Welcome, Natablogians!!

This week at CKUA, I am steadily breaking-on-through to the other side of the United States section of the world LP's. Since we are fully engulfed in the festival season now, this week's theme is festival albums. Like beads at Mardi-Gras, these gems are bound to get you into a celebrating mood.

FOUND GEMS – The United States

As you may have guessed, the United States section of the world music LP’s is a huge treasure trove of folk and blues favourites. Since there are over 350 albums to choose from, I’ll spend at least a few weeks picking out worthy highlights from here. As far as festival albums go, there are so many big names and classic songs that I’m reluctant to try and single out a handful, but I’ll give it a go!

The Newport Folk Festival (various artists)
The first item on my list is actually a collection of 19 albums; live recordings from the Newport Folk Festival, spanning the years 1959 to 1965. There is so much great stuff in here I’m sure someone could do an entire show – or two – using these albums alone! The collection includes rare performances by artists like Pete Seeger, Buffy Saint-Marie, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Doc Watson, Maybelle Carter, Jose Feliciano – honestly the list just goes on and on. If pressed I’d say the stand-out album for me was the seventh album – Newport Folk Festival, 1964; Evening Concerts, Vol. 1, which includes a rendition of “Corinna” by Sleepy John Estes, a moving performance of “Cod’ine” by Buffy Saint-Marie, a haunting version of “El Pastor” by Jose Feliciano, and features Phil Ochs performing the brilliantly satirical “Draft Dodger Rag”.

On air:
Jose Feliciano, “El Pastor”
From Newport Folk Festival, 1964; Evening Concerts, Vol. 1

The Waimea Music Festival (various artists)
I found some notes on this album at the Waimea General Store:

Back in 1974, a stage was built in the middle of a beautiful Waimea pasture just out of town...Panini Records had the world-famous Wally Heider Recording crew bring in six thousand pounds of the finest recording gear to the Big Island from Los Angeles. "Never before in Hawaii's musical history had a concert been recorded with this level of sophistication. The performances are spontaneous, captured in the moment for you to enjoy." Some of the finest Hawaiian musicians of that time got together for an afternoon of incredible music and fun. http://www.waimeageneralstore.com/waimmusfes.html

According to everything I’ve read, the 1970’s were quite a renaissance period for Hawaiian music, and this album captures some the best traditional and experimental artists of the time.
For me, the highlights of this two-album set are the slack-key instrumental pieces by Fred Punahoa, who was a major influence on many other prominent artists of the time. According to an article I found about him on Wikipedia, they are the only two recordings of his work ever made: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Punahou (however, I cannot verify this since there are no sources cited).

On air:
"Slack-key Instrumental #2" by Fred Punahoa

San Francisco Blues Festival (various artists)
Last but certainly not least is a 3-volume collection of highlight performances from the San Francisco Blues Festival in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. Volume 3 includes three songs performed by the great Big Mama Thornton in August of 1979, just a few years before her death. Despite looking frail and surprisingly thin in her cover photo, she does a moving rendition of her signature song “Ball and Chain” that reassures her audience that her voice and her presence are just as big as ever.

On air:
"Ball and Chain" by Big Mama Thornton

Happy listening!