Stanford Folk - Presenting Stanford Folk (1977)

Custom (?) 7" of square xian folk courtesy of two married couples. "Put Your Hand in the Hand" is a tad twee, but endearing, and as much as I enjoy the performance of "I Don't Know How To Love Him", I could do without having "Rice/Webber" credited on any record I own. However, the middle 2 songs, "Sing Halleluya" and "Babylon" are gorgeous slices of earnest christfolk, with the pure female vocals being a particular treat, especially on the latter. This was worth the 50p I paid for it.

PEACE BE WITH YOU

Sonlight - Sonlight (1975)

This would have been a vinyl rip but I found the mp3s on slsk so I saved a lot of time and effort. This is a pleasant Christian light pop LP with some cool jazzy bits and nice organ work. No trace of fuzz or psych, but I still love this record. Cool cover too.

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St. George's Day

Thought I'd do my patriotic duty by listening to one of England's greatest treasures:

Elvie Thomas - Motherless Child Blues

Gut-wrenchingly bleak pre-war blues song of the day has to be Elvie Thomas - Motherless Child Blues. Available on Various Artists - "American Primitive II:Pre-War Revenants" on Revenant Records.

Feral Gospel

Little comp I put together of raw gospel, both known and obscure. Usual religious disclaimers apply.

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Mark Melanson - Haunted Hearse (1970)

Ok, first of all, the track indexing on this is all screwed up and I can't be arsed fixing it. Sorry. Now that that's out of the way:

This is a really strange outsider/real people acoustic record, apparently performed by (or at least in the persona of) a grizzled Irish gravedigger. Some spoken word sections that break out into songs performed in an untutored yet ambitious, and by no means unpleasant, brogue-heavy croon. Moods range from the wistfullness of the opening "Master Wunder" and "I Wrote Your Name", to the scarred and nightmarish war meditation "Pieces in the Sand", which is shot through with coal-black veins of bitterness. The minimal acoustic guitar backing is competently played with a pleasant ringing quality, due to the reverb that covers this record. While this record sometimes veers into overreaching pomposity, the abiding tone of amateur earnestness keeps it compelling. Now, someone find me a vinyl copy.

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The Psychedelic Sound of American Despair

Nice comp I put together of downer/lowner/outsider/depressive psych/garage/folk/rock etc., including the mighty Phafner (See below). I'll probably be upping full records of most of these acts over the next few days/weeks/months, so consider this a taster.

01 - Yetti Men - High Himalayas (1964)

02 - The Index - Fire Eyes (1967)

03 - CA Quintet - Colorado Mourning (1969)

04 - Alexander Skip Spence - Weighted Down (The Prison Song) (1969)

05 - Sainte Anthony's Fyre - Lone Soul Road (1970)

06 - Charles Manson - Cease to Exist (1970)

07 - Mystic Siva - Spinning a Spell (1970)

08 - Mark Melanson - Pieces in the Sand (1970)

09 - Stephen David Heitkotter - I Don't Mind (1971)

10 - Phafner - Whiskey Took my Woman (1972)

11 - Dave Bixby - Drug Song (1972)

12 - Bob Desper - Lonely Man (1974)

13 - Kenneth Higney - Look at the River (1976)

14 - Jody Koenig - In the Market (1981)

15 - Jandek - European Jewel (1982)

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P.S. Sorry for the weird formatting in this post.

Run, Old Jeremiah

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5759

Had this in the favourites for a while and need to share it. Just LISTEN to that stuff...

I’ve got a rock.
You got a rock.
Rock is death.