Nonesuch and Other Folk Tunes - Pete Seeger & Frank Hamilton

I spent most of the day doing my best to relax around the house and stay off the computer. I listened to the album Nonesuch and Other Folk Tunes by Pete Seeger and Frank Hamilton a few times. What a great record! Super-musical. From the first notes of Meadowland, these instrumental roar through my stereo. The first song, "Meadowland", is a beautiful demonstation of dynamic tension right out of the gate and the energy never lets up. Then, as if they want to prove just how much fun they are having in the studio, Pete and Frank team for for an incredible vocal rendition of The Battle of New Orleans. The power of their voices on lyric "Well . . . " ,which opens every stanza, practically knocks me over every time.

I always love the liner notes from Folkways. Here are a couple of selections.

Pete writes, "[The album] is influenced by the folk traditions of hte American south, popular music of the air waves, and recordings hear of ethnic music fromAfrica, Russia, Asia, the Caribbean and, and also of the symphony and concert hall . . . The selections together tell, we hope, of our love for many peoples, our neighbors in a small world. May our various languages be better understood."

Frank writes, "We attempted to explore the uses of instruments that were not necessarily related to the culture backgroud of the songs."  If you know me, you know that this is a sentament that is very close to my heart.

The liner notes also include this awesome picture of Frank playing the guitarrón.  The photo is by David Gehr.

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We also had a very good Young Stracke All-Stars practice today. I'm feeling a bit rejuvinated after a very long week of struggling musically, idealistically, emotionally, etc. It's good to "hit bottom" once and a while. Partily because it gets easier to shake it off each time it happens, and also, once you hit there's no where to go but up. Onward!