Music

As we continue to rethink our offerings as we prepare the 2007-2008 catalog (which we’ve decided to print and mail, incidentally) 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.

• Up18North (Sold Out) is their breakthrough album, divided between songs and instrumentals, not a clinker in the bunch.
• Choices is the followup to Up18North and pulls nearly even with it, marked by three heartfelt gospel classics and a gospel original.
• The Bridge (Sold Out) is banjoist Jens Krüger's instrumental solo album, with playing that sounds in turn Celtic, Greek, Russian, bluegrass,
  old-time, classical, New Age, and more.
• Carolina Scrapbook 2 (Sold Out) is a three-CD set of songs and tunes recorded with friends who stopped by their studio.
• Carolina Scrapbook: The Gospel Edition (Sold Out) is again recorded with friends who stopped by, focusing on gospel songs.

Pete Wernick 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.

• So Long of a Journey. (Sold Out) Pete Wernick helped found Hot Rize, maybe the most important bluegrass band of the 1980s. This live CD captures them at their best.
• 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.

Before bluegrass there was old-time music, a genre that is deep and rich but often hard on ears not already familiar with it. We think these two CDs make for a great introduction.

• Livin' Reeltime, Thinkin' Old-time. (Sold Out) The Reeltime Travelers no longer play as a group, but they left us with two fine CDs that stay faithful the tradition while also being open and accessible to anyone. See also their first CD Reeltime Travelers.
• Songs from the Mountain. (Sold Out) Listening to this one, you'll feel like you are eavesdropping on three good friends who came together in someone's living room for an evening's singing and playing.

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.

• Draw Closer. (Sold Out) Mountain harmonies don't come any better than this. Ginny and Tracy cover the gamut, from sweetness to raw power.
• Letters From My Father. Ginny's solo album covers a wider range than Draw Closer, including country weepers, honky tonk ballads, straightahead bluegrass, and four unaccompanied songs from different traditions.

Ralph Stanley has been performing for sixty years now. During the first twenty (!) years, he and his brother Carter fronted one of the most important groups in bluegrass history, the Stanley Brothers. Carter Stanley
is often pointed to as the best lead singer in the music’s history, tender and expressive, and Ralph Stanley’s eerie and ancient-sounding tenor voice gave their sound a critical edge. Most important, during their prime in the 1950s they recorded a remarkable series of seventy-
plus songs for Columbia and Mercury records which have almost all become classics.

• Complete Columbia Recordings (Sold Out)
• Complete Mercury Recordings (Sold Out)

One of the things we like best about bluegrass music is the respect it pays to tradition. Three of the most important young performers of the 1970s, Keith Whitley, Ricky Skaggs, and Tony Rice, were steeped in the music of their forefathers and played it often.

• Second Generation Bluegrass. (Sold Out) Keith Whitley and Ricky Skaggs were young, brimming over with talent, and just beginning their spectacular careers when they recorded this album of mostly Stanley Brothers songs. It's one of the most appealing bluegrass records we've ever heard.
• Skaggs and Rice. (Sold Out) Duet singing is a particular love of ours, and on this album Ricky Skaggs and Tony Rice did some of the best bluegrass duet singing ever recorded. The arrangements are simple and spare, with just mandolin and guitar accompaniment. The song choice is excellent.

Finally, a half-dozen favorites that we recommend just because we can.

• 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.
• Linus and Lucy. (Sold Out) We forgive George Winston for inventing New Age Music because (a) he transcends the genre, and (b) he loves the music of Vince Guaraldi even more than we do. This is just Winston and his piano. You'll recognize a lot of the songs from various Peanuts television specials, and you may also recognize “Cast Your Fate to the Wind.”
• Broken Moon. (Sold Out) As John Lilly told us, “When you take twenty years making your first CD, it ought to be pretty good.” And he's right; this one is pretty good. A choice collection of classic and self-penned songs, some played solo and some with spare backup, with John's engaging voice and full, rich guitar laying the foundation for it all.
• Oh So Many Years. (Sold Out) The Bailes Brothers was the most popular act to appear on the Grand Old Opry in the mid-1940s, but now is mostly forgotten. Every time Chris and I listen through this we want to immediately go to the practice room and learn more Bailes Brothers songs.
• Things I Used to Do. Making a CD is so easy these days that even a guy who runs an internet bookstore and his son can make one. Of course it helps when the son has the talent to do all the heavy lifting, playing the hard instruments and singing great harmonies. And when their teachers are among the best in the business. Things I Used to Do is a tribute to those teachers, as well as a snapshot of how the Ridgewood Boys sounded two years along.