Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) may not have begun the trend toward English pastoral music in the early twentieth century, but he was certainly one of the movement’s leading practitioners. Starting as early as 1900 with his aptly named Bucolic Suite, the man continued to produce charming, serene, idyllic tunes for full orchestra, strings, and chorus right up until the time of his death. In this Naxos collection, English conductor James Judd leads the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in some of the composer’s most famous short works.
One of the unsung heroes of the rock and roll era, Gene Pitney crossed paths with a wide array of rock royalty while amassing a sizable string of hits. Pitney arrived on the scene in the late Fifties as a gifted songwriter, capable musician and incredible singer. His dramatic tenor, given to piercing climaxes, was among the more remarkable voices of the age. In Australia and New Zealand, Pitney is one the most successful recording artists of all time. Achieving an astonishing 27 Top 40 hits, 12 of which made the Top 10.
Classical guitar music has flourished in New Zealand in recent years, and Bruce Paine, among the country’s leading composers for the instrument, is one of the most imaginative and original. This album charts the course of his writing from one of his earliest pieces, the poetic, witty tone poem Sea Suite , to the recent and substantial Waitematā Reverie. Drawing on an impressionistic palette Paine conjures up chime arpeggios as well as the natural world in Oakura Chimes . The four settings of Māori folk songs were arranged expressly for this album.
New World was an Australian pop group that existed from the mid-1960s to the late 1970s. They are best known for their Top 10 hit single, "Tom-Tom Turnaround", which was released in 1971. Most of their biggest successes were written by Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman. Broad of collar and bright of shirt, New Zealand's New World exemplified the kind of bright-eyed, lightly sentimental folk-pop that threatened to devour the UK charts of the early 1970s. Pre-glam, pre-prog, and almost prepubescently harmless, the trio emerged out of British television's Opportunity Knocks talent show and briefly threatened to become their homeland's biggest ever export. Especially after the all-conquering combination of label-head Mickie Most, producer Mike Hurst, and songwriters Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman ganged up on a generation's ears and soft-soaped them into submission.
The Long Ryders kicked off their major label debut, State of Our Union, with one of their most anthemic and most explicitly political songs, "Looking for Lewis and Clark," and that tune set the tone for the rest of the album – State of Our Union found the Long Ryders reaching for a larger audience at the same time that they were using their music to say a great deal more than they had in the past. Musically, plenty of roadwork had tightened the band's interplay to an even finer point than on Native Sons (Sid Griffin and Stephen McCarthy were both in superb voice, and their guitar work meshed perfectly), and Will Birch's production gave the songs a poppier sheen that still allowed the band's roots-conscious sound to shine through. Lyrically, State of Our Union took a long look at Reagan-era America as the gulf between the rich and the poor began to divide the nation, with "You Can't Ride the Boxcars Anymore," "Two Kinds of Love," and "Good Times Tomorrow, Hard Times Today" all exploring issues of economic injustice, and even the less obvious political songs often having a progressive subtext ("WDIA," a tribute to the great Memphis R&B radio station, deals with how the love of music brought together black and white listeners in the 1960s).