Rounder Records

The Charlie Sizemore Band - Good News (2007) {Rounder 11661-0591-2}
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© 2007 Rounder Records | 11661-0591-2
Bluegrass / Country / Folk / Bluegrass-Gospel

The Charlie Sizemore Band gather their instrumental and vocal prowess behind Sizemore's country-styled vocals on Good News. The band plays contemporary bluegrass but, like many other current groups, continues to touch upon traditional themes. Two drinking songs, "Blame It on Vern" and "The Less I That I Drink," are by turns sad and humorous. "I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up" is a freewheeling celebration of the power of love and is followed, incongruously, by "I Won't Be Far from Here," a song about one of country music's favorite standbys, a no-good woman.

Jean Bosco Mwenda - Mwenda Wa Bayeke: African Guitar Legend - The Last Studio Album (1988) {Rounder CD5061 rel 1995}
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© 1988, 1995 Rounder Records / Mountain | CD 5061
World / Congo / Africa / Guitar

Bosco has been a legend ever since acoustic guitarists discovered the instrumental version of his 1952 "Masanga." Though he recorded 150 sides in the following decade, almost nothing is available except these 1988 studio sides, which trade the mellowness of middle-age for youthful zip without losing any of their charm. And, yes, there's an instrumental "Masanga."

John Fahey - Christmas Guitar (1986) {Varrick–Rounder CDVR11503}
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© 1986 Varrick / Rounder Records | CD VR 11503
Finger-Picked Guitar / Contemporary Folk / Folk Jazz / Folk-Blues / Progressive Folk

John Fahey is a visionary, an iconoclast, and a plain old American weirdo. He's also a brilliant acoustic guitarist, whose earnestness is matched only by his oblique sense of humor. These performances–ranging from the cheery "Joy to the World" and "We Three Kings" to the thoughtful "Bells of St. Mary's" and "In the Bleak Midwinter"–are pretty straightforward though. Some tend toward the academic, but all are quite beautiful in their own reserved way, making this the perfect unintrusive album for a quiet Christmas gathering or an evening by the hearth. The notoriously squirrely Fahey might be the last guy you'd invite over for eggnog, but you'd be foolish not to let his exquisite music into your home.

JD McPherson’s second album is a foot-stomping, ass-shaking thing of beauty. If your idea of Valentine’s Day romance is being cozy with a loved one in front of a fire, don’t put on this album. Its songs will make you want to go out and find a dance floor to chase away these winter doldrums.

John Fahey - Rain Forests, Oceans, And Other Themes (1984) {Varrick Records CD019 rel 1995}
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© 1984, 1995 Varrick / Rounder Records | CD VR 019
Finger-Picked Guitar / Contemporary Folk / Folk Jazz / Folk-Blues / Progressive Folk

John Fahey's newest work is slightly more subdued than last year's Let Go, but equally as radiant. A nimble-fingered master since his 1959 debut Blind Joe Death Fahey has continually created profound expressions on the acoustic guitar, in a mystical yet intimate setting using his intricate finger-picking style-one that often builds on a rolling, ragtime blues base. Here, Fahey offers five solo pieces ("Atlantic High" and "Intro To Ocean Waves/Ocean Waves" most preferred), and five with guitarist and part-time partner Terry Robb, who effectively compliments Fahey's style, shining most brightly when playing bottleneck guitar, as on "May This Be Love/Casey Jones." Other tandem efforts worth hearing more than once are "Juroscho Ascopi," "Samba De Orfeo" and "Theme And Variations" which features some percussion and bass for added depth.

John Fahey - I Remember Blind Joe Death (1987) {Varrick Records CD VR-028}
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© 1987 Varrick / Rounder Records | CD VR-028
Finger-Picked Guitar / Contemporary Folk / Folk Jazz / Folk-Blues / Progressive Folk

An all-new collection of Fahey's brooding originals and touching, existential treatments of hoary and beautiful old blues, country, and popular melodies. Over what would no doubt be howling protests from the man himself, Fahey was nonetheless something of a model and inspiration to a number of New Age guitarists, an ironic position to be occupied by one who once said that "the only good thing about the sixties is that they were two decades closer to the twenties than the eighties were." This album is a musical follow-up to his early, legendary album "The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death," with its emphasis on John's country and blues influences.

John Fahey - Let Go (1983) {Varrick Records ‎CDVR008 rel 1997}
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© 1983, 1997 Varrick / Rounder Records | CD VR 008
Finger-Picked Guitar / Contemporary Folk / Folk Jazz / Folk-Blues / Progressive Folk

Anyone who has read liner notes on John Fahey albums knows they are not necessarily to be taken as strict truth, but in the case of Let Go, it seems likely that the man was talking straight. Most of the back cover of the LP is a caustic, satirical diatribe against "Volkmusik" fans who try to pigeonhole Fahey as a folk artist. Almost the first words are "No folk music on this record, not even anything that sounds like or suggests folk music." Fahey almost delivers on that promise on this album of Brazilian jazz, blues, old-time medleys, and other miscellany. In the hands of a guitarist with a less individual style this could have been a chameleon act or a hopeless mishmash, but Fahey pulls it off nicely.