Post by ChrisB on May 1, 2017 21:39:05 GMT
May (1) 2017 David Johansen & the Harry Smiths - 'David Johansen & the Harry Smiths' (2000)
A blues album this time around:
David Johansen was the singer in The New York Dolls.
Harry Smith was an American film maker and musicologist who, in 1952, assembled a legendary 6 disc compilation album of recordings from the 1920s and 30s called 'The Anthology of American Folk Music'. This was probably the album that sparked off the 50s and 60s blues revival, which then inspired a generation of teenagers to learn guitar. Without it, rock music would possibly never have become what it did.
The former was inspired by the release on CD of the latter. He named his band The Harry Smiths and set about recording this album and 'Shaker', its follow-up with the Chesky Brothers in St. Peter's Episcopal Church, New York over 4 days in November/December 1999. Most of the songs are traditional and of unknown writers but some were written by familiar names - Lightnin' Hopkins, Sonny Boy Williamson, Mississippi John Hurt and Muddy Waters.
The Chesky Records blurb for this album says:
Rolling Stone Magazine Review:
It's all true!
I love this album and my favourite track is 'Delia'. The recording quality is superb and the acoustic in which it was played comes through. Play it loud!
SPOTIFY
YOUTUBE
A couple of the tracks
I hope you enjoy it.
A blues album this time around:
David Johansen was the singer in The New York Dolls.
Harry Smith was an American film maker and musicologist who, in 1952, assembled a legendary 6 disc compilation album of recordings from the 1920s and 30s called 'The Anthology of American Folk Music'. This was probably the album that sparked off the 50s and 60s blues revival, which then inspired a generation of teenagers to learn guitar. Without it, rock music would possibly never have become what it did.
The former was inspired by the release on CD of the latter. He named his band The Harry Smiths and set about recording this album and 'Shaker', its follow-up with the Chesky Brothers in St. Peter's Episcopal Church, New York over 4 days in November/December 1999. Most of the songs are traditional and of unknown writers but some were written by familiar names - Lightnin' Hopkins, Sonny Boy Williamson, Mississippi John Hurt and Muddy Waters.
The Chesky Records blurb for this album says:
David's famous voice lends itself perfectly to these emotionally raw songs, and through an alchemical process that would make Smith proud, David Johansen and the Harry Smiths turn these dark tales of loss and death into aural gold.
David Johansen is a true musical chameleon. Whether fronting the influential punk band the New York Dolls, lounging it up as Buster Poindexter or invoking the blues with the Harry Smiths, he has always demonstrated his unique talent for taking a musical style and making it his own. On David Johansen and the Harry Smiths, David and his first-rate band summon the spirit of the blues through American musicologist/folklorist Harry Smith. Featuring gripping performances of songs by Muddy Waters, Mississippi John Hurt and Bob Dylan, this 96-kHz/24-bit recording sounds so real you'll think you're in the Delta.
David Johansen brings it all back home to Harry Smith, in repertoire and name a perfect example of the circular logic of American-folk geography. A former New York Doll, Johansen is an unlikely hobo-like blues man, and his Harry Smiths ... are sly groovers who seem, at first, to be overqualified for barn-dance work. Yet Johansen is a believable avatar of Smith's scholarship ... he sings 'Poor Boy Blues' like a fragment of Latin Mass
It's all true!
I love this album and my favourite track is 'Delia'. The recording quality is superb and the acoustic in which it was played comes through. Play it loud!
SPOTIFY
YOUTUBE
A couple of the tracks
I hope you enjoy it.
