"The Roots of Nick Drake and Sandy Denny": new CD

[Philip W]

Release date: 7 September. Weird tracklisting, but interesting to see how these two "late lamented folk icons" are increasingly being bracketed together:

1. Memphis Slim - Backwater Blues
2. Jelly Roll Morton - Winin' Boy Blues
3. Bessie Smith - Black Mountain Blues
4. Billie Holiday - Summertime
5. Erskine Hawkins - Whispering Grass
6. Fats Waller - Until the Real Thing Comes Along
7. Ma Rainey - Blues, Oh Blues (Careless Love)
8. Odetta - Make Me A Pallet On The Floor
9. Woody Guthrie - Bad Lee Brown aka Cocaine Blues
10. Pete Seeger - All My Trials
11. Dock Boggs - Pretty Polly
12. Blind Boy Fuller - Little Woman You're So Sweet
13. Leadbelly - Duncan (And Brady)
14. Elder R Wilson And Family - This Train
15. Ernest Tubb - Walking the Floor Over You
16. The Louvin Brothers - In the Pines
17. Woody Guthrie With Pete Seeger - Gypsy Davey
18. Pete Seeger - She Moves Through the Fair
19. A.L. Lloyd - A Sailor's Life
20. Ewan MacColl - Sir Patrick Spens

http://eil.com/shop/moreinfo.asp?catalogid=480113

[David W]

Release date: 7 September. Weird tracklisting, but interesting to see how these two "late lamented folk icons" are increasingly being bracketed together ...

... to flog uninspiring cd compilations.

I wonder is the estates of Nick and Sandy benefit from their names being used in this manner?

[davidmjs]

... to flog uninspiring cd compilations.

I wonder is the estates of Nick and Sandy benefit from their names being used in this manner?

It must have cost a quid to pull together the licensing on that.  It will surely sell at least 11 copies.

Why?

[Dad Volt]

Looks just like something you would get on the front cover of MOJO.

[Philip W]

Looks just like something you would get on the front cover of MOJO.

I think Mojo would have made a better job of it. A bit of research - or a bigger budget - and they could have produced something more accurate. The Ink Spots version of "Whispering Grass", at least one Buddy Holly track, Jackson C Frank... And Drake: should include something classical - Bach, from the Forty-Eight maybe, or the Brandenburg Concerto he was listening to the night he died.

It's an intriguing idea for an album. Why do they never get these things right?

 

[BPTNT]

Looks just like something you would get on the front cover of MOJO.

I think Mojo would have made a better job of it. A bit of research - or a bigger budget - and they could have produced something more accurate. The Ink Spots version of "Whispering Grass", at least one Buddy Holly track, Jackson C Frank...
 

Well, I suppose at least they didn't put on the Windsor Davies version....

[Edthefolkie]

Don't start me on Windsor bloody Davies and Don bloody Estelle. That record came out just about the same time as Sandy's version which I think was also on a single.

Guess whose performance ended up on Top of the Pops? You know where you can stick that solar topi     Estelle.........

[Jim]

Sandy and Don are duetting with the ink spots in heaven as we type

[Edthefolkie]

Don't DO that to me Jim!!

[Harbottle (Martin)]

... to flog uninspiring cd compilations.

I wonder is the estates of Nick and Sandy benefit from their names being used in this manner?

It must have cost a quid to pull together the licensing on that.  It will surely sell at least 11 copies.

Why?

I bet most of it is in the public domain.

[Jules Gray]

Don't start me on Windsor bloody Davies and Don bloody Estelle. That record came out just about the same time as Sandy's version which I think was also on a single.

Guess whose performance ended up on Top of the Pops? You know where you can stick that solar topi     Estelle.........

I'm not too bothered as I never liked Sandy's version much anyway.  Actually her version annoys me somewhat as she messes up the lyrics.  I'll take the Ink Spots anytime.

Jules

[jonnybrilliant]

On a quick scan, I imagine nearly all of that is out of copyright, and no royalties to pay...The use of the 'names' though is a bit more interesting. If either estate objected, the title would be a goner I would say.

[Philip W]

I've just had a listen to this. It's not without interest. The first half hour makes a nice mix-tape of early blues and trad jazz. It goes way off the rails after that, betraying the fact that it was cobbled together by people who don't know much about Drake or Denny and, even if they knew which versions of songs to go for, couldn't afford the licensing. It finishes with Ewan MacColl - 5' 33" of Pat Spens, unaccompanied (naturally) - I don't think Sandy even liked MacColl, did she? I was, however, intrigued to hear the original of 'Walking The Floor Over You' - down-homey, country, so different from the rocky treatment Sandy gave it. And AL Lloyd in 'A Sailor's Life' - knocking it on the head in 2' 49" - reminded me of the openness he showed in embracing Fairport's 11-minute work-out.  

All in all, not a complete waste of a fiver. But Dave Henderson in the booklet notes rather shoots himself in the foot by admitting that many of the songs Drake recorded at home were derived from one Dave Van Ronk album. Needless to say, Dave Van Ronk is not featured on this album...