GENUINE NEGRO JIG  -  CAROLINA CHOCOLATE DROPS

YEAR:  2010
LABEL:  Nonesuch
TRACK LISTING:  Peace Behind the Bridge,  Trouble In Your Mind,  Your Baby Ain't Sweet Like Mine,  Hit 'Em Up Style,  Cornbread and Butterbeans,  Snowden's Jig (Genuine Negro Jig),  Why Don't You Do Right?,  Cindy Gal,  Kissin' and Cussin',  Sandy Boys,  Reynadine,  Trampled Rose
BONUS TRACKS:  Memphis Shakedown,  City of Refuge
IMPRESSIONS:  I've always been a fan of folk music and old 78 recordings such as those featured in Harry Smith's "ANTHOLOGY OF AMERICAN FOLK MUSIC" etc.  That's probably why this album was such a joy to me.  Oftentimes, when modern performers attempt to do old blues songs or jug band stomps or country blues, the results can sound dead or academic; but here, the Carolina Chocolate Drops recordings sound alive and authentic as this music should.  After all, this music shouldn't be considered a museum piece (as often happens) but instead should be just as enjoyable as any other music one listens to today.  And that's where the Carolina Chocolate Drops triumph over their competitors; the music sounds fresh and vital and not at all like some dusty music archeologist's attempts to catalogue lost folk tunes.  This album is just a solidly great listen; an almost perfect album in every way.  The song selections are pretty flawless; country blues and jug band hootenannies ("Trouble In Your Mind", "Your Baby Ain't Sweet Like Mine") with new compositions "Kissin' and Cussin'"), modern covers, instrumentals and even British folk music.  We're used to hearing Peggy Lee's big band version of "Why Don't You Do Right?" but here the exquisite voice of Rhiannon Giddens renders it into a melancholy blues.  There is murder ballad-stuff here as well as a hilariously incongruous but still tasty cover of Blu Cantrell's hit from about a decade ago "Hit 'Em Up Style" which somehow works.  Rhiannon also provides us with an a cappella rendition of the Brit-folk standard "Reynadine" which I'm familiar with in versions by Fairport Convention and Bert Jansch all the way through to the Folktellers' version "Mr. Fox" on their "CHILLERS" album.  A superb collection of country blues.
MY FAVOURITE TRACKS:  Peace Behind the Bridge,  Trouble In Your Mind,  Your Baby Ain't Sweet Like Mine,  Hit 'Em Up Style,  Cornbread and Butterbeans,  Snowden's Jig (Genuine Negro Jig),  Why Don't You Do Right?,  Kissin' and Cussin',  Reynadine,  Trampled Rose
FACT SHEET:  GENUINE NEGRO JIG is the Carolina Chocolate Drops' fourth album.  The group at this time consisted of the trio of vocalist Rhiannon Giddens, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Dom Flemons and percussionist/banjoist Sule Greg Wilson with occasional guest appearances by Justin Robinson.  The Carolina Chocolate Drops are one of the few existing African-American string bands whose stated purpose is to celebrate and bring attention to the history of string band music from the North and South Carolina Piedmont region which they learned at the feet of respected old-time fiddler Joe Thompson.  In Giddens' words:  "it seems that two things get left out of the history books. One, that there was string band music in the Piedmont, period. (And that) black folk was such a huge part of string tradition."  Critically acclaimed, (The 9513 described the album as "an album of feistily complex, yet endearingly soulful songs that have ages of history behind them and a bright future as well.") the album was number 9 on Roots magazine's "Top 10 Albums of the Year" and was the first all-black group to appear at the Grand Ole Opry.  "Peace Behind the Bridge" is an Etta Baker song.  "Trouble In Your Mind" is a cover of a song originally done by Frank Blevins and the Tar Heel Rattlers.  "Your Baby Ain't Sweet Like Mine" is a Papa Charlie Jackson song.  "Hit 'Em Up Style" is a cover of a Blu Cantrell song.  "Cornbread and Butterbeans" was originally recorded by the Carolina Sunshine Trio.  "Why Don't You Do Right?" was recorded by multiple artists including most famously Peggy Lee.  "Reynadine" is a traditional folk ballad; the version here was learned from a recording by Annie Briggs.  "Trampled Rose" is a Tom Waits cover.  In 2010, GENUINE NEGRO JIG won the Grammy Award for "Best Traditional Folk Album" and the Penguin Award for "Album of the Year".
    

