| Product Summary | | UPC: 00880226000028 | | Release Date: 10/12/2004 | | Buy.com Sku: 63922737 | | Item#: MT6ND3 | | Buy.com Sales Rank: 26050 | Format:  CD |
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| Song Listing |  |
Disc 1
| | Song Title | Sample | | 1. Last Month Of The Year, The - Vera Hall Ward ~ Various Artists |  | | 2. Christ Was Born On Christmas Morn - Cotton Top Mountain Sanctified Singers ~ Various Artists | | | 3. Christmas Is a-Coming - Leadbelly ~ Various Artists | | | 4. Christmas Is A Joyful Day - Lord Executor ~ Various Artists | | | 5. Dance Under The Willows (Tanec Pid Werbamy) - Pawlo Humeniuk ~ Various Artists | | | 6. Decimas De Nacimiento - Los Jibaros ~ Various Artists | | | 7. Tu Scendi Dalle Stelle (Pastorale Di Natale) - Pasquale Feis ~ Various Artists | | | 8. Lady Gay - Buell Kazee ~ Various Artists | | | 9. Sherburne - Alabama Sacred Harp Singers ~ Various Artists | | | 10. Holy Babe - Kelly Pace/Joe Green/Paul Hayes/Matthew Johnson/Aaron Brown ~ Various Artists | | | 11. He Was Born In A Manger - Rev. J.M. Gates ~ Various Artists | | | 12. Wrong Way To Celebrate Christmas, The - Rev. Edward W. Clayborn ~ Various Artists | | | 13. Santa Claus - Walter Davis ~ Various Artists | | | 14. Gee, Ain't I Good To You? - McKinney's Cotton Pickers ~ Various Artists | | | 15. At The Christmas Ball - Bessie Smith ~ Various Artists | | | 16. Papa Ain't No Santa Claus (And Mama Ain't No Christmas Tree) - Butterbeans & Susie ~ Various Artists | | | 17. Christmas Morning Blues - Kansas City Kitty ~ Various Artists | | | 18. Christmas In Jail - Ain't That a Pain - Leroy Carr ~ Various Artists | | | 19. Christmas Morning The Rum Had Me yawning - Lord Beginner ~ Various Artists | | | 20. Christmas Time Will Soon Be Over - Fiddlin' John Carson & His Virginia Reelers ~ Various Artists | | | 21. Breaking Up Christmas - Norman Edmonds ~ Various Artists | | | 22. Happy New Year Blues - Mary Harris ~ Various Artists | | | 23. Happy New Year - Lightnin' Hopkins ~ Various Artists | | | 24. Jingle Bells - Maddox Brothers And Rose (Bonus Track) ~ Various Artists | |
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| | Album Notes and Credits |
Notes & Personnel Info |  | Personnel: Leadbelly (vocals, 12-string guitar); Buell Kazee (vocals, banjo); Don Redman (vocals, alto saxophone); Kansas City Kitty, Leroy Carr, Walter Davis (vocals, piano); Pedro Davila, Joe Green's Novelty Orchestra, Frankie "Half-Pint" Jaxon & Punches Delegates of Pleasure, Mary Harris, Kelly Pace, Lightnin' Hopkins, Lord Beginner, Rose Maddox, Bessie Smith (vocals); Cal Maddox, Henry Townsend, Gerald Clark, Charlie Jordan (guitar); Roy Nichols (electric guitar, harmonica, sleigh bell); Dave Wilborn (banjo); Henry Maddox (mandolin); Pawlo Humeniuk (violin, cymbals, sleigh bell); Earl Johnson & His Dixie Entertainers , Don Maddox, Norman Edmonds (fiddle); The Blue Rhythm Orchestra (reeds, trumpet, piano, drums); Coleman Hawkins, Theodore McCord (reeds); Sidney DeParis (trumpet); Claude Jones, Charlie Green (trombone); Billy Taylor (bass horn); Eddie Heywood, Fats Waller, Fletcher Henderson, Peetie Wheatstraw (piano); Kaiser Marshall (drums). | | Recording information: Atlanta, GA (06/??/1917-10/10/1959); Chicago, IL (06/??/1917-10/10/1959); Cummins State Farm, Gould, Arkansas (06/??/1917-10/10/1959); Fyffe, AL (06/??/1917-10/10/1959); Hillsville, VA (06/??/1917-10/10/1959); Los Angeles, CA (06/??/1917-10/10/1959); New York, NY (06/??