Pete Sutherland - Poor Man's Dream

Not much to say about this one, it's just a fine bit o' music. Flying Fish had a way of recording these albums that make you feel like you're sitting on a back porch with friends, even when the music is coming from all over the world. Sweet fiddle music and good times...

Raised on a diet of Broadway show tunes,operatic arias and British invasion melodies, Pete Sutherland discovered both traditional music and songwriting in college and like Huck Finn "lit out for the territories". A warm-voiced singer and multi-instrumentalist known equally for his potent originals and intense recreations and ago old ballads and fiddle tunes, his performances "cover the map" and "…shine with a pure spirit, which infuses every bit of his music and cannot fail to move all who hear him". The American Festival of Fiddle Tunes

Bio:

The old timey dance music of the American southern mountains, New England and the Celtic isles are resurrected through the playing of multi-instrumentalist Pete Sutherland. A former member, along with hammer dulcimer player Malcolm Dalglish and guitarist Grey Larsen, of mid-1980s folk trio, Metamora, Sutherland has continued to expand string band traditions as a member of The Clayfoot Strutters and Mac Benford's Woodshed All Stars. Sutherland has also recorded as a soloist and with his wife, Karen. 

Sutherland's earliest musical memories reflect the opera and musical theater albums favored by his parents. Although he played with several teenage rock bands, he most enduring musical outlet has come through traditional folk music. Inspired by Vermont-based fiddler Louie Beaudoin and Appalachian fiddlers Tommy Jarrell and Ed Haley, Sutherland began performing with the Arm & Hammer String Band in 1973. Moving to Burlington, Indiana in the early-1980s, he helped to form Metamora. Together with the band, Sutherland recorded six albums including the score of the Disney film, "Tuck Everlasting." 

"Poor Man's Dream," Sutherland's debut solo album, was released in 1984 and combined traditional fiddle tunes with original material. Shortly after the disbanding of Metamora, in 1989, Sutherland returned to his home state where he currently lives. Craig Harris, Rovi

Pete Sutherland - Poor Man's Dream

Year: 1984
Label: Flying Fish

Originally issued as an LP on the long-gone Flying Fish label, this 1984 recording of original and traditional songs and tunes produced by Metamora bandmate Grey Larsen has been repeatedly called a "folk classic" - featuring "Aunt Sue" and "Shacks and Chalets".

Tracks:
01 Coal Black Morning
02 The Apple Picker's Waltz - The Beautiful Lights of Burlington
03 Leather Britches
04 Coleman's March - Shacks and Chalets
05 Inch Along
06 Aunt Sue - Motleigh - Stone's Throw
07 You Were the One Who Loved Me
08 Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah
09 Mad River - Poor Man' Dream

Unearthed: A Bounty of Flying Fish!

A devoted grapeviner has stumbled across and acquired a great buried treasure, in the form of dozens of Flying Fish and other old LPs, at a garage sale. Flying Fish, as many of my posts demonstrate, was one of the premier folk-and-beyond labels, along with Folkways and Folk Legacy (also represented here). Their early releases were universally good. I'm not sure about their later releases, which is the bulk of what you'll find here, but I'm betting there's some gems in the lot.

Anyways, she's offering these LPs to anyone who wants to digitize and post them. Fellow bloggers, devoted listeners, take note! Here's a great chance to make a contribution to the music blogosphere and get a collectible item to boot! Here's her letter & vinyl list:

Thanks for taking a look. The garage guy said he snapped these up for next to nothing when Flying Fish discontinued vinyl around 1989. Most of them were played once to make cassette copies. Some are still unopened. He considered ripping them for his iPod, but decided he's too old to spend the time. I thought I had a sure taker to rip these, but after a week of searching. I'm starting to wonder if I imagined this post. My equipment and skills just aren't up to the task.

Here's the list. If you need more info on anything, let me know. You're welcome to anything you promise to rip. Hopefully you'll share it in the blog. If not, send me copies and I'll find a blog home if I have to start one myself. You're getting first pick. I'll shop it around elsewhere after a week 

If you know of likely takers for the stuff that's not your line of country, thanks for any leads. I feel a karmic duty to keep the garage guy collection alive.

