An early gem from Buffy Sainte Marie – still working here in a very stripped-down, folk-based style – one that brings an incredible focus on her vocals and guitar! Buffy's only got a bit of bass backing her up here – which leaves the lady to carry the album mostly by herself, and often with this sense of power that we don't remember as strongly in her later records – a subtle drama to the vocals that might come off cloying in the hands of another singer, but which really hits to the core here. Production is perfect – crystal-clear, but without trying to polish the music at all – and titles include "Groundhog", "Must I Go Bound", "Fixin To Die", "Lazarus", "Many A Mile", "Broke Down Girl", "Welcome Welcome Emigrante", and "The Piney Wood Hills". CD

Music from Memphis Minnie, Mississippi John Hurt, Henry Thomas, Luke Jordan, Bobby Grant, Evans & McClain, Furry Lewis, Blind Blake, Clarence Ashley, Moses Mason, Blue Boys, Coley Jones, and Barbecue Bob. (Blues, Folk/Country) CD

Pretty amazing music from new immigrants to the US – a range of different sounds from Eastern European cultures, reworked here for recordings on American 78s! The music has echoes of Jewish styles, and bits of early polka – although polka itself as a genre wouldn't emerge until years later, as these various cultures tried to find a common ground in the mainstream. Most of the recordings are relatively rootsy – and feel more like ethnographic sounds captured in the old world – and the LP comes with a really great booklet of notes, with way more detail than usual for Mississippi! 16 tracks in all – with work by Edward Mika, Wladyslaw Polak, Stanislaw Mermel, Orkiestra Majkuta, and others. (Global Grooves, Folk/Country) LP, Vinyl record album