Folk & Bluegrass

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "When We Were Good," a book about the folk revival by Robert Cantwell.

Rock historian Ed Ward talks about how white fans of the 1960s folk revival sought out long-neglected blues artists.

Critic Milo reviews "The Best of the Barely Works," featuring songs by the unconventional British folk group.

Commentator Milo Miles reviews two new re-releases of singer Tracy Nelson's earlier recordings with the band Mother Earth. Nelson is still making albums today, but Miles says they don't have the same looseness and charm as these reissues.

Critic Milo Miles reviews the new collection by the Almanac Singers, an early urban folk group that included Woody Guthrie, Lee Hays, Pete Hawes, Millard Lampell and Pete Seeger. The CD is "The Almanac Singers: Their Complete General Recordings" (on MCA).

Levin is a teacher in the Music Department of Dartmouth College and a longtime follower of the music of the Celtic lands, the Balkans, South Siberia, and other cultures. His new book "The Hundred Thousand Fools of God: Musical Travels in Central Asia" traces how the music of a culture lives through and reflects the lives of its people. He looks at how the Russian conquest of Central Asia at the end of the 19th century affected the music of the area.

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews "So Long So Wrong," the new album by Allison Krauss and her band Union Station.

Rock historian Ed Ward remembers the Byrds.

Folk singer and collector of folk recordings Mike Seeger. In the early 1950s he sought to preserve the music traditions of the mountains of the Southeast U.S. thru recordings and through his own playing. In 1958 he cofounded the New Lost City Ramblers. Seeger is the half-brother of folk singer Pete Singer. He has a new collection of music he recorded: "Close to Home: Old time Music From Mike Seeger's Collection: 1952-1967" (Smithsonian). There's also a new collection: "There Ain't No Way Out: New Lost City Ramblers" (Smithsonian)

Rock historian Ed Ward reviews an MCA release of Muddy Waters' songs folklorist Alan Lomaz recorded in the field.

Music critic Milo Miles reviews two new releases of Cuban music. The first is a four-cd set called I Am Time. (Blue Jackel) This is a retrospective of cuban music broken down in four categories. Cuban folk music, Singers, Dance, and Jazz. The second cd is called Buena Vista Social Club (World Circuit/Nonesuch) by a band of the same name. This CD was produced by Ry Cooder.

Rock historian Ed Ward on the importance of the Smithsonian Institute's re-released "Anthology of American Folk Music" on CD.

Gwendolin Sims Warren has performed with the Metropolitan Opera and the Boston Symphony and has sung in opera houses in Europe, but she's most at home singing in church. She's the daughter and granddaughter of ministers. Now she's the minister of music and choir director at the Allen AME Church in Queens, New York. She's compiled 101 best-loved Psalms, Gospel hymns and spirituals of the African American church in her new book "Ev'ry Time I Feel The Spirit." We invited her to talk about and sing some of those songs.

Rock Critic Ken Tucker reviews two new collections of singer Ted Hawkins who died three years ago at the age of 59. "The Ted Hawkins Story: Suffer No More" Rhino Records and "Ted Hawkins: The Final Tour" Evidence Records.

Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of the great African-American singer, actor and political activist Paul Robeson. Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews his recording of "Songs of Free Men" (Sony's Masterworks Heritage series).

Rock historian Ed Ward on Moran Lee Boggs, otherwise known as Dock Boggs, who played banjo like a blues guitar in the 1920s. Boggs died in 1971. His recordings have been collected on a new CD "Dock Boggs: Country Blues" (Reventant label)

Novelist Scott Spencer. His new book "The Rich Man's Table" (Knopf) is the story of a boy who discovers he is the illegitimate son of a legendary folk singer, a character said to be based on Bob Dylan. Spencer's previous novels include "Men in Black," and "Endless Love."

Peter D. Goldsmith is author of "Making People's Music: Moe Asch." (Smithsonian Books) The book explores the history of folk music in America. He uses the life of Moe Asch who was the founder of Folkways Records to tell that story. Asch recorded with such legendary folk singers as: Pete Seeger and Woody Gutherie. Peter D. Goldsmith is an anthropologist who grew up to listening to Folkways records. He currently an adjunct associate professor at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews a new release of previously unheard Woody Guthrie lyrics put to music by British folksinger-songwriter Billy Bragg. Bragg composed music for the lyrics with the help of the American band Wilco. It's called "Mermaid Avenue." (Elektra)

A special in-studio concert and interview with Kate and Anna McGarrigle; Loudon, Rufus, and Martha Wainwright, and other. They all sing and play on the new album, "The McGarrigle Hour" (Hannibal).