Folk /
Same Animal, Different Cages Vol. 4: Sitar Music of North Brooklyn
**2020 stock** Sitar Music of North Brooklyn, the fourth volume in American composer David First’s “Same Animal, Different Cages” series, is perhaps one of his strongest musical statements since he radically re-invented how to approach the acoustic guitar in volume one. While First’s sitar improvisations are engrossing and pleasurable to hear, easy listening they are not. This is First challenging himself and challenging you, the listener, to grapple with his unorthodox and experimental approach…
Spine River : The Guitar Music of Wall Matthews, 1967-1981
Guitarist Wall Matthews is surviving member of experimental 70's collective, Entourage. Sampled by Four Tet, their name whispered in reverence through the decades, Entourage forged bold musical ideas on their two rare ’70s Folkways LPs. Tompkins Square released Ceremony of Dreams : Studio Sessions and Outtakes, 1972-1977, in 2018 to wide acclaim. Spine River : The Guitar Music of Wall Matthews, 1967-1981 is a collection of unreleased or obscure music by the master guitarist. This volume will be …
Water and Rock Music Volume II
**250 copies** The second volume of Water and Rock Music by British guitarist Jon Collin is another solid gambol in the outdoors. For much of this it sounds almost as though Mr. Collin is wearing a pair of hip waders and is up to his ass in a stream, casting for notes the way Hemingway casted for trout. His string bending recalls Loren Connors at points, but he has a manual approach to filigree Loren has never displayed. Notes bend and hover, but they also flutter, and the combination of sounds …
The Complete Paramount & Brunswick Recordings, 1929
From 1926 to 1930 one of the most popular rural string bands on record was Charlie Poole & The North Carolina Ramblers. Through their 78 RPM discs and their various performances, Charlie Poole was second only to Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers. Poole's uniquely syncopated three finger banjo picking style coupled with his Piedmont vocal inflections eventually colored and defined much of what we consider "old-time" music. The classic configuration of banjo, fiddle and guitar with vocals was enc…
Fate Is Only Twice
Released as a short-run private press LP in 1965, Harry Taussig's 'Fate Is Only Once' has long been a coveted collectible among American Primitive guitar enthusiasts. The album presages the broader movement. Acoustic musicians were still largely stuck in a rigid "Folk" mindset in 1965, and there are just not that many other examples of the exploratory guitar sounds found on 'Fate' during this time period. Alternating between haunting originals and jaunty blues-based traditional numbers, this abs…
The Sun Is Setting on the World
Apocalyptic rebetika recordings from the 1930s through to late '50s. Songs of sorrow, poverty, loss and the general end of this god forsaken planet.
Recording is the Trip - The Karen Dalton Archives
Recording is the Trip - The Karen Dalton Archives is a three-LP, three-CD box set, including a download card and a shirt. Three LPs: Includes for the first-time ever on clear vinyl, limited edition the 1962 double live album Cotton Eyed Joe remastered, the 1963 home recordings album Green Rocky Road remastered. The three CDs are the same albums as the LPs. Includes one download card of 13 unreleased home recordings including a mesmerizing take on "God Bless The Child". 56-page book with scans of…
The Devil is Busy in Knoxville
Compilation of early gospel recordings spanning from 1927 - 1955. Sanctified blues by the Two Gospel Keys, Mother McCollum, Blind Rosevelt Graves, Lottie Bracey, Sister O.M Terrell & Rev. IB Ware. Beautiful slow country gospel by the Anglin Brothers & Delmore Brothers, Intense vocal performances by the New Gospel Keys, Elder Richard Briant & the Silent Grove Baptist Church Congregation, & much more! All killer no filler compilation that rocks hard & gets deep & sad too. Old school 'tip on' cover…
African Gems
A compilation of field recordings made in the 1960s and 70s. These musical traditions are the result of many centuries, but the tracks sound so modern - revitalising, relaxing, healing This is some of the best traditional African music ever recorded. The music is the star -- of course -- then comes the wonderful musicians who performed it, but it was the recordists who make it possible for us to listen to the genius in African music captured on these magnificent tracks. After having released the…
A L'Entrée Du Temps Clair
Long out of print, few copies spotted of this late 70's dreamy folk album...Veronique Chalot was born in Normandy in the north of France, but it was in Paris that she first became interested in traditional French folk music. In 1974 she landed in Rome where she soon earned a small, but dedicated following. England may have its Jacqui McShee (Pentangle), but France and Italy have its Veronique Chalot. For the past three decades Veronique has dedicated herself to playing, recording and researching…
Our Mother The Mountain
