetically-styled approach to his lyrics – far beyond the sardonic eye of folkies, or the indulgence of hippies – and infused with a sense of hope that crackles out of the tunes along with his own crackly vocals. Vocally, we'd almost link Rose to Bob Dorough for a sheer "oh what the hell I'm just gonna sing this" approach – and like Dorough, there's no silliness at all – but real sincerity where we'd never expect it, in a way that leaves us breathless. The set features arrangements by Rose, Arthur Wright, Kirby Johnson, and Nick Woods – on titles that include "Mama's Boy", "Angel Tension", "Molly", "The Stars", "It's Happening", "Buzz The Fuzz", and "The Man".