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Special!!! We will include a free
Jean Ritchie cassette with each CD order.
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- Clear Waters Remembered
- Jean Ritchie
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This CD re-issue
of Jean’s 1971 Sire LP was digitally re-mastered from the original master tapes.
It contains many songs never recorded on any of her other releases performed
by Jean along with an ensemble of the finest folk performers of the day, including:
Russ Savakus – bass, Dick Weisman – banjo, Eric Weissberg – fiddle, and Happy
Traum – bass.
Tracks:
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- None But One / High
Hills and Mountains - Jean
Ritchie & Friends
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- Two Complete Albums on One CD
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- With Special Guest Artists:
Janis Ian, Mary Travers, Oscar Brand, Eric Weissberg and Kenny Kosek
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- None But One
- This recording caused quite a stir when it was originally released
on a major label. Unanimously excellent reviews cropped up in national
and international magazines as well as in the obscure folk journal and newsletters.
It even prompted Rolling Sone to present Jean with its prestigious Critic's
Cirle Award as Folk Artist of the Year. The important reissue of this
classic LP should be welcome to those who missed it the first time around
and to those fans who report that hey have nearly worn out their orginal copies.
- High Hills and Mountains
- As Artistist in residence at California
State University at Fresno, Jean became friends with Kenny Hall and the Bluestien
Family, as well as other musicians in the area and they naturally began to
make music together. Enhanced by the old timey stringband playing
of the "Fresno Friends" the resulting recording provides an exuberant
sampling of some of the best of Jean's music.
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- Tracks:
- Fair Nottamun Town Play
Sample / Too Many Shadows / Black Waters / None But One / The Orphan's
Lament / Flowers of Joy / See That Rainbow Shine / The Riddle Song / Sweet
Sorrow in the Wind Play Sample / Wondrous
Love / Now is the Cool of the Day
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- Thousand Mile Blues Play
Sample / Sugar on the Floor / The Cuckoo / With Kitty I'll Go / Little
Pack O' Tailors / The L&N Don't Stop Here Anymore / High Hills and Mountains
Play Sample / The Royal Telephone /
Old George's Square / Old Daddy Grumble / Here Sits a Young Lady / Jemmy Taylor-O
/ Let the Sun Shine Down On Me
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- *Available on one CD, or separately on Audio Cassette*
Jean Ritchie -
Ballads 
from her Appalachian Family Tradition
Smithsonian Folkways 40145
The ballads on this recording
are outstanding Appalachian versions of the "Child ballads," English
and Scottish narrative songs collected and published by scholar Francis James
Child in the late 19th century. The songs tell of true and lost love, jealousy,
treachery, grief, death, and the supernatural. This reissue of her landmark
Folkways recordings of British traditional ballads in Appalachia brings her
clear, pure voice and timeless songs to new generations of listeners. Extensive
notes, 73 minutes.
*Note:
This re-issue is culled from two seperate LP volumes.
The originals are available on cassette below*
Tracks:
Gypsy Laddie / False
Sir John / Hangman / Lord Bateman play sample
/ The House Carpenter / Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender / The Merry Golden Tree
/ Old Bangum / Barbary Allen / The Unquiet grave
play sample / Sweet William and Lady Margaret / There Lived an Old
Lord play sample / Cherry tree Carol
/ Edward / 15. Lord Randall / 16. Little Musgrave
Kentucky Christmas Old and New - Jean
Ritchie, Family and Friends -
- This is Jean Ritchie’s classic Christmas
album, now available in CD and cassette. Here is an excerpt from the liner
notes in which explains the roots of the work:
- "Being the youngest, my Christmas
memories are of our home in Viper, Perry County, Kentucky, but May, Ollie,
Mallie, Una, Raymond, Kitty, Truman, Patty, and Edna remembered the earlier
years in Knott County. May, our oldest sister, now gone on, recollected being
five years old, setting out with mom into a big twilight snowstorm on Christmas
Eve to hunt for something exciting and different — a Christmas tree. This
was the year 1900, and this tree was the first anyone in those parts had ever
seen. Granny Katty, dad’s mother, was still quietly observing "Old Christmas"
on the 6th of January, making light of our December 25th celebration as "new-fangled."
Now the years have passed and our children are grown, and their children are
growing, and changing, and Christmas celebrations are growing and changing
along with them.
- On this album, you will hear some
songs from the old times, and some from our recent times with our new friends.