Flying Fish and Mountain Railroad

0323 Anne Romaine - Take a Stand

3084 Artie Traum - Take a Stand

3914 Artie Traum - Life on Earth

        Artie Traum and Pat Alger - From the Heart

0509 Aztec Two-Step - See, It Was Like This

        Becky Thompson - After All This Time

0400 Bell and Shore - Little Movies

0325 Blue Riddim Band - Live in Jamaica

0255 Blue Riddim Band - Restless Spirit

0437 Bonnie Koloc - With You on My Side

        Bonnie Koloc - Wild and Recluse

0242 Cathy Winter - Breath on My Fire

        Cherish the Ladies (first LP

0468 Critton Hollow - Great Dreams

0497 Dave Mallett - For a Lifetime

0060 Don Lange - Natural Born Heathen

0222 Don Lange - Live

0039 Ellipsis

8000 Emery Christiansen - Between Planes

0418 File - Cajun Dance Band

0457 The Flips - What's in the Bright Pink Box?

        Fred Small - No Limit 

        Fred Small - I Will Stand Fast

0436 Geof Morgan - Talk It Over

0277 Geof Morgan - Finally Letting It Go

0353 George Gritzbach - All American Song

0432 Glenda Faye - Flatpickin' Favorites

0391 Guy Carawan - The Land Knows You're There

        Happy Traum - Bright Morning Star

        VA: The Heartbeat of Soweto

0044 Howie Bursen - Building Boom

0482 Jan Marra - These Crazy Years

2782 Jim Kweskin - Lives Again

0365 Jim Page - Visions in My View

0331 John O'Connor - Songs for Our Times

0443 Jonathan Stevens - Creationland

0376 Laura Burns and Roger Rosen - Light This Night

1992 Lenny Anderson - Hot Off the Press

0458 Linda Allen - Women's Work

0439 Linda Waterfall - Body English

0308 Lorraine Duisit - Hawks and Herons

        Lorraine Lee and Bennett Hammond - Light as a Feather

0405 Mark Nelson - Southern Light

0485 Patricia Shih - Leap of Faith

0256 Peter Alsop - Uniforms

0078 Phil Rosenthal - Indian Summer

0324 Preston Reed - Playing By Ear

0428 Robin Flower - Babies With Glasses

0326 Robin Flower, First Dibs

0359 Robin and Linda Williams - Nine Till Midnight

0327 Robin and Linda Williams - Close As We Can Get

0499 Roy Forbes - Love Turns to Ice

0399 Ruth Pelham - Look to the People

3425 Sally Rogers and Claudia Schmidt - Closing the Distance

0202 Sam Chatmon and the Barbecue Boys

0312 Si Kahn - Unfinished Portraits

0479 Skyline - Fire of Grace

0388 Tony Trischka and Skyline - Skyline Drive

4015 VA - Songs for Peace

0306 Steve Lyon - There's No Place Like MArs

0498 Velma Frye - I Am to Someone

3065 Woodstock Mountains Revue - Back to Mud Acres

Folkways

Andrew Rowan Summers - Christmas Carols with Dulcimer

Doc Scott's Old-Time Medicine Show - World's Most Unusual Songs

George Davis, the Singing Miner - When Kentucky Had No Union Men

Gerry Axelrod and Robert Macklin - Songs of Nature and the Environment

Kevin Roth - After the Rain

Kevin Roth - Women

Kevin Roth - New Wind

Kevin Roth - The Other Side of the Mountain

Kevin Roth - The Living and Breathing Wind

Kevin Roth - The First Few WordsLiz Getz - How Can I Keep from Singing

Ron Turner - Self Titled

Tom Morgan - Bluegrass with Friends and Family

Tracy and Eloise Schwartz - Down Home With

VA - Hootenanny Tonight

Folk Legacy

Helen Schneyer - Ballads, Broadsides and Hymns

Ed Trickett - The Telling Takes Me Home

Miscellany

Red Clay Ramblers - Soundtrack to Sam Shepard's Far North

Doc and Merle Watson and the Texas Playboys - Soundtrack to Places in the Heart

Clam Chowder - For Here or To Go

Michael Tomlinson - Still Believe

Eric Bogle - Singing the Spirit Home

Alice Gerrard and Mike Seeger

Tom Paxton - Even a Gray Day

Mike Cross - Rock 'n' Rye

Mike Cross - Prodigal Son

Mike Cross - Born in the Country

Makem and Clancy - We've Come a Long Way

Kell Street Camp Meeting - Dinner and Joy on the Ground

The Star Accordion Band - Scottish Favorites Vol. 2

VA- The Greater Antilles Sampler

VA - Songs and Dances of Vandee

Mikron Theatre Company - Songs of the Canals and Waterways of Great Britain

Mary O'Hara - At the Toyal Festival Hall

David Philoe - Seychelles

Yulya - Sings Her Favorite Russian Songs

A fair number of these artists are probably forgotten for good reason. Tendentious movement and preachy new-agey song titles. Self-righteous liner notes. Smug faces on the covers. I'll eventually skim it all, and would be delighted to discover my cruel first impressions were wrong. But I'm sure there's somebody out there who loved the crusading union printer/songwriter  Lenny Anderson. It takes all kinds. And the web has a home for all of it, I'm sure. I just don't want to be the person who sent the last surviving copy of Patricia Shih's proudest gift to the landfill. 

