Search - Various Artists :: The Rose & the Briar: Death, Love and Liberty in the American Ballad

Musical meditation on the American ballad

hyperbolium | Earth, USA | 10/28/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This collection is notable for a few reasons. The like-named book, featuring essays, memoirs and short-stories from a number of musicians, writers and artists provides the script for which these tracks constitute a performance. As a stand-alone, this CD paints a rich history of the American ballad, drawing a thread through works from 1928 to the present day. And as a new release, this disc features purpose-made recordings by Snakefarm, John Mellencamp and The Handsome Family that illuminate new sides of well-worn tunes.



As another reviewer has commented, the single-mindedness and length of this disc (78+ minutes) feels like a college radio DJ whose meticulously planned theme set has gone about 45 minutes too long. On the other hand, the track selections finely mix the obscure and well-known, bringing the former to the foreground and recontextualizing the latter. Jan & Dean's "Dead Man's Curve," for instance, finds a link to tradition that broadens its original appeal as teen pop, and Marty Robbins' "El Paso" strengthens its bond to the roots of American storytelling - rather than the Western nostalgia with which it was originally recorded.



The three newly recorded tracks are all quite noteworthy. Snakefarm creates a modern-raga from the traditional "Little Maggie," John Mellencamp weighs heavily on the death and grief underlying "Wreck of the Old '97," and Paul Muldoo explores the tradition of rewriting with "Blackwatertown," rewriting "The Streets of Laredo," which rewrote "St. James Infirmary," which rewrote "The Unfortunate Rake," which rewrote "The Bard of Armagh."



At this length, the set is a bit taxing to track through in its entirety. Still, the strength of the selections provides a wealth of musical tradition whether played in order or sampled for favorites."

Interesting juxtaposition of traditional and contemporary

J. Ross | Roseburg, OR USA | 10/12/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Playing Time - 78:07 -- Simply, a ballad is a narrative poem put to music and meant to be sung. The themes most often found in American ballads are romantic, nostalgic or sentimental in some respect. Sean Wilentz and Greil Marcus served as editors for this collection of historic and contemporary ballads. Some like "Ommie Wise," "Frankie" and "The Coo Coo Bird" were recorded in the 1920s, while tracks 4, 7 and 20 are previously unreleased songs just recorded in 2004.



Sean Wilentz, a history professor at Princeton University, also serves as historian-in-residence at Bob Dylan's official website. Greil Marcus was an Old Dominion Fellow at Princeton in 2002, and he now lives in Berkeley, Ca. Both realized the importance of the ballad in America's history, and they identified a need to capture (in a book and CD) a representation of this important musical art form.



In the accompanying book, Sean Wilentz and Greil Marcus have assembled an impressive group of writers and artists to assist them. Some include Paul Muldoon, Stanley Crouch, R. Crumb, Jon Langford, John Rockwell, Luc Sante, Joyce Carol Oates, and Dave Marsh. Many other novelists, essayists, performers, and critics also helped. They analyze and delve into the transcendent beauty and lasting power of the ballad. In the book (with its 25 illustrations), the collaborators provide a scholarly overview of America's most imaginative and expressive form.



The CD that accompanies the book has many popular ballads such as "Barbara Allen" and "The Wreck of the Old 97." Even more contemporary ballads from Bob Dylan, Marty Robbins, Dolly Parton, Randy Newman and Bruce Springsteen are also included. The jump from a 1927 recording of "Ommie Wise" at track 3 to the Anna Domino's 2004 rendition of "Little Maggie" at track 4 shows an interesting juxtaposition of the traditional vs. the contemporary.



The book presents a variety of art and commentary about stories and storytellers balladry We can learn a lot about the history of our country and our America beliefs from studying about love, death, family, faith and liberty in these poetic songs. But where are all the train-themed and western ballads that we love so well? My hat's off to these musicologists who present an historical overview of a significant part of our nation's musical heritage. (Joe Ross, staff writer, Bluegrass Now)

"

Good, old-fashioned Gothic Americana

Joe Sixpack -- Slipcue.com | ...in Middle America | 09/29/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Music critic (and fellow Berkeleyan) Greil Marcus delves into the history of the American ballad, tracing the roots of Anglo-Celtic murder ballads and all-American disaster songs such as the "Omie Wise," "Barbara Allen," "Wreck Of The Old 97," etc. This album is a companion disc to a new set of essays by the same title, illuminating the use of story-songs in American popular culture. Although the album does have the overall feel of a college radio theme set that's gone on a little too long, it's still amazing how potent and immediate these old songs still seem. Marcus's selections are for the most part superior choices, particularly tracks by the Coon Creek Girls, Jean Ritchie, Mississippi John Hurt and a particularly haunting tune by Jelly Roll Morton ("Buddy Bolden's Blues"). The "through-line," as they say, is that these are all songs that tell a story, including many historical narratives and others that were tales floating around in the more general folk aether... There are also several songs that are interesting updates or recontexualizations of old themes, and many of these leap out with surprising immediacy inside Marcus's intellectual framework. Among these newer songs are Jan & Dean's "Dead Man's Curve," a surf-teen tune that takes the disaster-accident theme and moves it into modern-day LA, Bruce Springsteen's "Nebraska," Marty Robbins's still-compelling "El Paso," and -- most masterfully -- Bob Dylan's "Lily, Rosemary And The Jack Of Hearts," a song that was explicitly crafted as a reworking of old folk themes. Some of the selections seem a bit forced -- Bobby Patterson's soul version of "Trial Of Mary McGuire," a Duke Ellington opus -- but perhaps if I pick up the book, the reasoning behind their inclusion will become much clearer. At any rate, this is mostly a pretty cool collection."