There are old songs, recorded without instrumental accompaniment or with their
original flavor, there are other old songs modified to reflect the changing
family and the passing seasons; there are newly composed carols — one written
this very year.
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- Tracks:
- Brightest and Best Play
Sample / The World is Old / Christ Was Born in Bethlehem / A King Was
Born / The Holly Tree Carol / Wintergrace / I Saw Three Ships / The Moon Shines
Bright Play Sample / Little Bitty Baby / Carol
ot the Cherry Tree / In the Valley Play Sample
/ A Christmas Carol / Christ Church Bells
- CAROLS FOR ALL SEASONS
- Jean Ritchie, LaNoue Davenport,
Robert Abramson
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- This digitally re-mastered CD re-issue
of Jean’s early Tradition Records LP is a beautiful collection of carols
from the singing tradition of the Ritchie family, and other sources. In addition
to Jean’s dulcimer, LaNoue Davenport and Robert Abramson provide tasteful
recorder and harpsichord accompaniments. The collection features carols appropriate
to the different seasons of the year.
- Tracks:
- The Carnal and the Crane, I Saw
Three Ships, Dame Get Up and Bake Your Pies, Children Go Where I Send Thee,
Down in Yon Forest Play Sample , Brightest
and Best, Cherry Tree of the Cumberlands, The Pig Went Out to Dig Play
Sample, Christ Church Bells, The Flower Carol, The May Day Carol, The
Cambridgeshire May Song, The Holy Well, The Little Family, Christ Was Born
in Bethlehem, The Holly Bears the Berry, Wassail Song
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No Audio Cassette Available
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Field
Trip - Jean Ritchie
A
re-issue of Jean's 1954 field recordings from England, Ireland and Scotland,
compared side by side with versions of Jean's Apalachian family songs.
Here's Jean's preface to the new edition:
A Note About This Re-issue:
And here we are – almost fifty years since putting
out this first recording from our Fulbright year collection. What a short time
ago it seems – and what a hard job it was to get a record out in the early ‘50’s,
especially as we had no money and did all the considerable leg work ourselves!
But what impresses most is how well these songs wear. Recorded just before the
last "folk revival," they were sung in a very relaxed way – just as
people sing around the house for their own enjoyment, and they’re as fresh and
vibrant now, fifty years later, as they were when we first heard them. Something
like this should not be put on a shelf and forgotten, so we’re making them
available again, to be rediscovered and enjoyed.
Childhood
Songs - Jean Ritchie
Previously
available on cassette only, this collection of songs from Jean's childhood, and
songs she sang to her children is now available on CD. The booklet
contains directions for the singing games recorded here. This is a must
for parents and teachers.
Exultation of
Dulcimers - Newly re-released on CD
Lorraine
Lee Hammond and Roger Nicholson
On both sides of the Atlantic the dulcimer revival has produced many fine
players and makers, and the instrument has earned new status after years of
neglect. This revival began in the 1950’s and was mainly due to Jean Ritchie,
who brought the dulcimer to new audiences and encouraged people to play it.
Of the "second generation" Lorraine Lee Hammond and Roger
Nicholson have also been widely influential. Lorraine, from Massachusetts, bases
her style on traditional playing, but by adapting mandolin picking techniques,
has created a fluid duclimer method of great versatility, particularly suited to
accompanying other instruments, including the piano and banjo of Rick Lee. The
dulcimer is not indigenous to England, or widely played there, which is
reflected Roger’s personal fingerstyle approach with influences from other
sources, such as the lute, harpsichord and pipes, resulting in a complex solo
style.
Together, Lorraine and Roger’s playing blend to produce a new and
exultant dulcimer sound over a wide range of music. It is also happily
appropriate that they are joined here by Jean Ritchie.
P.S. If you enjoy this record half as much as they enjoyed making it, then
they’ll have enjoyed it twice as much as you…
1. La Volta (2:55) 2. How Should I My True Love Know (2:08)
3. Blarney Pilgrim (1:40) 4. Limerick's Lament/ Killiecranky
(3:35) 5. Star of the County Down/ My Dearest Dear (3:36) 6. Bonaparte's Retreat (2:14)7. Rondo from First Symphonic Suite (1:09)8. Carolan's Concerto (3:02)
9. Black Sarah (3:49) 10. The Bellringing (2:30) 11. One, I Love (3:03)
12. Elizabethan Medley (2:10) 13. Monck's March Medley (2:49)
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- Mountain Born -
Jean Ritchie & Sons
- Celebrating 50 Years Of Music
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- 1995 was Jean Ritchie's fiftieth year as a performer of her family's
Appalachian traditional music. Jean is joined by her sons Jon and
Peter on Mountain Born, to celebrate these fifty years. The title
song is also the title of the recent PBS documentary of Jean's life (available on video).