anyone who would like to take on the task of ripping and posting some of these should contact

johannalapp at that yahoo place dot com

and then leave a comment in this post or email me and her once the file is uploaded. Or, if you have a blog of your own, post it there and leave a note in the comments.

and a word about ripping vinyl:

If you feel inclined to rip a vinyl and digitize it, and have the equipment and time to go through with the task, why settle for less than the best sound quality? I mean, pops & clicks have their charm, but they don't really add that much to the music. That said, I'd always rather have an album with pops & clicks than one that's been 'over-cleaned'. Most of the vinyl ripping programs out there have built-in 'de-clickers' which apply a single algorithm and wipe out all the high frequency sounds, resulting in a sound that is devoid of pops & crackles and also devoid of most of the musical excitement, sounding like a blanket has been draped over the speakers. If you listen on a laptop or built-in computer speakers, you may not be able to notice the difference. But if you listen on good speakers, these over-cleaned recordings sound HORRIBLE. Worse than cassettes. So please, if you do rip and share some of these, either leave the scratches as they are or use this excellent program: ClickRepair, which cleans without sacrificing the music or audio quality. Then, share mp3s of a high quality (192kbps and above). Photograph or scan the front & back covers, if you can, for an even better share.

Let the fish fly!!!

Paul Smith - Mysterious Barricades: The Banjo Redefined

This is an incredible banjo album. It's so beautiful!!! (and that's an odd word to be paired with such a rude-sounding instrument)... It also continues to confirm my notion that every single record issued by Flying Fish was great (or every one I've heard so far at least). Moreover, he paved the way for Béla Fleck and Alison Brown, both of whom went on to become much more famous than he. Indeed, he's pretty much impossible to find information on, and I'm pretty sure this is his only record. God, it's good though... really. The best ragtime banjo number I've ever heard (his arrangement of Joseph Lamb's 'Ragtime Nightingale' is simply stunning), and classical banjo to match the great John Bullard. And really interesting original pieces, kinda dawgy but with less jazz and more classical and Celtic influence. There's even a traditional Irish number, done fingerstyle on a 5-string. Really, this guy could have been what Béla Fleck has become, but he never wowed everybody with his bluegrass chops, so he never really became famous. Ah, well. Another forgotten masterpiece, prime for blogging!


Paul Smith - Mysterious Barricades: The Banjo Redefined

Year: 1981
Label: Flying Fish

Review by Brian Olewnick

Banjoist Paul Smith presented here a selection of works divided between traditional folk and bluegrassy pieces and works from the classical repertoire rearranged for banjo. The former are the most attractive, including songs like his own "Missouri," sounding a bit like David Grisman's work from around the same period, and the Irish tune "Julia Delaney," a delightful romp giving Smith's nimble fingers a good workout. The title cut was originally a harpsichord work by François Couperin, played solo here and quite appealingly, the hollow banjo chords giving the short piece some breathing room. The little-known Joseph Lamb's "Ragtime Nightingale" is an unexpected delight with a subtlety of line and mysterious quality that compares reasonably well with Scott Joplin. The Beethoven and Vivaldi compositions work less well, coming off as slightly precious and overly benign. There's a bit too much self-consciousness in Smith's avowed attempts to "redefine" the banjo. One would have wished he simply relaxed and played pieces like "The Last Minute" and "Julia Delaney" and stopped worrying so much. As is, Mysterious Barricades is generally enjoyable and a fine banjo showcase, but it could have been much more.

