BUY THIS ALBUM!

This is going to be hopefully a regular column, appearing every Monday, that will talk about an album that we feel is worth your hard earned coins.  There's a lot of music out there and probably not enough money in your wallet to buy all that you want, so our aim in this column is to try and steer you to what we feel is worth the money.  It's not always going to be new stuff, our criteria will be that the album is available from at least Itunes or Amazon.  Nothing we hate more than to hear about some great music and than not be able to find it anywhere.  Of course we'd like to point you towards a lot of new stuff, so if we have it we'll do the pointing.  Any artists that want to send us your album for a chance to be featured see the sidebar with info on how to contact us.  

Our choice to lead off our new column is the anthology album Bound To Go.  The album is by Andrew Calhoun and friends.  The description of the album from its home page is:

Bound to Go includes authentic spirituals, shout songs from the Sea Islands, prison ballads and rare secular folk songs. “Run to Jesus” is the song that first gave Frederick Douglass the notion of escaping from slavery. With an essay and historical/folklore notes on the songs. Recorded with trumpet, fretless gourd and 5-string banjo, guitars, fiddle, cello, harmonica, piano, percussion and many wonderful singers! 72 minutes running time. Cover painting by Gullah artist Jonathan Green. In memory of Joy Calhoun, who worked for justice in the Civil Rights movement, 10% of income from sales goes to support programs for children, half to College of Charleston's African-American history camps, half to Williams Preparatory Academy Arts programs, 2710 S. Dearborn in Chicago.(www.jonathangreenstudios.com)

This is an amazing album.  If you're looking for a pop hit this is not the place to be looking at.  These songs are part of history.  The singing on the cuts bring you to the feel of when they were first sung.  There's not a lot I can say about this album but it is definitely worth you buying.

SPOTLIGHT: Bound To Go

This Spotlight is on an album and not one individual artist or group. Andrew Calhoun is a singer/songwriter that was born in 1957. He founded Waterbug Records as artists' cooperative label specializing in great songwriters and traditional folk musicians who do original research in 1992.

Recently he released Bound To Go, an album of 35 songs from the African American folk tradition. This album includes spirituals, prison ballads, shout songs from the Sea Islands and rare folk songs. Calhoun says in the booklet accompanying the cd:

Folk songs carry the emotional truth of our history. People speak of the African American folk songs and spirituals as "roots of the blues" or "roots of gospel," but they are more than that. They are the roots and branches together, joined with the sound of the Maker's breath in the leaves of the Tree of Life.

This album finds songs that may have never been recorded, or has not been heard for years if not decades. The song "Run To Jesus" is the song that gave Frederick Douglass the idea of escaping from slavery.

He makes a case in the booklet that these spirituals were not simply songs about Heaven, but that the Heavenly Home may have been about the slave's home land of Africa. He gives the history of the songs as he can find. Did you know that "Michael, Row The Boat Ashore" was a rowing song from the Sea Islands sung as a prayer for safe passage addressed to the archangel.

This is a fascinating album of music and history. His research casts a new light on these songs. An added word has to be said about the packaging. This album is an amazing package as much for the looks as the music. The cover is a painting by the Gullah artist Jonathan Green called "White Scarf." For those who think that a cd's cover can't be art, they need to look at this cd and they'll discover they are wrong. Everything on this project is a class act from the cover to the packaging to the music.

Like the collection Song of America this album is an important historical document, highlighting parts of our history that are sometimes forgotten. But it doesn't mean that it isn't entertaining also, the songs on this album are full of life and sung from the heart.

"Run To Jesus"


"Bound To Go"