SMALL CHANGE - Tom Waits

YEAR: 1976

LABEL: Asylum

TRACK LISTING: Tom Traubert's Blues (Four Sheets to the Wind in Copenhagen), Step Right Up, Jitterbug Boy, I Wish I Was in New Orleans (In the Ninth Ward), The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me), Invitation to the Blues, Pasties and a G-String (At the Two O'Clock Club), Bad Liver and a Broken Heart (In Lowell), The One That Got Away, Small Change (Got Rained On With His Own .38), I Can't Wait To Get Off Work (And See My Baby On Montgomery Avenue)

IMPRESSIONS: Life on the road was taking its heavy toll and Tom Waits was drinking heavily during this time period and that sure comes through on this album. In his own words, Waits "...tried to resolve a few things as far as this cocktail-lounge, maudlin, crying-in-your-beer image that I have. There ain't nothin' funny about a drunk [...] I was really starting to believe that there was something amusing and wonderfully American about being a drunk. I ended up telling myself to cut that shit out." This is an album which goes a long way toward cementing Waits' image as a sad sack drunken piano player in a cigarette-smoke-filled dive with a voice that sounds like Louis Armstrong and subject matter that sounds like Raymond Chandler. However, no matter how sick Waits was at the time owing to his alcoholism, he still manages to inject quite a lot of humour in the proceedings preventing the album from being a total downer. The classic hilarity of "The Piano Has Been Drinking" and the deft wordplay of "Step Right Up" are prime examples. The sound is pure skid row with piano, stand-up bass, saxophone and drums accompanying Waits' patented "unreliable narrator"; there is also an occasional appearance by strings which anacronistically counterpoint with Waits' growl.

MY FAVOURITE TRACKS: Tom Traubert's Blues (Four Sheets to the Wind in Copenhagen), Step Right Up, Jitterbug Boy, I Wish I Was In New Orleans (In the Ninth Ward), The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me), Invitation to the Blues, The One That Got Away, Small Change (Got Rained On With His Own .38), I Can't Wait To Get Off Work (And See My Baby on Montgomery Avenue)

FACT SHEET: SMALL CHANGE is Tom Waits' fourth album. It was surprisingly successful making it to #89 on the Billboard Top 100: the highest ranking until 1999's "MULE VARIATIONS". The superb cover photo features Waits in the dressing room of a topless go-go dancer thought to be professional showgirl Cassandra Peterson (aka Elvira, Mistress of the Dark) but I'm practically certain it ain't her. It looks nothing like her and she would've had bright red hair so it's most certainly another of those bogus internet rumours. "Tom Traubert's Blues" utilizes "Waltzing Matilda" although it slightly changes the melody; Waits has said that Tom Traubert was "a friend of a friend" who died in prison.

RED HOT + BLUE - Various Artists

YEAR: 1990

LABEL: Chrysalis

TRACK LISTING: I've Got You Under My Skin - Neneh Cherry, In the Still of the Night - The Neville Brothers, You Do Something To Me - Sinead O'Connor, Begin the Beguine - Salif Keita, Love For Sale - Fine Young Cannibals, Well Did You Evah! - Deborah Harry & Iggy Pop, Miss Otis Regrets/Just One of Those Things - The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl, Don't Fence Me In - David Byrne, It's All Right With Me - Tom Waits, Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye - Annie Lennox, Night and Day - U2, I Love Paris - Les Negresses Vertes, So In Love - k.d. lang, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? - Thompson Twins, Too Darn Hot - Erasure, I Get A Kick Out of You - The Jungle Brothers, Down In the Depths - Lisa Stansfield, From This Moment On - Jimmy Somerville, After You Who? - Jody Watley, Do I Love You? - Aztec Camera

IMPRESSIONS: This is one of the first compact discs of new material (that is, not replacing a vinyl or cassette copy) I ever bought after getting a cd player for Christmas of 1990. I bought it at the Sam Goody in the Cherry Hill Mall and first played it in the cd player in the back room of Ritz Camera where my friend Paul worked at the time. Up until this time, k.d. lang was known solely as a country artist and I'm absolutely convinced it was her spectacular performance on "So In Love" which led her to take the plunge and drop country in favour of a mainstream career -- that and the fact her country band was called "the reclines" (after Patsy Cline) and she had already cut an album of Patsy songs with Cline's producer Owen Bradley.

MY FAVOURITE TRACKS: In the Still of the Night - The Neville Brothers, Well Did You Evah! - Deborah Harry & Iggy Pop, Miss Otis Regrets/Just One of Those Things - The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl, Don't Fence Me In - David Byrne, So In Love - k.d. lang, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? - Thompson Twins, Too Darn Hot - Erasure, From This Moment On - Jimmy Somerville, After You Who? - Jody Watley

FACT SHEET: RED HOT + BLUE is the first AIDS benefit album in a series put out by the Red Hot Organization. All the songs are written by Cole Porter and performed by contemporary artists. The title of the album is from the Cole Porter musical of the same name. The album was produced by Steve Lillywhite and Afrika Bambaataa.