High Atmosphere is, as its subtitle notes, a collection of "Ballads and banjo tunes from Virginia and North Carolina, collected by John Cohen in November of 1965," and it is one of the finest compilations of old-time field recordings available. Originally conceived as a documentation of Appalachian banjo tunings, Cohen's recording project expanded to accommodate the unaccompanied ballad singers discovered along the way, as well as the fiddling of Wade Ward and the guitar playing of Estil C. Ball. While the broadened scope ...
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High Atmosphere is, as its subtitle notes, a collection of "Ballads and banjo tunes from Virginia and North Carolina, collected by John Cohen in November of 1965," and it is one of the finest compilations of old-time field recordings available. Originally conceived as a documentation of Appalachian banjo tunings, Cohen's recording project expanded to accommodate the unaccompanied ballad singers discovered along the way, as well as the fiddling of Wade Ward and the guitar playing of Estil C. Ball. While the broadened scope significantly enhances the collection, the initial intent also remains clear and powerful, the banjo pieces providing an effective structural framework for the set, underscored by Cohen's plentiful and informative notes. While the overall tone of the disc is wonderfully warm, characterized by Sidna Myers' gentle clawhammer banjo or Wade Ward's chuckle, the peaceful, rolling lull of the album is punctuated by opposite strains of stark and unsettling doom. Lloyd Chandler's unaccompanied "A Conversation With Death" has appeared as "O Death" in the repertoires of Dock Boggs, Ralph Stanley, and others, but has never been more harrowing than in this incarnation; Chandler's ancient, unaccompanied voice booming with Calvinist dread, "Oh Death, oh Death, please let me see -- if Christ has turned his back on me," and concluding: "As long as God in Heaven shall dwell, your soul, your soul shall scream in Hell." Like Chandler, each of the performers in the collection sings and plays with amazing and sober intensity, manifesting a kind of religious fervor even on purely secular or light-hearted tunes; each also performs with a deeply personal aesthetic freedom, adapting tunes and traditions to fit his or her own sense of timing and tone. The personalities of the collection's 11 singers and musicians resonate throughout the performances, creating a substantial testament to these remarkable individuals as well as the traditions they encompass. Originally released in 1974, Rounder's 1995 reissue includes over 20 additional minutes of music from the 1965 trip, accounting for 33 superb tracks. The updated High Atmosphere should be of equal interest to academics, musicians, and the merely curious, and belongs in any collection of old-time music or traditional field recordings. ~ Burgin Mathews, Rovi
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Add this copy of High Atmosphere: Ballads and Banjo Tunes From Virginia to cart. $34.92, very good condition, Sold by HPB-Diamond rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2015 by Rounder.
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