Customer Reviews

The Best of Bud & Travis

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Bud and Travis (Bud Dashiell and Travis Edmonson) were arguably the greatest of the American folk-boom groups of the late 50s and early 60s. B&T introduced Latin-American folk music to a mass American audience, paving the way for later Latin crossover artists from Linda Ronstadt to Gloria Estafan to Los Lobos. Their European and American folk repertoire was also incomparable, so much so that rock and pop luminaries as diverse as David Crosby and Frank Sinatra have publicly cited B&T's influence. Bud and Travis were also the most featured performer on the soundtrack to the television show *Northern Exposure*.

The *Best of Bud and Travis,* the first-ever CD release by this legendary duo, provides an excellent overview of the group's range and talents. Just some of the many highlights are the gorgeous *boleros* "Malaguena Salerosa" (their signature piece), "Amor De La Calle," "Cielito Lindo Son Juasteco," and "No Me Quieras Tanto". Other standouts are "Bonsoir Dame" (from *Northern Exposure*), "Delia's Gone," and "Vamos Al Baile."

This CD will leave you disappointed in only one area: the omission of several B&T essential standards (most notably "Truly Do" and "Anna"). But that just means we will have to demand a second B&T CD from Collector's Choice!

I have been searching for this CD for many years, ever since someone raided my room in college and liberated all of my Bud & Travis LPs. It was a great pleasure to hear them again, especially Malaguena Salerosa and their la Vaquilla Colorado.(without scratches) In my humble opinion, these two were the best performers of all the folk singers of the time. I can only hope the rest of their available works are released on CD.

Absolutely superb! We finally have a cd of this terrific duo, masterful and powerful music. Some of their best cuts. The only downside [if there is one], is the absence of one of their very finest pieces: Raspberries, Strawberries.

Pray that their other albums will soon be out on cd!

I, along with Tom Straw (who very expertly maintains the Bud and Travis website) wrote the liner notes for the CD, thanks to Gordon Anderson of Collectors' Choice Music. Gordon asked me to select the titles for the CD, so I'm the one who deserves all the credit, OR BLAME, for the titles there. I picked what I liked, knowing others would disagree. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that at least SOME of your Bud and Travis favorites are on the CD. Let's hope Collectors' Choice will ultimately release ALL of their albums intact on CD -- as they were originally released. Let Gordon Anderson at CC Music know if you will buy future Bud and Travis releases.

It irritates me greatly that when people today refer to the 60's, they talk about one phase of it only --roughly encapsulated by the word "woosdtock". But there was a lot more to that era, and the music of Bud and Travis stands as one of the forgotten, or at least ignored, pinnacles of achievement in those years.

They were --flat out-- the best of the "folk" groups playing then. Only the Limelighters were close, and they weren't THAT close. Their musicianship, their passion for the music, their good taste in their selection and performance --none of that was surpassed by any group. Their guitar playing alone is worth the prince of an album.

And their songs! The driving excitement of La Bamba (is it really possible that two voices can produce that much sound?) or the lyrical beauty of Maleguena Salerosa or the banter and high spirits of Sloop John B --three very different songs, but one thing unites them: the artistry and talent of the Bud and Travis.
And finally... as an aside, I'm a curmudgeonly ex-Airborne (Screaming Eagle) combat veteran who still bites off heads when appropriate, and I will freely confess: the music and lyrics of So Long, Stay Well reduced me to tears. Golden Apples of the Sun touches me also, but few songs of the last fifty years can make this tough old bastard cry. That, my friends (are you listening, Brittany and Cristina?) is artistry. At the end of the day, that's why men and women started singing in the first place, and why we keep listening.

FJB

This is one of the finest albums ever made in the folk tradition. I was lucky enough to see Bud and Travis on concert way back when ('62 I think) and they just blew me away - and still do. They're who the Kingston Trio copied ... they brought the American/MExican folk music tradition of Arizona and northern MExico to public view for the first time ... in a remarkably pure and genuine form, even though they're both not Mexican by birth - they surely are/were in their hearts and vocal cords.