Jean says
of this recording:
- "The title song, Mountain Born, just about sums up
how I feel about my Kentucky hills, my kith and kin - my home. The song
is my own, composed for the stage version of the book, HILLBILLY WOMEN,
which was performed at the Actor's Studio in New York City, directed by
Arthur Penn. I began to sing it in my recitals, and for friends,
and it has become a sort of underground favorite. So here it is, to let
all those folks know that it has at last been recorded. Also included here
is my song for my mother, Abigail, recorded for the first time.
Others were chosen because their originally recorded versions are no longer
available; for instance, May Day Day, and, My Dear Companion.
- Like most of my forty or so albums, Mountain Born follows the
'slice-of-life' idea. Some love songs, a child's song, a hymn, a play-party,
honor songs for home, for family. A collection of songs to celebrate, again,
a way of life, a loved place in the world, and pass on the memories gathered
by all the people there."
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- Tracks:
- Mountain Born Play
Sample / Loving
Hannah / Love Somebody, Yes I Do! / The Cuckoo / You Are My Dearest Dear
/ Barley-Bright / Abigail / Deep Shady Grove Play
Sample / When Sorrows Encompass Me
Round / Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies / May Day Day / My Dear Companion
/ Come Let Us Sing Play
Sample / One More Mile / Our Meeting Is Over
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- Stories -
Woody
Mann
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Woody brings to the Greenhays label a refreshing blend of modern artisty,
firmly grounded in the traditions of the past. A student of the legendary
Rev. Gary Davis, his combination of virtuoso guitar playing and a singing
style that speaks directly to each listener has taken Woody around the
world playing his own compositions to a variety of audiences. His
style is best summed up by his colleague, guitar great John Fahey:
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- "I've never heard a more creative, or a more musical sounding
guitarist. He makes his brilliant technique a total tool of artistic
expression, never indulging it for its own sake or with the intention of
impressing listners. You can hear classical, jazz, and blues approaches
somehow converging into a single sparkling sound - a sound completely his
own. Woody takes a fresh approach to his blues re-creations and his
own compositions defy categories. If there was a category simply
called 'Great Music,' Woody's CD would belong there." - John
Fahey
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- Tracks:
- God Works in Mysterious Ways Play
Sample / Heading East Play Sample
/ East Side Story / Lisboa / Cheap Cherry Wine / A Little
Love, A Little Kiss / Snooks / The Family Man / Blind Arthur's Breakdown
/ Sweet Soul Music / Slow Motion / I've Been Framed
Work, Fight and Pray - Pamela
Warrick-Smith
- Work, Fight and Pray is a sampling from Pamela Warrick-Smith's
rich repertoire of traditional American and African-American folk songs,
as well as a sprinkling of Gospel and Cabaret. Whether she is singing
a chain gang song from the deep south, a Spiritual, or one of her own compositions,
Pamela's beautiful voice and musical sensitivity are well showcased on
this remarkable recording.
- Tracks:
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- Work, Fight and Pray Play
Sample / You've Searched Me / The Sisters of the Cross of Shame / Crooked Foot
John / Here's One / Mary, Mad Mary / Amazing Grace / Grandma's Hands /
Take My Mother Home / Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder / Roberta Lee / Jody /
Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier / Poor Boy / Desperado / Black Betty / Now
is the Cool of the Day
Fine Times at Our House
- John McCutcheon
John McCutcheon is fast becoming known
as one of our finest interpreters of Appalachian music. A champion of
hammered dulcimer and old-time fiddle music, he has delighted audiences across
the country with his dazzling musicianship and sheer exuberance. In
his liner notes, John explains his commitment to the ongoing tradition of
the music he plays: "Long ago forsaking the role of human tape recorder,
what I've given you here is my music: old time, new time, born in our past,
shaped by our lives today."
Tracks:
Wild Rose of the Mountain Play
Sample / Hale's Rag / Nancy Ann - Hey John D., Where'd you get your Britches?