Musicians:
Paul Smith, banjo and fiddle
Adam Rose, guitar
John Held, piano
Tudy McLain, flute
Paul Kotapish, bouzouki
Kundry Berger, piano and harpsichord
Joe Bichsell, cello

Tracks:
01 Missouri
02 Beethoven: Sonatina in C for mandolin and piano w/o 44.
03 Pythagoras
04 Julia Delaney
05 Les Barricades Mystérieuses
06 Ragtime Nightingale
07 The Last Minute
08 Tim's Flatted Fifth
09 Vivaldi: Concerto in D for lute, two violins, and continuo; I. Allegro
10 Vivaldi: Concerto in D for lute, two violins, and continuo; II. Largo
11 Vivaldi: Concerto in D for lute, two violins, and continuo; III. Allegro

pythagorian mysteries.
fresh vinyl rip, cleaned | mp3 >256kbps

I'm really curious about ragtime, classical, and Irish music played on the 5-string banjo. If any of you have Fred Sokolow - Ragtime Banjo, Bluegrass Style, or John Bullard - Bach on Banjo, I'd love to hear them. Or others I may not know about!

The Philadelphia Folk Festival 1972 & 1977

Following on the heels of Michael Cooney, here's a festival he's been very involved with throughout its 40-year history. It's one of the top folk festivals in the country, or at least it seems so based on the talent they bring. I've never gone, so I suppose I don't know. I'm giving you 2 things here: one is a out-of-print vinyl that I just ripped, of the festival from 1977. It's a mixed bag stylistically, but top quality throughout. A highlight is definitely Michael Cooney's rendition of the old British ballad "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight." Grisman fans will want to check out Lew London's very swinging mandolin take on "The Glory of Love" and compare it to Joseph Spence's wild grunting version.

The other share is a 20-minute bootleg of John Hartford & Norman Blake performing at the festival in 1972. I haven't said anything about Hartford on the blog so far, and I'm not going to start right now; but perhaps he'll be the subject of a future post, who knows. Anyways, I probably don't have to say too much about this music. If you know the artists, you know it's good...


John Hartford & Norman Blake - Philadelphia Folk Festival (1972)

Recorded: 08/25/72
Philadelphia Folk Festival
Old Poole Farm
Schwenksville, PA

Tracks:
01 - Old Joe Clark (6:01)
02 - Instrumental (2:30)
03 - You Can Do Anything (3:28)
04 - Randall Collins Is My Name (2:54)
05 - Skippin' In The Mississippi Dew (3:56)
06 - Orange Blossom Special (2:05)

you could be down there when the glory rocks.
sbdmr>dat>wavelab>cdr>eac>shn>320kbps mp3.


The Philadelphia Folk Festival (1977)

Flying Fish Records FF-064 (LP, USA, 1978)

Recorded at the Old Poole Farm, Upper Salford, PA, August 26-28, 1977

An Amazon customer said:
This record features a solidly strange cross-section of folk songs and musicians from the mid-1970s, when the "folk revival" was well past, Dylan's electric turn old news, and the hipsters had moved on. Notable names include Odetta, Kate Wolf, Tom Paxton, Dave Van Ronk, and Norman Blake -- often thought of as a leader of the "bluegrass revival" in the 1970s. Plenty of bluegrass does pop up, of course, but the sounds are diverse across the record and include many traditional songs alongside more original/new material. Other highlights include Debbie McClatchy's version of the racy "A Little Piece of Wang" and a Gershwin cover by the Lew London Trio.

Tracks
Side 1
1. Bruce Martin: Scots Piping
2. Paxton: Did You Hear John Hurt?
3. Norman Blake: Jerusalem Ridge
4. Michael Cooney: Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight
5. De Danann: Irish Dance Medley: The Boys of Ballisodaire / The Longford Collector
6. Kate Wolf: Then Came the Children
7. John Jackson: Step It Up and Go
8. Odetta: I Gotta Be Me

Side 2
9. Dave Van Ronk: Green, Green Rocky Road
10. Lou Killen: All for Me Grog
11. Roger Sprung, Hal Wylie & the Progessive Bluegrassers: Wild Goose Chase
12. Debbie McClatchy: A Little Piece of Wang
13. Lew London Trio: The Glory of Love
14. Highwood String Band & The Green Grass Cloggers: Dance All Night

step it up.
fresh vinyl rip | mp3 >256kbps vbr | w/o cover

oh, and one of the featured artists on this set is Roger Sprung, Hal Wylie & the Progessive Bluegrassers. If any of you have anything else by them, particularly the album 'Grassy Licks', I would love to hear it.

