Continuing the musical quick hits...

Kingston Trio's Greatest Hits is one of those things that I remember fondly from my childhood. My mom was and old folky who tells stories of missing college classes because the weather was nice and the call of the guitar and the open lawns of campus were too much for her. I love the clean harmonies and folky feel of the Trio - clearly the most acceptable of the first wave of folk music, with their matching outfits and easily parodied style - and I still enjoy listening to their music - especially "MTA", "El Matador", and "Everglades".

Continuing in the folksy vein is the Pete Seeger tribute album Where Have All the Flowers Gone: Songs of Pete Seeger. The Appleseed label has taken some of the greatest folk songs of all time - all written by Seeger - and hands the duties to a number of quality artists - all of whom seem to over sing and over produce their choice of songs. The recordings are nice and well made, but they all seem to miss the feeling that I have for Seeger's music. I hear acoustic instruments played well but simply when I think of Pete Seeger, and many of these songs simply are not that. It is, however and sadly, the only place on CD that I can find a copy of "All My Children of the Sun" by anybody at all. Anybody know where I can find the Seeger version on CD? Anywhere?

Then there are the folk compilations - I've barely started listening to Washington Square Memoirs - but I have finished up listening to the first three volumes of Troubadours of the Folk Era - a horribly named collection of some of the finest songs of the folk era (whatever that term means). I'd especially recommend the second volume with wonderful tracks from Fred Neil, Tom Rush, Joni Mitchell, Richie Havens, Tim Buckley, Phil Ochs, and others.

Yeah, it's folk week here at My Musical Radar, deal with it. I also took some time to listen to John Prine's The Missing Years. It's another folk album borrowed from mom's collection. (I went in over Thanksgiving and came back with some stuff to listen to.) This is one of Prine's strongest late career albums with songs like "Jesus: The Missing Years", "All the Best", and "Everything is Cool". Other than "Jesus", there isn't anything as wonderful as "Lake Marie", but there are still some very good songs here - almost all of which include Prine's trademark humor and acerbic wit. He's a singular songwriter with a voice that nobody else has ever been close to.

Wilco isn't folk, so at least there's that. Kicking Television - their new double disc live album is a good record of what a Wilco live show is like. I was lucky enough to have seen them here in Cincinnati this past fall at the Taft Theater. If you saw Wilco live on their last tour, this is a perfect reproduction of that concert. Wilco's live act isn't anything even remotely resembling a jam band as they look to simply reporoduce what they've put to disc. It makes for a great, rocking show, but a less than spectacular live album. Good for fans but probably not going to make new fans.

Far from folk is the soundtrack to the film Orlando. It's only got one proper song - the brilliant "Coming" by Jimmy Somerville - but it's got a number of haunting and moody instrumentals, mixing semi-classical instrumentation and looping, electronic sounds. The soundtrack as a whole is excellent, and it's quickly moving into my most played list.

We'll close today with a quick recap of Tift Merritt's Bramble Rose. I'd first given her second album - tambourine - but couldn't get through it because her voice just sounded whiney to me, but this debut album seems much more pleasant and stronger to me, opening with the excellent "Trouble Over Me". The reviews all suggest that Merritt is a newly-born, fully-formed artist, and I can't argue with that because this is one of the finest debut albums in any sort of Americana singer-songwriter vein that I'm heard in a long time. Merritt clearly deserves all the praise she's getting, and I'll be giving her second album a second listen after hearing this one.

That's enough for now. Soon I'll be finishing up Michael Chriton's Airframe and will be reviewing that and the Astro City collection Tarnished Angel