/ Lonesome John - Fine Times at Our House / Amelia's / Samanthra / I Am the
Bravest Cowboy - Cowboy's Dream / Times Are Not What They Used to Be / Grandpa's
Waltz - Clarinet Polka / Sally Anne / Back Side of Albany - Cooley's Reel
/ Carolan's Farewell to Music
The Most Dulcimer -
Jean Ritchie
With special guest artists:
John McCutcheon, Mike Seeger, Diane Hamilton, Jon and Peter Pickow
The songs on this recording are drawn
from a variety of traditions - Irish, Scottish, and Appalachian, plus a few
of Jean's originals - and showcase solo and duo dulcimer in combination with
guitar, banjo, mandolin, harpsichord, recorders, jaw harp, hammered dulcimer,
synthesizer, and handbell choir.
Long-time fans of and first-time listeners
alike often ask Jean Ritchie, "Which of your albums has the most dulcimer?"
After years of having no ready answer to this question, Jean decided
to put together this collection of songs and tunes featuring the Appalachian
dulcimer.
Tracks:
Over the River to Feed My Sheep
Play Sample / Pretty Saro / Edward Play
Sample / Killiekrankie / The Haven of Rest / Wintergrace / Locks and Bolts
/ Mourning Tears / Movin' on Down the River / Dabbling in the Dew / Jubilee
/ Four Marys / Aunt Rhodie R.I.P. / The Parson's Farewell / Come You Home
Again* / The Soldier*
*New on the CD version
The Cool of the Day -
The Dusing Singers
The Cool of the Day
is a collection of the music of Jean Ritchie
arranged for vocal octet and instruments by notable choral arrangers, including
Robert DeCormier.
The Dusing singers render each song
with just the right touch of warmth, elegance, or humor.
Tracks:
Courtin' Song / Movin' On Down
the River / Too Many Shadows / Going To That City / Let the Sun Shine Down
On Me / God Bless the Moon / Old Daddy Grumble / Come All You Fair and Tender
Ladies / See That Rainbow Shine Play Sample /
There Was an Old Woman (and She Had a Little Pig) / Flowers of Joy Play
Sample / October and
the Frost is Early / The L&N Don't Stop Here Anymore / My Dear Companion
/ Wild Horses / Now is the Cool of the Day
JEAN RITCHIE AND DOC WATSON AT FOLK CITY - Jean
Ritchie, Doc Watson
This historic Smithsonian/Folkways
CD re-release documents a live 1963 performance by Jean and Doc at the legendary
Folk City in Greenwich Village. The CD features four tracks that were not
released on the original Folkways edition, presumably because of the space
limitations of the LP format.
Here is an excerpt from the article: Jean and Doc at Folk City: a Backwards
Glance 27 Years Later by Joe Wilson, Which accompanies the original liner
notes.
“It could only have happened in real life, this mixing of two Appalachian
family musical traditions on the stage of a hip Greenwich Village nightclub
before an audience of fad-following New Yorkers. Nothing that improbable is
allowed in fiction.”
Tracks: Storms are on the Ocean
Play Sample, Go Dig My Grave, Spikedriver
Blues, Over the River Charlie *, Soldier’s Joy, Swing and Turn Jubilee,
East Virginia *, Hiram Hubbard, Where Are You Going Play
Sample , Blue Ridge Mountain Blues*, Pretty Polly, Willie Moore, What’ll
I Do With the Baby-o?, Pretty Saro *, Wabash Cannonball, the House Carpenter,
Amazing Grace
*Previously unreleased
Child Ballads in America -
Sung by Jean Ritchie
These collections were originally
released in 1961 by Folkways Records, and have now been re-issued by Smithsonian/Folkways.
They contain American versions of ballads contained in a collection compiled
between 1882 and 1898, titled The English and Scottish Popular Ballads by
Francis James Child. Each volume contains extensive notes on the song origins,
and introductory notes by Jean Ritchie and Kenneth S. Goldstein.
Tracks:
Volume One:
Gypsy Laddie, False Sir John, Hangman Play Sample
, Lord Bateman, The House Carpenter, Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender, The
Merry Golden Tree, Lord Lovel, Old Bangum, Barbry Ellen, Fair Annie of Lochroyan
Volume Two:
The Unquiet Grave, Little Devils, Sweet William and Lady Margaret, There Lived
an Old Lord, The Wife of the Usher’s Well Play
Sample , Cherry tree Carol, Edward, Gentle Fair Jenny, Lord Randall, Little
Musgrave