Robin Williamson - Legacy of the Scottish Harpers

And fresh on the heels of Michael Coleman we move over to Scotland for some more traditional, magical, ancient music. As a founding member of the Incredible String Band, Robin Willaimson's place in music history would be secure if he had done nothing else. But he successfully reinvented his approach to music on multiple occasions, becoming in the process the greatest living example of a bard. He dug deep into the traditions of his music and found the travelling musician/storyteller/mythmaker/historykeeper archetype at its roots. He plays a number of instruments, from fiddle and guitar to harp and some of the weirder ones too... and he's a fantastic raconteur.

With this album he goes back to the most ancient of Celtic instruments, the harp. There is something very special about harp music: its purity of tone, its graceful simplicity of timbre and hue, its clouds of resonance. In the hands of many a lesser musician, this grace and purity gets lots in the clouds of vagueness and the music loses its dynamic form, becoming an over-relaxing blob of prettiness. Not so with Robin Williamson, never one to shirk a crooked tune. While it certainly never recalls his early work as a pioneer of 'wyrd folk' with the Incredible String Band, those who listen closely to this work will find not only a somber elegance but a lively spark of trickery as well. The magic of these tunes was certainly not lost on Williamson, who gives them an honest, faithful, and beguiling treatment.


Biography by Leon Jackson

Between 1966 and 1974, Robin Williamson was one half of the Incredible String Band, but his career did not founder after ISB's demise, although it might be said to have taken a few quirky turns, including a collaboration on a spy novel and the publication of a bizarre semi-autobiography. Away from these literary avocations, Williamson formed the Far Cry Ceilidh Band with Stan Schnier and Mark Simos, but never made it to the recording studio. In 1976, Williamson met with harpist Sylvia Woods, and together with Chris Caswell and Jerry McMillian, they formed Robin Williamson & His Merry Band. Between 1977 and 1979, they released three albums: the highly traditional Journey's Edge in 1977, American Stonehenge in 1978, and A Glint at the Kindling in 1979, which featured the epic historical cycle "Five Denials on Merlin's Grave." After the breakup of the Merry Band, Williamson started to tour solo, offering highly ambient sets dominated by traditional stories set to song. Releases of this period include Songs of Love and Parting and the dedicated folklorist's Legacy of the Scotish Harpers. Williamson's concern with the British bardic tradition also manifested itself in several books and tapes containing spoken renditions of traditional tales. Subsequent projects saw the prolific Williamson recording tapes and discs of music for children and pouring his energies into environmental projects for the Scottish Wildlife Trust. Iron Stone was released on the ECM label in 2006.


Robin Williamson - Legacy of the Scottish Harpers

Year: 1984
Label: Flying Fish Records

Tracks:
1. Scottish Cap/Scotland
2. Floweres of the Forrest Cromlets Lilt/Chevy Chase
3. Weel Hoddleed Lucky/The Lochaben Harper
4. Gilderoy/Cow the Gowans
5. MacGregor's Lamentation/Macgregor's Search
6. Kilt Thy Coat Maggie/Three Sheepskins
7. Lord Dundee's Lamentation/The Braes O' Killiekrankie
8. I'll Mak Ye Fain to Follow Me/Shame Fa' the Gear and the Blathrie O'T
9. Lady Cassilis' Lilt/The Auld Jew/The Broom O' Cowdenknowes
10. MacDonald of the Isles' Salutation
11. Rushes/Birk and Green Hollin
12. Soor Plooms
13. Jockey Drucken Babble/Sae Mirrie as We Hae Been/Jockey Went to the Wood
14. Omnia Vincit Amor/The Banks of Helicon/Deil Tak the Wars

cam ye lassies an weep.
fresh vinyl rip | mp3 >256kbps vbr | w/o cover

for those of you who get CRC extracting errors on tracks 3 and 7, they're here:
Track 3, Track 7
or both in this file uploaded by 5147hoppe:

*out-of-print