"DOWN HOME" #152
Saturday, January 13, 2001
"Best of 2000" Special!Hosted by Chuck Taggart (e-mail chuck)
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DONAL LUNNY with LIAM Ó MAONLAÍ - Cathain? (Why?) Brand-new 2-disc compilation spanning this Irish music guru's (composer, arranger, producer, multi-instrumentalist) career from the early days of the Bothy Band to his latest group Coolfin, including two never before released tracks and many tracks never before released in the U.S. Superb. (My favorite records of 2000, almost all of them anyway, not-counted down, in mostly alphabetical order.) ALTAN - The King of Meenasilliagh/Lamey's/The High Fiddle Reel [ANOTHER SKY/Narada World-Virgin] BALFA TOUJOURS - Casse pas my tête [LIVE AT WHISKEY RIVER LANDING/Rounder] JOHN BOUTTÉ - Battle Hymn of the Republic [AT THE FOOT OF CANAL STREET/Boutté Works (self-released)] PETER CASE - Walking Home Late [FLYING SAUCER BLUES/Vanguard] Peter's best in quite a good while, hearkening back to CHARIVARI - Arc de Triomphe Two-Step [I WANT TO DANCE WITH YOU/Rounder] STEVE EARLE - Galway Girl [TRANSCENDENTAL BLUES/E Squared] With the memorable and very Steve-like opening incantion "Knickers! Okay, let's magnetize this motherf*cker" ... which you really really have to remember that you can't play on the radio. JIMMIE DALE GILMORE - Ripple [ONE ENDLESS NIGHT/Windcharger Music-Rounder] THE GOURDS - Hallelujah Shine [BOLSA DE AGUA/Sugar Hill COREY HARRIS & HENRY BUTLER - Mulberry Row [vü-dü menz/ Alligator] HOT CLUB OF COWTOWN - The Devil's Dream [DEV'LISH MARY/Hightone] SONNY LANDRETH - Spider Gris [BAYOU TOWN/Sugar Hill] LLAN DE CUBEL - La Casa Gris [UN TIEMPU MEYOR/Fono Astur] JOHN McCUTCHEON - Black Sea [LIVE AT WOLF TRAP/Rounder] No, he wasn't in the "best of" (this record is from 1991); this is a plug for his concert in Santa Monica tomorrow night. MAGNOLIA SISTERS - La Belle et la Capitaine [CHERS AMIS/Rounder] RODDIE ROMERO - Hey Baby [MEDICINE SHOW, VOLUME 2/Acadiana Arts Council] The second in a series of concerts and live CDs, paying tribute to the late Dr. Tommy Comeaux and raising money for the Endowed Chair for Traditional Music at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette. Roddie offers a nice zydeco-flavored blast of swamp-pop; also appearing are Michael Doucet, The Traiteus, et al. BRUCE MOLSKY - Cousin Sally Brown [POOR MAN'S TROUBLES/Rounder] CHRIS SMITHER - No Love Today [LIVE AS I'LL EVER BE/Hightone] Perhaps my favorite Chris Smither song ever, which includes the character of the local fruit and vegetable man, who in the old days in New Orleans would go through the neighborhoods, singing and shouting what he had for sale that day (I remember them, but they're just about all gone now.) DR. MICHAEL WHITE - St. Philip Street Breakdown [A SONG FOR GEORGE LEWIS/Basin Street] SOLAS - A Miner's Life [THE HOUR BEFORE DAWN/Shanachie] DWIGHT YOAKAM with BUCK OWENS - I Was There [TOMORROW'S SOUNDS TODAY/Reprise] (Okay, I know I said I wouldn't count down, but I lied. These, in more or less arbitrary order, are my five favorite records of 2000. 5. THE SAVOY-DOUCET CAJUN BAND - She Made Me Lose My Mind [SAM'S BIG ROOSTER/Arhoolie] 4. RALPH STANLEY - O Death [O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU?/Mercury] 3. NICKEL CREEK - The Fox [NICKEL CREEK/Sugar Hill] 2. BILLY BRAGG & WILCO - Secret of the Sea [MERMAID AVENUE, VOLUME 2/Elektra] 1. KÍLA - Turlough's [LEMONADE AND BUNS/Green Linnet]
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