26 — Friday, October 29, 1999 ~ North Shore News Tennessee is mi Nashville may be the centre of the universe but country music’s found all over the map John Goodman This Week Editor johng@nsnews.com This year has been good > MINDY McOCRIADY to country music fans. . BES re ee inact Fred Eaglesmith, Kelly Willis, Josh Rouse and Chely Wright, to name just.a few, have all put our scintillating efforts: A couple of these ~ Will undoubtedly make our best of 1999 critical list “when it comes out on Dec 1G. ; ~- Then we could go on and talk about Bloodshot and the other specialty fabefs but don’t get me started. Just take my word for it —~ 799s ~~ been a vintage year and it’s not over yet. . a tk The Prime of ... Sir Douglas Quintet (Music Club 50116). Music category: nuevo Texas cow @ wk The Very Best of Freddy Fender. — Lone. Star. are Club state: because of kone‘ and: .. | friends but he’d much rather. be in _beautifui, British : i The retrospective | is made up of tunes from this’ formative period and includes the-1964 breakout hit ‘She’s About A Mover”. Augic Meyers’ Vox organ never loses’ the groove and Sahm’s magical draw! keeps listeners i in. omtort zone. The consummate house band..: “If-you want to learn the roots of reots band Los Lobos: eck: out Sahm’s Crazy Cajan colleague Freddy’ Fender. Border. radio party music meant to be played all night i in the onorons deserts and dives of south Texas. . Fénder.was born Baldemar. Huerta in the EI Jardin barrio . {San Benito, Texas. He wrote the classic “Wasted Days and |. Wasted Nights”. in’a Harlingen bar in 1959-but was busted | 121960 for.tw joints and sentenced to five years at the” - Sugaring Off party in Thorton, smash “Cowboy Pevton Place” — the only country hit Doug Sahm has written. B kkk Mindy McCready — I’m Not So Tough (BMG BNA07863-67765-2). Music category: Country soul diva. Mindy McCready comes out swinging with her new CD Pm Nat So Tough. The third album for the young Nashville singer con- tinues her hit-making repu- tation and should generate lots of interest from radio programmers. McCready’s soultu! detiv- ery of the material is remi- niscent of Roseanne Cash and fike the fatter she can handle ballads or rowdier materia! with equal flair. Oh yea, and dun’t oelieve every thing 3 you read — she’s tough enough. i x*x** Choose Your Partners! — Contra Dance and Square Dance Music of New Hampshire (Smithsonian Folkways 401265). Music category: Dosie-do documentary. Smithsonian Folkways have an exhaustive agenda to docu- ment music as a cultural medium. Most of their releases include booklets to accompany the music — more than just a listening experience these recordings are meant for journeys of discovery. Choose Your Partners! is a fascinating look into the history and practice of the two most popular forms of social dancing in New Hainpshire. Six bands participated in the project coordinated by: the state’s Council on the Arts. Both contra and square dancing trace their origins to the first European settlers in New England. The traditional forms have survived for centuries at such events as the annual ew Hampshire to celebrate the closing of maple sugaring season. Canada's Francophone and Maritime communities sup- plied New England with a segment of its working class and . wherever music’s involved their influence will be found. The cross-border cultural traffic between the U.S. and: Canada is evident throughout the CD — the musicians on the first track learned “Silver and Gold Two Step” from an. album by fiddler Don Messer. — “: While not strictly country “nvusic the. recording does show us how an art form from the European ‘courts was passed down into. North American folk culture. : ick Grisman, Hartford ‘and Seeger. —~ Retrograss {Acoustic Disc-ACD-37). «Music category: Archaic: : Americana. : Retrogras is an attempt to turn:back the. hands of time in the’ face of unrelenting mod- ernism, according to its makers. ‘An interesting idea‘considering David Grisman’s status as one of - bluegrass music’s most radical practitioners. - ‘The mandolinist has been per- * forming his genre-bending ~ *Dawg? music (sort of Bill "- Monroe meets Django Reinhardt’s Hot Club of France) _in the David Grisman Quintet for several decades. Their classic 1977 LP on Kaleidoscope The * ) David Grisman Quinter (tote) is a tandmark recording and set anew stan- - dard for instrumental performance. Qn occasion Grisman has also formed side bands to explore traditional bluegrass and roots music. In 1973 ” he formed Old and in the Way (#4 4%) with Jerry: Garcia, Vassar Clements, Peter Rowan and John Kahn to document their love of Americana on old tunes and interpretations of newer material, A haunting biuegrass . treatment of the Stones’ “Wild Horses” fits right in wien the more traditional material. Stanley Owsley engincered the sessions. Retrograss, released on Grisman’s own label Acoustic .. Disc, follows the pattern set by Old-and in the Way. The trio play standards and newer material in search of a timeless quality i in the music. They get mixed results but Mike Sceger’s performance of Dylan’s “Maggie’s Farm” as the le endary Dock Boggs isa shcer delight and the obscure refer- ences ‘throughout display _ vast knowledge of the group PICK Hit — John Prine’s new album in Spite of Ourselves on Oh Boy Records “Rome, Georgia, Athens, Texas and Paris, Tennessee — No we’ re not the jet eet, we’re the old Chevro-lette set, but ain't we got love.” - . ce @ «xx Best of Farmer’s Daughter (Universal- 0121 53957-2). Music category: Girl group yop.- Vancouver's Farmer’s Daughter close out the year with set of the best songs from their first three albums Girls Well: Be Girls (1993); Makin’ Hay (1996) and This is the Life (1998). Very classy production recorded at local studios Blue Wave, Armoury and Greenhouse with first-rate musicia > Check out track four “Freeway” with Greg Leisz « (Matthew Sweet, Bill Frisell) on lap steel and the two ballads from their first CD written by Bruce Miller “I Wanna Hold: You” and “Farzily Love”. No filler here srereesing has, been. tried and tested. @ xxx Alternate Roots (Universal 3145 E 53 Music category: Gram Parsons progeny. . Alternative sampler presents the case for an an “establish ment music with an unlikely cast of characters. Canada’s Blue Rodeo open proceedings with “Hasn’t-Hit ‘Me Yet” fre 1993 with the McGarrig! Sisters and B Cockb included i in the set, egorized anywaj wou id have been nic AMERICAN square e dancing eveived from, European contredanse forms in th TEN ists interpreting som : country repertoire. Iris: Dement is. heard on:four-songs including the opener; Bobby. Braddock’s “(We're N Jet Set,” a hit for Tammy: Wynette and George Jone: The other vocalists that 'took-up. Prine’s. offer ° Smith, Lucinda Williams; Trisha Yearwood, Melb Montgomery; Emmylou Harris, Dolo Loveless ‘and Fiona Prine. The women-each. go. round with Prine recalling the appeal of Conwa Loretta, Wilma Lec and Stoney, Porter d in their heyday. . Several generations are represented : delight from start to finish. Prine has put “David: Gri search for a timeless mus Highly ri “mended oh