|
Post by EdoBosnar on May 10, 2021 4:32:47 GMT -5
Well, The Captain , tartanphantom is obviously more knowledgeable on this topic than I am, but I have to say that the first thing that came to mind for me was Clannad (which tartan mentioned briefly in the context of former member Enya). I think their music from their beginnings in the early 1970s and into the 1980s may be what you're looking for - Enya and her sister Ciarán Brennan handled a lot of the vocals. You can check out their discography for that period at Wikipedia or other sources. In the late 1990s, they also released a compilation album of some of their earlier material, An Díolaim, which is a good sampler/place to start for their music.
|
|
Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 9,571
|
Post by Confessor on May 10, 2021 8:27:21 GMT -5
Confessor , anything you can help me out with, either mainstream or more hard-to-find (maybe internet-only)? Well, first up, I would definitely second tartanphantom's recommendation of Sandy Denny. She's English and perhaps best known as the lead singer of British folk-rock band Fairport Convention. In particular, Fairport's 1970 album Leige & Leaf, which is made up of folk-rock versions of traditional British songs, is a must (it's regularly voted the UK's favourite folk album). Denny was also a singer-songwriter in her own right and her solo work between 1971 and 1977 is worth investigating. However, it is my own personal opinion that Denny's solo albums were often a bit over-produced; she had such a wonderful voice that it really didn't need lots guitars, bass, drums, keyboards and lush strings cluttering around it. There was a Denny compilation of acoustic demos, outtakes and radio sessions released in 2016 called I've Always Kept a Unicorn, which presents Denny's singing in a more unadorned setting, with just her own acoustic guitar or piano backing. This, to me, is how her solo albums should've sounded. Either way though, her work with the Strawbs, Fairport Convention, Fotheringay, or as a solo artist is well worth investigating. One of my absolute favourites of hers is her own composition "It Suits Me Well" from her 1972 album Sandy... If you decide you like Denny and Fairport Convention, I would also urge you to check out the folk-rock supergroup Pentangle and cult early 70s band Trees (especially their album The Garden of Jane Delawney). As far as more contemporary female singers go, the first person I thought of upon reading your post was the Irish folk singer Cara Dillon. She has one of the most beautiful Celtic voices I've ever heard -- I own her Hill of Thieves album and went to see her live in a small venue in Islington about 3 years ago. She's wonderful and, I would imagine, exactly the sort of thing you're looking for. Here's Cara Dillon singing her own composition, "The Hill of Theives"... Enya and Clannad are good recommendations too (Enya was in Clannad at one time and her sister Ciarán Brennan still is). Both Clannad and Enya have a synth-heavy, multi-tracked, "new age" feel to their music though, which people tend to either love or hate. I'm actually quite partial to both acts (Enya in particular is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me). Obviously, you'll know Enya's "Orinoco Flow" and "Only Time", but there's some wonderfully atmospheric Celtic/Mediaeval stuff on her little-knwn debut album from 1987, such as "Deireadh an Tuath"... And I love Clannad's Magical Ring and Legend albums. Here's "Ancient Forest" from the latter record... Two other modern artists you might want to investigate are Karine Polwart and Julie Fowlis. I'm not a particular fan of either of these ladies, but their music is cut from similar cloth to Cara Dillon's, so might be what you're looking for. Hope that helps a bit!
|
|
|
Post by Slam_Bradley on May 10, 2021 9:36:17 GMT -5
Favorite Country, Folk & Roots albums of 1971
7. Merle Haggard - Someday We'll Look Back
There was a time when artists (particularly country artists) put out one or two albums a year. Back when there was money in album and record sales. And for someone like Haggard, who usually wrote 50%+ of the songs on one of his albums, it shows how damn prolific he was.
Like Hagg, this is a solid 70s album. On any given day I could flop their position. But I do think that His version of Tommy Collins' "Carolyn" and his self-penned "Tulare Dust" are head and shoulders the best two tracks of both albums. The latter, in particular, is Hagg saying the most with the least words about the difficulty of life.
