Music
As we continue to rethink our offerings as we prepare the 2008-2009 catalog it is a good time to recognize that our sales of music CDs were never what we hoped they might be. So we’ll be dropping them from the catalog. But our failed experiment is your gain, or can be; until stock is depleted we will be selling our individual CDs for $5 apiece and the multi-disc sets for $10. We still think they are excellent, and we encourage you to take a chance on them.
Why a music section? What does music
have to do with living a simpler life?
Well, we have several reasons for using
this page to tell you about some
of our favorite music CDs. First, this website
exists in large part to tell you about our passions,
and we are passionate about these CDs
and the music they represent. If you share
our passion for living a certain way as we’ve
described it elsewhere in the catalog, you may
very well share our passion for this music.
Second, this website is about pursuing
not just the simple life but the good life, simplicity
being an important part of that. And
we really do think that the music found on
these CDs can make your life better, because
the music on them is simple and beautiful and
able to reach both the mind and the heart.
Third, this music is inextricably
intertwined with the rest of our journey
toward simple living. With one exception it
is Appalachian music, and our understanding
about what it is to live simply has grown
much deeper as we have studied and come to
love the culture and people of Appalachia,
our adopted home. For years now we have immersed
ourselves in this music, even learned
to make it ourselves, and we think the story
of that journey, and the music that goes with
it, can help you understand our growing
conviction that one path to the good life runs
directly through these mountains.
- For folks completely unfamiliar with bluegrass music, we think
the
Krüger Brothers are an excellent place to start. Their sound is rooted
in classic bluegrass but is all their own, imaginative and adventurous and
very melodic. Choices is
the followup to Up18North and pulls nearly even with it, marked
by three heartfelt gospel classics and a gospel original.
- Up All Night.
Who would have thought that Benny Goodman jazz and bluegrass would blend
so well? Pete Wernick did, and his band The Live Five (now Flexigrass)
is the result. Pete was our first music teacher, and continues to
be a strong influence on us in many ways. We count him as a friend as well.
He has done important work in the world of bluegrass, both as a teacher and
as a musician.
- The Reeltime Travelers no longer play
as a group, but they left us with two fine CDs that stay faithful the
old-time tradition while also being open and accessible to
anyone. We still have copies of their first CD Reeltime
Travelers.
- We
think that Ginny Hawker and Tracy Schwarz are two of the finest old-time
singers performing today. We first met them at a music school in West Virginia,
and since have been to their home for private lessons. Letters
From My Father. Ginny's solo album covers a wide , including country weepers, honky tonk ballads,
straightahead bluegrass, and four unaccompanied songs from different
traditions.
- Wings
to Fly. Ron Short is a friend of ours. The best introduction
to his music is Wings to Fly, a collection of songs written
for a musical about
the settling of Appalachia; the songs are written in a broad range
of American folk styles, and the story they tell is moving. The music
is sung and performed by Ron and his cousins, the Mullins family.
- Brier
Visions. Ed Snodderly's new CD may not be for everyone,
but many of you are going to be awfully glad that we're making it available.
Some of the songs here joyfully celebrate the good things of life,
and some of them regret good things that have passed away. All of them
see the world through a poet's eyes. Spare instrumentation results
in a surprisingly lush and full sound.
