Mud Acres: Music Among Friends

L to R: Bill Keith, Jim Rooney, Pat Alger, Roly Salley, Artie Traum, John Sebastian, John Herald, Cindy Cashdollar, Happy Traum, Larry Campbell

I uploaded this album already in the Last Great Post, but since we're on a Bill Keith note at the moment I thought I'd revive it. This album was the product of a get-together of friends who happened to all be superb musicians. It gathers together many of the leading lights of the Boston/Greenwich Villiage/Washington D.C. folk scenes, sets them in a cabin in the Woodstock mountains and lets 'em rip. It was one of the first folk supergroups, though they didn't really exist as a band, they just came together to record this and subsequent projects under the name "Woodstock Mountain Revue". Just look at the artists above for an idea of the talent. And add Maria Muldaur and Paul Siebel, who weren't around for this 2003 reunion photo. The diversity of musicians gives a diversity of styles and musical settings. And though there's a whole bunch of great musicians here, they never step on each others' toes, show off, nor crowd the music, which always feel just right, whether sparsely or densely instrumented.

Product Description:
'Mud Acres: Music Among Friends' was just that - an album concept brought to the fledgling Rounder Records in 1971 by Happy & Artie Traum, and featuring a wide variety of their musical friends from the Woodstock area. Happy Traum, Artie Traum, Maria Muldaur, John Herald, Eric Kaz, Jim Rooney, Bill Keith, Tony Brown, and Lee Berg, yielding an album that was at once relaxed, spirited and diverse yet very coherent. As so many of the folk labels of the early Sixties left folk music seeking greener pastures, 'Mud Acres' captivated listeners hungry for music that better embodied a real sense of community emblematic of the times. This is the album that spawned several successors over the following years.

And here's a review by Roundup Newsletter:
For a time in the mid-'70s, the area around Woodstock, NY, was a magnet for musicians from around the country. The music found on this release is a product of that community. Here are some of the best folk musicians of that decade performing a repertoire of primarily traditional American songs from sources that range from Blind Willie Johnson to The Delmore Brothers. Happy and Artie Traum, Maria Muldaur, Eric Kaz, Bill Keith, and others weave through "Hobo Blues," "Cowpoke," "Off to Sea Once More," and a dozen more.


Mud Acres: Music Among Friends

Year: 1972
Label: Rounder

Tracks:
1 Cowpoke - 01:27
2 Done Laid Around - 02:49
3 Darlin' Corey Is Gone - 03:24
4 Titanic - 04:01
5 Give Me Back My Fifteen Cents - 01:48
6 Out of Joint - 01:46
7 Jackhammer Blues - 01:46
8 Oh, the Rain - 04:56
9 Hobo Blues - 03:11
10 Off To Sea Once More - 04:20
11 Fifteen Miles To Birmingham - 02:35
12 Lonesome Pines - 03:44
13 Prison Wall Blues - 02:20
14 Parting Friends - 01:37
15 Mud Acres - 02:03

friendly.
vinyl, cleaned (a couple blips) | mp3 vbr >192kbps | w/ cover & liner notes pdf | 65mb