Here are my picks for the Top 10
folk-rooted or folk-branched albums of 2023. As in past years, I started with
the list of hundreds of new albums that I listened to over the past year and
narrowed it down to a short list of about 30. I’ve been over the short list
several times over the past couple of weeks and came up with several similar –
not identical – Top 10 lists. Today’s list is the final one. The order might
have been slightly different and there are several other worthy albums that
might have been included, had one of the other lists represented the final
choice. Any new albums that arrive between now and the end of the year will be
considered for my 2024 list.
1. Payadora Tango Ensemble – Silent
Tears: The Last Yiddish Tango (Six Degrees). The powerful songs on Silent
Tears: The Last Yiddish Tango are based on testimonies, poems and other
writings from women in Toronto who survived sexual violence and other forms of
torture at the hands of the Nazis during the Holocaust. Masterfully played by
the musicians of the Payadora Tango Ensemble – Rebekah Wolkstein,
Drew Jurecka, Robert Horvath and Joseph Phillips – the
songs are brought to life by singers Aviva Chernick, Olga Avigail
Mieleszczuk, Lenka Lichtenberg and Marta Kosiorek.
2. Daniel Kahn & Jake Shulman-Ment –
The Building and Other Songs (Oriente Musik). Most of the
songs on
The Building and Other Songs by
Daniel Kahn & Jake
Shulman-Ment are Daniel’s Yiddish-language versions of great songs written
by the likes of
Lou Reed,
Leonard Cohen,
Bruce Springsteen,
Woody Guthrie,
Tom Paxton, and
Tom Waits. However, these
are not simply translations from English to Yiddish. By reading the Yiddish to
English translations in the CD booklet, it is quickly evident that Daniel has
fully re-imagined each of the songs in ways that are both faithful to the
original versions and that take the songs in entirely new directions.
3. Tom Paxton & John
McCutcheon –
Together (Appalseed Productions). During the pandemic,
Tom
Paxton, one of folk music’s greatest singer-songwriters since the
early-1960s, and
John McCutcheon, one
of folk music’s greatest singer-songwriters since the mid-1970s, got together
on Zoom to write songs.
Together – mostly duets and a few solo
performances – has 14 of their best songs. The songs range from inspiring
(“Ukrainian Now,” “Letters from Joe”), to humorous (“Same Old Crap”), to
insightful (“Invisible Man”) and poignant (“Christmas in the Desert”).
4. Sylvia Tyson –
At the End of the Day (Stony Plain). In a long and distinguished career,
Sylvia Tyson
has given us so many memorable songs as a member of
Ian & Sylvia and
Quartette and as an important solo artist. Now, at 83, Sylvia has
decided to retire from making records and is bowing out with
At the End of
the Day, one of the finest, if not
the finest of her solo albums.
With shades of folk, country and cabaret music, these finely crafted songs are
beautifully sung by Sylvia and beautifully arranged and produced by my old pal
Danny
Greenspoon.
5. Eliza Gilkyson –
Home
(Realiza). On
Home,
Eliza Gilkyson offers a lovely set of songs –
some of which offer various approaches to the meaning of
home. For
example, “True North” views home through the prism of mature love, while in “Man
in the Bottle,” Eliza recalls home through the memories of her father, the
songwriter and folksinger
Terry Gilkyson. Other highlights include “Sunflowers,”
a song of solidarity with the people of Ukraine, and duets with
Robert Earl
Keen and
Mary Chapin Carpenter.
6. Too Sad for the Public –
Vol. 2 – Yet and Still: Traditional
American Folk Song-Stirring by Dick Connette (StorySound). I’ve long admired how composer
Dick Connette has
re-imagined songs from traditional folk music sources (as well as creating some
songs of his own inspired by folk traditions) – first with
Last Forever,
his duo with the late
Sonya Cohen,
and more recently with
Too
Sad for the Public, an ensemble whose membership grows and contracts depending
on the needs of the song. Several tracks are steeped in traditional New Orleans
jazz, another of my favorite genres. Several fine singers –
Ana Egge,
Chaim
Tannenbaum,
Rayna Gellert – help bring the songs to life.
7, Taj Mahal –
Savoy (Stony
Plain). From 1926 until 1958, the Savoy Ballroom was a major music venue in
Harlem, a place where the likes of
Duke Ellington,
Count Basie,
Louis
Jordan,
Ella Fitzgerald and countless other jazz and blues
performed. On
Savoy,
Taj Mahal offers a joyous tribute to the
music of that era (as
Holger Peterson points out in the liner notes, all
but one of the songs would likely have been heard at the Savoy).
8. Cat Power –
Cat Power
Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert (Domino). Although it was
actually recorded at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester, a few days before he
got to the Royal Albert Hall,
Bob Dylan’s
Live 1966: The “Royal
Albert Hall” Concert is, arguably, the most essential of Dylan’s many live
albums. The seven solo acoustic songs are the work of a master and the eight
electric songs rock hard with a group that would later become
The Band.
On this tribute, Cat Power went to the Royal Albert Hall and recreated the
legendary 1966 concert: the same solo acoustic songs and the same electric band
songs, all in their original order. Cat Power beautifully nails the acoustic
songs and I think I like her more subtle versions of the electric band songs
even more than Dylan’s.
9. David Francey –
The
Breath Between (Laker Music). David Francey was already in his 40s in the
1990s when he emerged seemingly out of nowhere – actually from Ayer’s Cliff, a
small town in the Eastern Townships of Quebec – as one of Canada’s finest
singer-songwriters. Now based in Elphin, an equally small town in Eastern
Ontario, David has continued to maintain the highest of standards in his
songwriting and performing. Among the highlights on
The Breath Between
are ”Two Shadows,” a beautiful love song, “Narrow Boats,” a duet with
Terra
Spencer, that captures a wistful moment on the banks of the Thames in
England, and “This Morning,” a tribute to
John Prine featuring the always
delightful playing of
Dave Clarke, the guitar virtuoso who brought many
of David’s early songs to life 25 or so years ago.
10. Michael Jerome Browne –
Gettin’
Together (Borealis/Stony Plain). As the album title,
Gettin’ Together,
suggests, most of the songs feature
Michael Jerome Browne, long one of
Canada’s finest interpreters of almost any kind of traditional blues and folk
styles, getting together with a bunch of collaborators ranging from
Stephen
Barry, the leader of the great Montreal blues band that Michael played in
before emerging as a solo artist, to
Eric Bibb, the contemporary blues
legend that Michael frequently works with on tour, to peers like
Colin
Linden,
Tielhard Frost,
John McColgan and
Mary Flower,
and renowned legends like
Happy Traum,
John Sebastian and
Harrison
Kennedy.
I will be featuring songs from
each of these albums on Stranger Songs, Tuesday December 5, 3:30-5 pm
(ET), on CKCU. The program is now available 24/7 for on-demand streaming
at this link.
–Mike Regenstreif
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