I've lived in MExico a lot, and these two Americans are as genuine as the locals south of the border ... well, at least, they bridged the two cultures and brought us the deep heart feelings from the southern realms ...

Yeah, there are four or five schmultzy tunes on this double-CD which reflect their attempts to "go commercial". Ultimately, they didn't go commercial - they broke up after just 4 albums ... a brilliant flash, which was then copied in the folk explosion ... their guitar work is remarkable, their harmonies tops and unique ... dig these guys!

This is a dazzling collection of songs if you long for clear vocals, bass-ey rhythms, and lyrics that tug on your heartstrings.I'm a 36 year old mom, and my parents would listen to Bud and Travis when I was small...I remember dancing aroung the coffee table to the Mexican Wedding Song and They Call The Wind Mariah, at age 6, and WAY past my bedtime. I didn't think I would ever sing those old songs we listened to on the hi-fi again, except for the couple of tunes that stayed with me. I sang Bonsoir Dame to my babies as lullabyes...It's a real treat to be able to buy this CD. I especially love the funny "banter" between songs. If you buy it, you'll love it!

Bud & Travis were awesome, people. Awesome in talent, spellbinding in performance. Yet, down-to-earth. This is a musical collection for all seasons. Yes, here goes my probably hapless hit-and-miss attempt to convey to the readers of reviews like these what a rarely-seen-in-this-world level of talent and craftmanship combined was revealed and manifested in the work of this great, dynamic duo of Bud Dashiell and Travis Edmonson, who worked in both Latin and Anglo-American folk music streams of consciousness and mastered them both (and then some). Theirs may have been a case of music of so refined a quality as to be missed by ears of more everyday tastes. But that does not mean the appeal here is not universal! This is a pretty good representation of their work, and it is well worth five stars, and if I had a top ten desert island discs, this would be in the first three. The sequencing is good, and I probably couldn't do a better job of trying to satisfy fans of "Bud & Travis In Concert", and "The Bud & Travis Latin Album" (apparently their most popular original releases) both at the same time, and blending selections from those areas of their back catalogue together so successfully as this CD does. Still, it has one ever-nagging omission, as a couple of people have mentioned before: Missing here is "Truly Do" from the debut, eponymously titled "Bud And Travis" (Liberty cat.#LST-7125), a composition and performed rendering of eternal beauty. Also, sadly not here is the definitive studio version of "Malaguena Salerosa", to be heard is also from that 1959 debut, overbrimming with passion and elegant fire, of which the concert version herein offered is a good echo of, but only an echo for me. Lesser chagrins are not having "Raspberries, Strawberries", or "Florecita de mi Cielo" here either, and most of these complaints could be summed up with the fact that my first choice for re-issue would have been for the debut, "Bud And Travis" to be issued straight, as is, in its entirety, for that was (and still is) PERFECTION itself, and I would have given that 10 stars (!), because how something so sublime as that was ever birthed in this universe I don't know (well, there was Mozart, too... but that's another subject entirely...). If you've never heard them, don't stay in the dark, take a chance on this. You have no idea what you're missing if you don't. And they were fun too! How they moved from moment to moment from subliminity to rollicking frivolity and doing justice to both without subtracting from either is only a lesser marvel to behold (or hear) in and of itself. The music of Travis Edmonson and the late Bud Dashiell goes straight to the heart, uplifting it us, the listeners and audience and effectively lightening it, in the space of the same performance. I generously given a number of albums in the Amazon review pages 5 stars, but you'll never hear anything like this anywhere else. Some of the fans of the Kingston Trio or Peter, Paul and Mary might be wise to have some smelling salts around if they give a listen to B&T here, for if they loved those groups, they might faint when they hear this... Divine? Yes, in some sense. This could really put you away. Have a listen.

This is an excellennt CD and I was happy to have it available. I have been looking for their music for a long time and finally found this CD. I am wondering if anyone remembers their Latin Album that came out in the 60's. This CD brought back many memories and it is truly fun music and well worth buying. Wish there was more of their music available.

I love the harmonies and the feelings put into this music. I would like very much to see the Latin Album in CD. It's one of my favorites, and the LP no longer plays. La musica mejor!