Old Ties

Amazon.com
With a spot on the O Brother soundtrack and Down from the Mountain tour, singer and multi-instrumentalist Norman Blake was introduced to a host of roots music fans for the first time. Yet anyone with even a passing interest in old-time and bluegrass music surely knew of Blake 30 years prior to the turn-of-the-century bluegrass boom. In addition to his many fine solo recordings, Blake has played with names like Dylan, Cash, and Kristofferson. He also appeared on 1972's Will the Circle Be Unbroken, the O Brother of its day. This 19-track compilation cherry picks from his Rounder and Flying Fish albums dating back to 1972 and offers a mix of traditional songs and originals, instrumentals (both delicate and hot-picked), and vocals, solos, duos, trios, and quartets. As such it showcases the full range of Blake's talents: an uncanny blend of blistering speed, unerring taste, and rhythmic precision on guitar, an endearing, understated singing style, and a deep appreciation for beautiful melodies. --Marc Greilsamer

Old Ties,Norman Blake,Rounder / Pgd,Bluegrass,Country,Folk,Neo-Traditional Folk,Old-Timey,Pop,Traditional Country

Average customer rating: Solid Overview of Blake's Work on the Rounder Label summertime blues, November fields

Old Ties Norman Blake Manufacturer: Rounder / Umgd ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD General | Country | Styles | Music General | Bluegrass | Country | Styles | Music General | Folk | Styles | Music Rounder Records | Specialty Stores | Music Similar Items: Natasha's Waltz Flower from the Fields of Alabama The Hobo's Last Ride Whiskey Before Breakfast Blind Dog ASIN: B000067ASE Release Date: 2002-06-04

Tracks:

1. Spanish Fandango
2. Church St. Blues
3. Sleepy Eyed Joe/Indian Creek
4. O'Malley's Tune
5. Fifty Miles Of Elbow Room
6. Down Home Summertime Blues
7. Blind Dog
8. Fiddler's Dram/Whiskey Before Breakfast
9. Old Ties
10. Lost Indian
11. Ginseng Sullivan
12. OBC #3
13. Prettiest Little Girl In The Country
14. Uncle
15. Britol In The Bottle
16. Billy Gray
17. The Fields Of November
18. Gonna Lay Down My Old Guitar
19. Randell Collins/Done Gone

Amazon.com

With a spot on the O Brother soundtrack and Down from the Mountain tour, singer and multi-instrumentalist Norman Blake was introduced to a host of roots music fans for the first time. Yet anyone with even a passing interest in old-time and bluegrass music surely knew of Blake 30 years prior to the turn-of-the-century bluegrass boom. In addition to his many fine solo recordings, Blake has played with names like Dylan, Cash, and Kristofferson. He also appeared on 1972's Will the Circle Be Unbroken, the O Brother of its day. This 19-track compilation cherry picks from his Rounder and Flying Fish albums dating back to 1972 and offers a mix of traditional songs and originals, instrumentals (both delicate and hot-picked), and vocals, solos, duos, trios, and quartets. As such it showcases the full range of Blake's talents: an uncanny blend of blistering speed, unerring taste, and rhythmic precision on guitar, an endearing, understated singing style, and a deep appreciation for beautiful melodies. --Marc Greilsamer

Customer Reviews:

Solid Overview of Blake's Work on the Rounder Label.......2002-11-22

Norman Blake should be regarded as one of our great national treasures. For more than three decades he has been compiling an impressive body of work. His music incorporates old timey, bluegrass, and blues into a hybird that is on the one hand unique but at the same time as comforting and familiar as an old pair of shoes. This 70-minute anthology is part of Rounder's Heritage series and features music from his 1972 debut BACK HOME IN SULPHUR SPRINGS through 1990's duet with fellow flatpicker Tony Rice on NORMAN BLAKE AND TONY RICE 2 (his final album for the label).

Blake plays guitar on most of these tracks, but also plays slide guitar and fiddle to wonderful effect. About half the tracks--nine in all--are instrumentals, including one previously unreleased tune from 1974, "O'Malley's Tune." On many of these he is accompanied by his wife Nancy. And "Lost Indian" is a flatpickers' delight with Tony Rice and Doc Watson joining in.

If you're looking for a solid introduction to the music of Norman Blake, this is a great place to start. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

summertime blues, November fields.......2002-08-12

What is a "best of" anyway? That's what this is, a retrospective look at Norman Blake's work on Rounder and now-subsidiary Flying Fish labels in the 1970s and '80s. It's the sort of thing you can't listen to without thinking of what, had you been asked, you would have put on it. Certainly not the Delmore Brothers' "Gonna Lay Down My Old Guitar" -- not a bad song, just one that's been done one or two too many times. Why not, instead, the traditional "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane"? "Ginseng Sullivan," while decent enough, is not among Blake's more memorable originals; why not, say, "Greenlight on the Southern," "Last Train from Poor Valley," or "Slow Train Through Georgia"? Well, what are you gonna do?

You can be grateful, I suppose, that the irrestistible "Down Home Summertime Blues" -- surely the most purely joyous song the often dour Blake has ever written -- is here, along with the gorgeous take on the venerable guitar piece "Spanish Fandago" and the chilling faux Western ballad "Billy Gray." There's the elegaic, evocative "The Fields of November," not to mention "Uncle," Blake's attestation to the fact that Bill Monroe was not the only musician who learned from a fiddling uncle.

A talented musician who knows what he wants to do and has stuck to it over three decades of solo and duo recording, Blake by now has compiled a massive oeuvre. Just about all of it is good, and some of it is better. Old Ties, which documents both, has something for the Blake novice and the grizzled fan, and everybody between.

Average customer rating:

Paolo Tosti in England Manufacturer: Ambassador ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Chamber Music | Forms & Genres | Classical (c.1770-1830) | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music General | Classical | Styles | Music General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music ASIN: B000066F5T Release Date: 2002-05-28

Average customer rating:

Thread Dino Soldo Manufacturer: Artist One-Stop ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD General | Jazz | Styles | Music Singer-Songwriters | Pop | Styles | Music Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music Adult Alternative | Pop | Styles | Music General | Rock | Styles | Music ASIN: B0000TAYXO Release Date: 2003-11-04

Tracks:

1. (The Seam)
2. Dandelion Head
3. Your Baby Talk
4. I Declare
5. Slow Down
6. (For Nathan)
7. You Don't Understand Me
8. Yes.
9. Everything's Groovy
10. .... Like The Stars
11. Too Late
12. A Spazz
13. Words Will Fail
14. The Thread

Average customer rating:

Welcome to Delirium Randy Weitzel Manufacturer: Randy Weitzel ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD ASIN: B000CACYIY Release Date: 2004-01-01

Tracks:

1. Dead Eyes
2. Spaced
3. Godspeed
4. Soulless

Music Album:

1. Piece of Cake
2. Pieces of a Puzzle
3. Rage On
4. Reaching Calm
5. Real 60's: Country
6. Real Live Woman [Import]
7. Redfish Island
8. Rich from the Journey
9. Show Me Your Way
10. Sings Ballads and Blues (1945-1947)

Music Album