Complete General Recordings [Original recording remastered]

The Almanac Singers | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 22, 1996)
• Original Release Date: October 15, 1996
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Mca
• ASIN: B000002P32
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #383,223 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Blow Ye Winds, Heigh Ho

2. Away, Rio

3. Blow The Man Down

4. House Of The Rising Sun

5. Ground Hog

6. State Of Arkansas

7. The Weaver's Song

8. I Ride An Old Paint

9. Hard, Ain't It Hard

10. The Dodger Song

11. Greenland Fishing

12. The Golden Vanity

13. The Coast of High Barbary

14. Haul Away, Joe

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Piece of folk history, but the other CD is a better buy..., September 21, 2003

By 

William E. Adams (Midland, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Complete General Recordings (Audio CD)

The Almanac Singers were a commune, collecting some superbly talented artists like the young Lee Hays, Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie, joined by a rotating group of competent supporting musicians. In 1940-41 they had several recording sessions and performed mostly for labor union rallies and left-wing political meetings. This CD features their versions of traditional sailor songs and agricultural ditties, rather than the controversial union stuff and pre-WWII neutrality songs and early WWII anti-facist tunes. For one-take sessions, done on the lowest of budgets, these renditions are pretty wonderful. If you just want to have a sample of what the Almanacs, who pioneered the folk recording group genre, and paved the way for The Weavers a decade later, were like, it will do nicely. However, if you want an Almanac CD which presents 29 of the total of 35 tracks the group ever preserved, and includes the union and political stuff along with these songs, too, then go buy the disc titled "Songs of Protest." It is a great value. (By the way, the sound quality on both of the available Almanacs CD's is surprisingly good.)

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Piece of Music History, June 25, 2005

By 

C. A. (Cupertino, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Complete General Recordings (Audio CD)

This is an outstanding collection of American folk songs, sung with great skill and enthusiasm by the Almanac Singers. The Almanac Singers were the predecessors to the the great folk group, The Weavers, and included Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Lee Hays, Pete Hawes, and Millard Lampell. It is a must for those who understand the rich heritage of American folk tradition, and who appreciate the early stirrings of the 'folk revival' that gave birth to such popular performers as Peter, Paul, and Mary, Judy Collins, Joan Baez, Gordon Lightfoot, and of course, Bob Dylan, as well as those on the cutting edge of the protest movement that were not so 'mainstream,' such as Tom Paxton and Phil Ochs. Woody and Pete are the daddies, or perhaps grandaddies now, of them all, and on this album you can hear Woody in his prime, and Pete in his younger days. It's a treasure!

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic Recording From 1940's Folk Scene, August 8, 2009

By 

Chris Luallen (Nashville, Tennessee) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Complete General Recordings (Audio CD)

Hanging out among the leftist activists of New York in 1941, pals Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Lee Hays and Millard Lampell got together to record this collection of traditional sea shanties and folk songs. Among the highlights for me were two originals, Woody Guthrie's "Hard, Ain't It Hard" and Lee Hay's "State Of Arkansas". Hay's song is humorous but brutally satirical, probably the last tune the Arkansas Chamber Of Commerce wants you to hear lol. Of course, this makes it all the more fun, as Hays was a native son of the state and drawing on the Southern tradition of outlandish storytelling in his rendition. Guthrie sings from the female point of view on "House Of the Rising Sun". But Hay's version of "The Dodger Song" is probably my favorite cut on the album, pointing out the treachery of humankind but also the "dodginess" in the singer himself.

Now they seem almost like an "all star ensemble" in terms of the American folk scene. But at the time they were just four obscure lefty singers trying to put together a little dough to pay for a trip to California. It's a very causal yet classic recording and a pleasure to the ears that fans of folk music will certainly enjoy.