Vote for a FAIR album before March 31

[Lisnaholic]

Every two weeks the Folk And International Roots Album Club votes for an album that they will listen to and discuss in the coming weeks.
Anyone can vote in this poll, but if you vote, please follow through and be ready to discuss whichever album wins the poll.

Is anyone else getting tired of looking at the same old album covers week after week ? I`m going to give the first three nominations a LAST CHANCE, so it`s now or never for African Odyssey, Congotronics and Dead Combo :-

Originally Posted by Argento

I nominate this compilation of african singers:

Compilator (it's a seal, not a person): Putumayo
Album's name: African Odyssey
Year: 2001


Samples can be listened on Amazon:
Amazon.com : Music Sampler

I nominate it for those songs:
Sinama Denw - Habib Koite
Mar - Augusto Cego
Kecu Minino Na Tchora - Bidinte
Raki - Oliver Mtukudzi
The Well - Seydu
Fundo Di Matu - Manecas Costa

Congotronics (2005) by Konono No.1



Congotronics consists of African chants accompanied by traditional thumb pianos fed through some rudamentary electronics which have been cranked up to distortion levels. The result sounds like something which may be a one-artist genre; Industrial Afro-trance Folk. Most of us will never witness a local Kinshasa band playing together in a courtyard with some home-built amplifiers, but this album gives us an unadorned indication of what they sound like.

Dead Combo Vol.1 by Dead Combo (2005)



Fado is a traditional Portuguese guitar style, but on this album Dead Combo have taken it apart and rebuilt it with the same kind of slow,intense, precision that Ry Cooder used on his Paris,Texas soundtrack. Just like RC, this duo -guitar and double bass- perform musical magic by going back to the simplest things but somehow charging them with a new beauty hard to describe.
(PS.This Dead Combo are from Lisbon and shouldn`t be confused with an Irish band who use exactly the same name.)

Originally Posted by fazstp

Karen Dalton - It's So Hard to Tell Who's Going to Love You the Best (1969)



Great bluesy vocals on this first release from Karen Dalton. This is the opening track; her version of the Fred Neil track A Little Bit of Rain.



Wikipedia

Originally Posted by fazstp

June Tabor - Ashore (2011)



Newer release from a prolific English folky.

Below The Bassline by Ernest Ranglin (1996)




This is a jazzy look at some early classics of ska/reggae by Ernest Ranglin, an electric guitarist who has helped out The Wailers and Jimmy Cliff among others. On this instrumental album he fronts an acoustic band which includes some great piano playing from Jamaican legend, Monty Alexander.

Here we go; six more albums to choose from. Because three nominations are on LAST CHANCE, it`s possible that four candidates may disappear when this poll closes, which makes it a good time for coming up with some new suggestions !

[Salami]

Wow, I've had a quick listen to all of those and I honestly cannot make up my mind.
I think I'll need longer to decide - I liked all of them in one way or another!

[Lisnaholic]

Originally Posted by Salami

Wow, I've had a quick listen to all of those and I honestly cannot make up my mind.
I think I'll need longer to decide - I liked all of them in one way or another!

that`s good to know, Salami. Don`t spend too long thinking about it, though. The poll is closing at 9:30 this evening !

[Salami]

Yikes!

After a quick think I decided to go for Karen Dalton, which if memory serves did have a very pleasingly mellow composition which I found very warming. Her voice I think won me over - I have a special appreciation for unusual voices!

[Lisnaholic]

Well done, Salami, you pulled Karen Dalton ahead of the pack and broke a three-way tie for us !

So in a week, her album, "It`s so hard to tell who`s going to love you the best " will get a thread of it`s own. It`s a long album title, but it neatly sums up a common preoccupation which is more often implied than enunciated. Sounds promising !