This is just an album that feels like riding in the old man's pick-up heading up to cut wood.
|
|
|
Post by Rob Allen on May 10, 2021 11:46:47 GMT -5
A couple of ideas for The Captain - - Canadian singer & composer Loreena McKennitt is in the Celtic tradition. - Listen to www.thistleradio.com/ and/or the "Thistle & Shamrock" radio show.
|
|
|
Post by EdoBosnar on May 10, 2021 11:47:33 GMT -5
(...) Enya and Clannad are good recommendations too (Enya was in Clannad at one time and her sister Ciarán Brennan still is). Both Clannad and Enya have a synth-heavy, multi-tracked, "new age" feel to their music though, which people tend to either love or hate. I'm actually quite partial to both acts (Enya in particular is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me). Clannad's music only began to go down the synth, multi-tracked route from the mid-'80s or thereabouts, after - it seems to me - Enya had considerable success doing the same thing. That's why I recommended their earlier material, when they mainly used more traditional instruments and arrangements. And yeah, Enya, and Clannad's more recent stuff, used to be a guilty pleasure of mine, too, but I eventually got a little tired of it - that was back in the mid-to-late '90s, when a few Croatian singers and bands began to emulate that same style (it didn't always work).
(Also, yes, Enya's older sister is Ciarán. I had their brother's name, Moya, in my first comment, as I deleted a longer sentence listing all of the family members. It's corrected now.)
|
|
shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,406
|
Post by shaxper on May 10, 2021 14:18:53 GMT -5
Enya and Clannad are good recommendations too (Enya was in Clannad at one time and her sister Ciarán Brennan still is). Both Clannad and Enya have a synth-heavy, multi-tracked, "new age" feel to their music though, which people tend to either love or hate. I'm actually quite partial to both acts (Enya in particular is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me). When I was a junior in high school, I had a crush on this girl I knew very little about. My best friend overheard that she liked Enya, so I dove deep into those albums. He later decided he'd misremembered and that she'd said "Erasure", but that little misunderstanding opened up some serious doors for me. I still maintain that Shephard Moon is one of the finest albums ever made, consistently amazing from beginning to end. But yes, her first album is my second favorite, and then Watermark.
|
|
Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 9,571
|
Post by Confessor on May 11, 2021 4:01:35 GMT -5
(...) Enya and Clannad are good recommendations too (Enya was in Clannad at one time and her sister Ciarán Brennan still is). Both Clannad and Enya have a synth-heavy, multi-tracked, "new age" feel to their music though, which people tend to either love or hate. I'm actually quite partial to both acts (Enya in particular is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me). Clannad's music only began to go down the synth, multi-tracked route from the mid-'80s or thereabouts, after - it seems to me - Enya had considerable success doing the same thing. That's why I recommended their earlier material, when they mainly used more traditional instruments and arrangements. And yeah, Enya, and Clannad's more recent stuff, used to be a guilty pleasure of mine, too, but I eventually got a little tired of it - that was back in the mid-to-late '90s, when a few Croatian singers and bands began to emulate that same style (it didn't always work).
(Also, yes, Enya's older sister is Ciarán. I had their brother's name, Moya, in my first comment, as I deleted a longer sentence listing all of the family members. It's corrected now.)
Yeah, you're right of course -- I used to own Clannad's 1980 album Crann Úll, which is much more like traditional Irish folk. But the synth-heavy, multi-layered sound of the mid-80s is the one they found success with and therefore what they're best known for. That's the sound that most people mean when they talk about Clannad, which is why I mentioned it.
|
|
|
Post by Slam_Bradley on May 11, 2021 10:25:33 GMT -5
Favorite Country, Folk & Roots albums of 1971
6. Buck Owens - Bridge Over Troubled Waters
Hee Haw has not been kind to the legacy of Buck Owens. In spite of the efforts of Dwight Yoakam and others to rehabilitate Owens' music, he still has to live down Hee Haw. But in the 1960s Buck was huge, playing Carnegie Hall, successfully touring the U.K. and Japan, and having his song covered by the likes of The Beatles and Ray Charles.
