Picture-perfect old-timey music... a real treat!
Joe Sixpack -- Slipcue.com | ...in Middle America | 01/20/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"As fine and understated a set of old-timey ballads as you're likely to hear... Really fine stuff! Tracy Schartz has, of course, been one of the great champions of old-timey music ever since his days in the New Lost City Ramblers, and Ginny Hawker has been rising through the ranks in recent years... Together they have made one of the prettiest, simplest, most emotionally direct records of the year... The accompaniment is a delight: straightforward and no-frills, but also very melodic and sweet, a perfect match for their plainspoken vocals. Dirk Powell pitches in playing mandolin on a couple of tunes, but fancy picking isn't the point of this new record, the songs are and that's the way it should be. Includes some standards such as "Poor Willie" and "Katie Dear," as well as a bunch of well-chosen obscurities, and some wonderful gospel tunes. Highly recommended!"
What Goes Around Comes Around- Mountain Music Version
Alfred Johnson | boston, ma | 08/17/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Okay, let me clear up the mystery around the title of this entry. Recently I have been and reviewing and writing up entries about our common American roots music. Music like the various blues idioms, jazz, labor and work songs, the songs of the folk revival of the 1960s and the like. As part of that last stated project I, naturally, had to review the work of The New Lost City Ramblers who, in effect, were there to greet the young folkies as they came to New York's Greenwich Village and Washington Square to make their marks. The original group included Tom Paley, John Cohen and the recently departed Mike Seeger (Pete's half-brother if you are interested in folk bloodlines). As a result of that review someone I know who is very interested in this branch of the folk revival gave me a copy of this CD, "Draw Closer". Why?
At some point in the early 1960s Tom Paley dropped away and one of the pair under review in this CD, Tracy Swartz, took his place. That, my friends, also should tell you something about the value of the tradition of old time mountain music that you will hear in this nice little CD put out by Rounder Records (another link in the folk bloodlines, right?). But enough, all you need to know is that this well-produced CD will display the vocal talents of Ginny Hawker as a traditional singer (not an easy thing to do today now that most of the great old women mountain music singers have passed from the scene...and have not been replaced, for the most part). And Tracy Swartz has the same concerns and cares about the preservation of traditional music that drove him into the New Lost City Ramblers lo those many years ago.
Finally, what do you need to hear here? All fourteen songs are fine but three really stick out (and will form the basis for the songbook that next generation of mountain music singers will use when they come looking for their roots), "Soldier's Farewell", "Poor Orphan Child" and "Salem's Bright King".
"
Track Listings (14) - Disc #1