/1917-10/10/1959); Port-Of-Spain, Trinidad (06/??/1917-10/10/1959); Tuscaloosa, Alamaba (06/??/1917-10/10/1959). | | Arranger: Don Redman. | | A holiday compilation with a difference, this assembles a couple dozen Christmas-themed recordings from 1917-1959 that represent roots music of all stripes -- blues, gospel, early jazz, early country, Appalachian folk, and even some ethnic sounds of Trinidad, Puerto Rico, Italy, and Ukraine. There are some pretty famous names here, like Leadbelly, Bessie Smith, and Lightnin' Hopkins, as well as some artists who are not as famous but still pretty renowned, like Rev. J.M. Gates, Buell Kazee, and the Maddox Brothers & Rose. Yet as was the case on the Dust-to-Digital label's extraordinary six-CD box set of 1902-1960 spirituals, Goodbye, Babylon, there are a host of names here that will be known almost exclusively to serious old-time music collectors. That in itself makes this a pretty interesting and offbeat Christmas anthology. But even if you care nothing for rare record values, it's certainly rawer, more heartfelt, and just more musically interesting than the vast majority of what you'll find in the holiday bin. It's also a reminder of a time when Christmas discs could be relatively joyful and sincere expressions of religion and merrymaking, rather than just excuses to make a quick buck by cashing in on the time of the season. It makes for superior roots music listening whether you're in the holiday spirit or not, but some of the better tracks to keep an ear out for include the Cotton Top Mountain Sanctified Singers' jovial Dixieland jazz-style "Christ Was Born on Christmas Morn," with its thrilling high female background vocal swoops; Leadbelly's highly rhythmic, infectiously joyous "Christmas Is A-Coming"; the exuberant early calypso of Lord Executor's "Christmas Is a Joyful Day"; the shuffling flamenco-like verve of Los Jibaros' "D?cimas de Nacimiento"; and the electric blues of Lightnin' Hopkins' "Happy New Year," which verges on rock & roll. Being a single-CD compilation, the packaging isn't as elaborate as other Dust-to-Digital productions like Goodbye, Babylon, but it's typically thoughtful, with a Christmas card-sized booklet of liner notes, coaster, and postcard. Note, also, how the tracks are sequenced almost like a chronological celebration of holiday themes, starting with Vera Hall Ward's "The Last Month of the Year," moving on through Leadbelly's "Christmas Is A-Coming" and Kansas City Kitty's "Christmas Morning Blues," and wrapping up with Hopkins' "Happy New Year." This album deserves a four-star rating for its general musical value; judged by the standards of Christmas/holiday releases, it easily rates a full five stars. ~ Richie Unterberger |
Producer: Steven Lance Ledbetter; Dick Spottswood |
| | Technical Info | | Release Date : 2004 | | Original Release Date : 2004 | | Catalog ID : 2 | | Label : Dust-To-Digital | | Number of Discs : 1 | | Runtime : 73m : 52s | | Studio/Live : Studio | | Mono/Stereo : Mono | | SPAR Code : n/a | | UPC : 00880226000028 |
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| | Professional Reviews | | Entertainment Weekly (p.82)
- "[A] collection of relative antiquities....78 rpm gospel, blues, and hillbilly finds from the '20s and '30s..."Uncut (p.136)
- 4 stars out of 5 - "[T]his uncommonly fervid Christmas comp locates the most devotional and intense field recordings from the American hinterlands." |
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