Townes Van Zandt's 50th Anniversary edition of Our Mother the Mountain includes: 180 gram remastered vinyl, tip-on jacket, lyrics included. "Townes' second album, released in 1969 and produced by Jack Clement, contains 11 sorrowful and soulful tunes showcasing some of Van Zandt's best work. The weight and beauty of these songs are still standing tall against time. Widely considered one of the greatest songwriters of his generation, Townes Van Zandt has been hailed by such singers as Steve Earle,…
Vampire Vultures
2009 reprint, originally published in 2000. The publication of How Bluegrass Music Destroyed My Life did a great deal to spread the word of John Fahey's literary talents, though sadly only a year before he died. Vampire Vultures is an unexpected gift and should ease the grief of those who thought they would never hear anything from John Fahey again. Originally a project of his own conception, it was to be an epic work that would expand on many of the characters and experiences he introduced in B…
La Ya Habiby
"Fantôme Phonographique present a reissue of Om Kalsoum's La Ya Habiby, originally released in 1963. A titan of middle eastern music, the contralto singer Om Kalsoum (or, Umm Kulthum) was hailed as "The Voice of Egypt" or "Egypt's Fourth Pyramid," and as she reportedly sold over 80 million records worldwide during her lifetime, she is one of the most popular singers of all time. Born in a small village in the Nile Delta, either in the late 1890s or the early 1900s, she joined her father's family…
Rembétissa
"Roza Eskenazi was a giant of rembetika, the urban Greek music of Ottoman origin associated with the poor underclass. Eskenazi's life was extraordinary: born Sarah Spinazi to a poor Sephardic Jewish family in Constantinople, probably in the mid-1890s, after an itinerant childhood, she began dancing at the Grand Hotel Theatre in Thessaloniki. She eloped with the wealthy Yiannis Zardinidis around 1913, with whom she bore a son, but after his untimely death in 1917, she placed the son in the care o…
Music By William Eaton
Originally released in 1978, Music By William Eaton is a private-press album from the accomplished experimental stringed instrument builder. The atmospheric recording techniques, mixed with a hint of John Fahey/Takoma-lineage make for a listening experience akin to the mountainscape drawing represented on the album cover. The experience may seem simple at first, but like any great trip in nature, new details consistently reveal themselves upon each listen. “When I started building instruments, p…
Imaginational Anthem Vol. 6
"If American primitive guitar begins with John Fahey and the Takoma School, then the actual origins of this sound are found within this collection of fourteen classic solo guitar performances. Recorded between 1923 and 1930, this set is the 'Rosetta Stone' of style and repertoire tapped into deeply by Fahey, Basho, and Rose, among many others. Sam McGee, Riley Puckett, Bayless Rose, Sylvester Weaver, Lemuel Turner, Frank Hutchinson, and Davey Miller are the rural artists included in this …
Townes Van Zandt - 50th Anniversary Edition
50th Anniversary edition of Townes Van Zandt includes: 180 gram remastered vinyl, tip-on Jacket with obi strip, inner sleeve with autheticated lyrics.Townes Van Zandt's third recording is an early guitar-and-voice singer-songwriter classic laden with memorable originals. Start with For the Sake of the Song, an oft-recorded classic here enlivened by tasteful percussion. Move on to a couple of Van Zandt's gritty, death's door laments - Waiting Around to Die (where the ex-con protagonist finds a fr…
Bali 1928 - Anthology: The First Recordings
A compilation from all five of World Arbiter's volumes of the complete Balinese recordings from 1928, newly remastered in 2015 and released for the first time since the days of 78-RPM shellac. Performances of gamelan gong kebyar, semar pagulingan, gender wayang, palégongan, gambangam pajogédan, gambuh, angklung, suling, tembang, kidung, kakawin, arja geguntangan, janger, cepung, unaccompanied vocals, and topeng. When composer Colin McPhee heard some 78s in New York, brought over by anthropologis…
There Is a Place
**300 copies** "A new reissue of this masterpiece by The Left Outsides, originally issued on cassette in 2015, then first put to vinyl in 2017, as the long-format follow-up to the classic The Shape of Things to Come LP. The current edition is demarcated by a glossy cover and metallic gold printing. Its music remains as timeless a gust of dark autumnal wind as any you'll ever hear. Some of the music here was written as part of the soundtrack to Gus Alavrez's 2009 noir-pastoral short, Stand and De…
A Pine Tree Shilling's Worth
"Proud we are to reissue the final piece of Willie Lane's original Cord-Art LP trilogy. It was recorded in various spots throughout Western Mass, in the years following the release of Guitar Army of One. Initially issued in 2016, in an edition of 350, this lovely session disappeared into the fog of the forest before most folks were able to catch its scent. Now it has re-emerged with re-interpreted cover art by Max Milgram, and sonics we think will please even the most finicky listener. A Pine Tr…