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recommend some uncommon albums


Blane

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Interested in checking out some new/old tunes that are off the radar a bit. I'll start. This album is totally worth checking out. Alvin Lee is a terribly underrated guitarist and the jazzy groves they pull off are phenomenal here.

Ten Years After - Undead

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Highly recommend anything by Harry Manx!

Bluesy Indian music. Anyone who hasnt heard him yet, he plays acoustic slide guitar and also an instrument called a "mohann veena" which is very similar sounding to a sitar. This guy completely blew me away from the first time I heard him.

Also watch for him on tour this spring/summer. I know he has two shows booked in London already, plus 1 here in Huntsville, and I am pretty sure he will be making another appearance in Ottawa at the Bluesfest

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Fairport_Convention-Liege_And_Lief_LP-Front.jpg

In an Alternate Universe, they would be internationally recognized as a musical force akin to The Band. While The Band mined traditional American music forms and brought their own masterful original material to bear on it, England's Fairport Convention was doing the same with traditional English folk music. Liege & Lief , their fourth album (released 1969) is their finest all around statement: ancient traditional reels and jigs get pummelled with Richard Thompson's mind-boggling electric guitar work and Dave Swarbrick's wild fiddle playing. Vocals don't come much sweeter than the late, great Sandy Denny . Stunning original material stands alongside the old folk tunes, blurring the lines between tradition and innovation. Certainly no-one had ever heard a traditional ballad like "Matty Groves" being wrestled from the speakers of a Marshall stack by a long-haired freak like Thompson before! And while this album has rightfully received numerous accolades from all kinds of sources, it definitely represents Ground Zero for the British folk-rock movement: contemporaries such as The Strawbs and Pentangle kept far too close to musical tradition. In the wake of this album, a whole cottage industry would reveal themselves, basically following the English folk-rock model laid down by Liege & Lief: Steeleye Span, The Albion Band, Planxty, even late-1970's Jethro Tull, among others, can draw distinct lines back to this album.

The story of English folk-rock is one that was largely missed in the wake of the seismic counter-cultural events unfolding in the US in the 1960's and that is a shame. Artists such as Richard Thompson and Sandy Denny should be held - in my opinion - in the same regard as their true peers, such as Robbie Robertson and Joni Mitchell. In the end, line-up changes, poor management, and just the sheer English-ness of it all would relegete Fairport Convention to a sturdy sideline in modern culture. Which is a shame, as anyone who has heard Liege & Lief could surely tell you.

And incidentally, Fairport Convention lives on today!

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Fairport Convention, 1969

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(comes out in April 2006)

"Captured to tape by Steve Albini at his Electrical Audio studios in Chicago, IL, You Are There extends the cinematic drama of 2003's Walking Cloud and Deep Red Sky, Flag Fluttered and the Sun Shined (also recorded by Albini), while surpassing the sinister heaviness of 2002's lauded One Step More and You Die. MONO disproves the myth that an increased focus on intricate song structures and string arrangements comes at the expense of youthful energy and inspired aggression. With You Are There, MONO's representation of tragedy comes with an inherent joy, delivered with the hope that in all dark there is equal parts light. They're not heavy like Black Sabbath - they're heavy like Beethoven."

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Harry Manx is a good choice. I've just recently been turned on to his music.

I saw Fairport Convention at the Stan Rogers Festival and was pretty unimpressed. They weren't bad but weren't anything special either. I'm not familiar with them other than the one show though, so maybe I'll check out some old stuff.

An album I love that not a lot of people have checked out is Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds -- Murder Ballads. Great album.

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I saw Fairport Convention at the Stan Rogers Festival and was pretty unimpressed. They weren't bad but weren't anything special either. I'm not familiar with them other than the one show though, so maybe I'll check out some old stuff.

Their best days are easily 30 years behind them. I was just pointing out that, remarkably, they still exist!

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Wicked thread idea, I thank you whole-heartedly, sorry I don't believe I have anything to contribute, sad but true..

maybe i do. I'm sure everyone has heard of Blood, Sweat and Tears, but also I think that not many people have really listened to them much. I think they're terribly under-rated or under-appreciated.

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Interested in checking out some new/old tunes that are off the radar a bit. I'll start. This album is totally worth checking out. Alvin Lee is a terribly underrated guitarist and the jazzy groves they pull off are phenomenal here.

Ten Years After - Undead

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I'm a big Ten Years After fan. I will recommend

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A really amazing album with some really great songs.

For fans of the Hip Hop I highly recommend, The Goats - Tricks of the Shade

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Also highly recommend, John Abercrombie (w/ Jan Hammer and Jack De Johnette)- Timeless

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Might not be that uncommon, but this is my favorite Santana album

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I htink everyone should have this album. I just received as a gift about a month ago and have listened to it at least 20 times so far.

Paul Pena - New Train

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It was recorded in '73, released in 2000. Jerry's on two songs. Jet Airliner is on it.. Steve Miller heard the album way back in the day, recorded Jet Airliner with his band. Paul pretty much lived off the royalties his whole life.

Rootsy funk blues type stuff. His voice sounds like Lenny Kravitz on some songs (in a good way though) and Hendrix on others.

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This 1983 debut album by The Beat Farmers introduced me to the whole notion of cow-punk and remains one of my favourites of that loosely defined genre (Stray Cats, the Blasters etc.).

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An unfortunate side note: the band's career came to a crashing halt when their drummer died of a heart attack during a 1995 show in Whistler BC.

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Wicked thread idea, I thank you whole-heartedly, sorry I don't believe I have anything to contribute, sad but true..

maybe i do. I'm sure everyone has heard of Blood, Sweat and Tears, but also I think that not many people have really listened to them much. I think they're terribly under-rated or under-appreciated.

Heya Bokonon.. you should hunt down this live record: Live & Improvised.

It's a bit hit and miss but has killer versions of Spinning Wheel, And When I Die (with the best Tuba solo you'll ever hear), and Chick Corea's Spain.

Plus, a good deal of the show was recorded at Ottawa's own National Arts Centre!

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geez, you'd think this was a message board for historians with the suggestions we're getting :P

bringing things into recent decades, I'll add one more that I just listened to on the bus ride to school today:

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The Warlocks make fuzzed out, triple guitar, open chorded psych-stoner rock that's fun for the whole family. I've been listening to this album a ton over the past 6 months. Check it out!

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