dfbm #84
Songs of Wild Nothing Pt. 2

For this new installment of Songs of Wild Nothing, I dug through the internets attic, dusted off some mp3 and polished some gems.

You might know that electronic-music composer Laurie Spiegel has her roots in folk music. She learned how to play the guitar and banjo by ear and later she went into the appalchian mountains to do field recordings. Yet I wasn't able to find anything else of her, beside the electronic music she is known for. Only a short piece called "Remembering Home" for electric banjo with digital signal processing from her youtube channel came close to what I was looking for. So I think that's a nice opener. Read an extensive feature and interview with her.

Mabel Cawthorn is a musician from Georgia. She got in trouble when she sold weed to an undercover agent and went to jail. Art Rosenbaum featured her in his documentary "Sing my troubles by". Very few songs of her appeared on some compilation, but there is not much floating around. Her raw energy is fascinating and refreshing.

Selda is a famous singer from Turkey. I learned about her because Australian multicultural hip-hop group Curse Ov Dialect used a sample of hers in the song Take me to the Arab World. Both artists are totally worth to discover. Curse Ov Dialect produce fantastic psychedelic hip-hop with all sort of samples from classical muisc to world music and folk.

I consider the Sarah Louise song on this mix now kind of a rarity since this version includes vocals that didn't make it on her official release Field Guilde on Scissor Tails. She has a new release coming out in May. You should be psyched about this.

Hippie folk singer Caroline Wolf's record Wayside is a rare one. Rare in every sense. It was released with a generic cover artwork on the Century Records label. As far as I understand, musicians were able to send in tapes and the label pressed it on wax with a generic cover artwork. I saw this album, sealed, for 450 USD on some auction site. Crazy!

Joan O'Bryant is another "song-bird" and favorite of mine (given that the previous songs title was The Gull and I selected The Cuckoo from Joan). I scored a copy of her Folkways release, which is in a pretty bad shape, but the artwork got me into Ronald Clyne's design work for Moe Asch's label, so I have to get it. Her songs are so sweet and simple. Very similar to the wonderful Myriam Gendron and the mysteriously disappeared Connie Converse.

Janet Smith released an album on Takoma Records, she's still around playing ancient music on a lyra.

Spacelady and The Shaggs are well known musicians from the outsider spectrum and they are still active, which is pretty amazing. The Spacelady is just coming to Europe again.

Sister Irene O'Connor is another great record of religion infused oddball music. I probably heard about her on the now defunct WFMU blog, 8 years ago.

In a more esoteric field operated Monolith & Mary Young. Again it's some obscure private press album, that may or may not be worth the high price some collectors pay for it. Luckily an mp3 rip is floating around. If you wonder what Xintilia means, read here.

Allysen Callery is going to release her 6th full length album “The Song The Songbird Sings” on Jelly-Fant Records very soon. I took an instrumental demo or sketch off her soundcloud.

I hope you'll enjoy this collection of tunes that nicely bridges the gap between folk, electronic music and everything in between and around those genres. Thanks to everyone who shares music and knowledge. There is so much to discover from the past, while great music is produced every day.

Share if you agree.

Download Stream @ Mixcloud

Playlist

1. Laurie Spiegel Remembering Home Single Track web
2. Dyllan Hersey Never Going Back To SunFlower River s/t 2012 web
3. Mabel Cawthorn Tom Watson Tune Art of Field Recording: Volume I 2007 web
4. Nguyen Van Thong Bong-Co Lan Nu Trung Vunong/Bong-Co Lan web
5. Sarah Louise The Day is Past and Gone (Variations) Field Guide 2014 web
6. Fatou Seidi Ghali & Alamnou Akrouni Achibaba Les Filles de Illighadad web
7. Haruko Goodbye my Love,Goodbye... Bird in the Snow 2011 web
8. Selda Çemberimde Gül Oya 1971 discogs
9. Caroline Wolf The Gull Wayside 1972 discogs
10. Joan O'Bryant The Cuckoo American Ballads And Folksongs 1958 web
11. Doreen Kostynuik Justice Has No Voice I Wish You Rainbows discogs
12. Connie Converse Down This Road How Sad, How Lovely 2009 web
13. Beulah Kershaw A Woman In Love web
14. Cathy Viger Have Faith Have Faith 7" Lathe Cut 1973 web
15. The Fates Sheila/She Beats In My Heart Furia 1985, 2014 web
16. Diane Cluck Perigee Moon Diane Cluck's Song-of-the-Week project 2013 web
17. Karen Dalton Katie Cruel 1966 1966 web
18. The Fleetwoods Raindrops, Teardrops Mr. Blue 1959 discogs
19. Myriam Gendron Threnody Not So Deep As A Well 2014 web
20. Mr. & Mrs. Smith Down Another Year Till further notice....Sampler 2015 web
21. Marisa Anderson For the Love 07 For the Love 2005 discogs
22. The Kossoy Sisters With Erik Darling Willie Moore Bowling Green 1997 discogs
23. Monolith & Mary Young Xentilia Xentilia 1980 discogs
24. Sister Irene O'Connor Mass: Emmanuel (Text: I.C.E.L.) Fire Of God's Love 1976 discogs
25. Janet Smith If You Will Weave Me Vol I / The Unicorn And Other Songs Both Old & New 1970 discogs
26. Allysen Callery When You Are Awaking 2015 discogs
27. The Space Lady Ghost Riders In The Sky The Space Lady's Greatest Hits 2013 discogs
28. Judi Resnick 900 Miles You're Heard My Voice web
29. Sjofn Whiskey Secret 2010 web
30. Hladowski & Joynes The Pretty Ploughboy The Wild Wild Berry 2012 web
31. Nancy Rhoades The Coo-Coo Ballads & Blues web
32. Lena Hughes Cedar Brook Waltz Queen of the Flat Top Guitar 2012 discogs
33. The Shaggs Things I Wonder Philosophy Of The World 1999 discogs

Laurie Spiegel with banjo, 1962 (source)

Laurie Spiegel with lute,1991 (source)

 

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