This pick, in this place, has a tint of nostalgia. I remember this album in Mom & Dad's record cabinet and remember it playing fairly often. It was a pretty bold mover in 1971 for a country act to do an album centered on covers of songs by the likes of Simon & Garfunkel, Donovan and Bob Dylan. While none of those covers become the definitive versions of those songs, they are empathetic deft performances that do more than due justice to the songs.
|
|
|
Post by EdoBosnar on May 11, 2021 14:44:11 GMT -5
(...) Hee Haw has not been kind to the legacy of Buck Owens. In spite of the efforts of Dwight Yoakam and others to rehabilitate Owens' music, he still has to live down Hee Haw. (...) Yeah, my dad loved watching Hee Haw from when I was little until my early teens, and that really colored my impression of both Owens and Roy Clark. I later learned to respect and appreciate them both as musicians - especially Clark. Damn, that guy could play the hell out of any instrument with strings on it.
|
|
|
Post by Slam_Bradley on May 11, 2021 14:54:31 GMT -5
(...) Hee Haw has not been kind to the legacy of Buck Owens. In spite of the efforts of Dwight Yoakam and others to rehabilitate Owens' music, he still has to live down Hee Haw. (...) Yeah, my dad loved watching Hee Haw from when I was little until my early teens, and that really colored my impression of both Owens and Roy Clark. I later learned to respect and appreciate them both as musicians - especially Clark. Damn, that guy could play the hell out of any instrument with strings on it. Clark was a monster instrumentalist. I was never a big fan of his work as a country singer, but I would listen to him playing instrumentals all day long. I've become a big fan of Buck Owens. He definitely felt that Hee Haw set back his career attributing it to decreased album sales and a general downgrade in his reputation as an artist. I do think there was more going on than just that. He never really recovered from Don Rich's death in 1974. And he had a lot of crazy stuff going on in his personal life in the 70s that had to have an effect on his work.
|
|
|
Post by Rob Allen on May 11, 2021 21:33:57 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Slam_Bradley on May 12, 2021 9:38:48 GMT -5
Favorite Country, Folk & Roots albums of 1971
5. The Sir Douglas Quintet - The Return of Doug Saldana
The fact that this album has been largely out of print since its initial print run (there was one cd re-issue from a British company that was marginally available as an import) is a travesty. But then Doug Sahm's work has always been hard to find and this one didn't have the added bonus of having a hit single like Mendocino.
What it has, is ten solid tracks (twelve on the CD) that show why Doug Sahm is one of the more influential musicians of the 20th Century. No influential =/= well known. And while you can hear Sahm's influence all over the Texas music scene most people have never heard of him.
This one covers all of Sahm's influences. From the obvious Tex-Mex of his cover of Freddy Fender's "Wasted Days & Wasted Nights" to the folk sound of "The Railpak Dun Done in the Del Monte" to the blues sound of "The Gypsy."
The album is technically available as part of "The Complete Mercury Masters" boxed set from Hip-O that was put out in 2005. Never let it be said that those big boxed sets weren't a wonderful thing.
|
|
Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 9,571
|
Post by Confessor on May 12, 2021 11:13:59 GMT -5
Holy sh*t, the Rascals' drummer, Dino Danelli, was so good...
|
|
|
Post by MDG on May 12, 2021 14:12:15 GMT -5
Holy sh*t, the Rascals' drummer, Dino Danelli, was so good... My sister and her friends were really, really into the Rascals when we were growing up, so I'm real familiar with their catalog, and, yeah, their stuff holds up very well, musicianship and writing. They were actually the first concert I went to (6th grade), but that was after Peaceful World came out, so the band at that time was Felix, Dino + about a dozen jazz session musicians. Our friends' mom worked for Epic Records, so we go to go backstage afterward.
The guitarist, Gene Cornish, is from Rochester, so he appears around here periodically.
And, decades later, my sister got to go on a "date" with Felix.
EDIT: Sometimes I love the internet:
|
|
|
Post by Slam_Bradley on May 13, 2021 10:08:17 GMT -5
Favorite Country, Folk & Roots albums of 1971
4. Willie Nelson - Yesterday's Wine
Upon further review (yay for instant replay) I think this album is too high on the list. Which isn't to say that I don't like the album or that it isn't an important album because I do and it is. But I think that latter point probably colors the way I think about it when I'm not actually listening to it.
The thing is, I absolutely love side two of this album. The problem is that I would be just fine never listening to side one again. It's just not my thing. And then we get in to the issue of it sitting too high because of its importance as an album. This album 100% is a precursor to "Shotgun Willie" and to "Red-Headed Stranger." And without it, it's possible we don't get those seminal albums and the effect they had on both Willie's career and on country music in general.
So...this probably should be lower. But DAMN side two is amazing.
|
|