The Memory of Your Smile - Mike Seeger, Rakes, Ruby
Only Remembered - Mike Seeger, Traditional
The Mayor Is Good Old Boy - Mike Seeger, Bradley, Hank
Boat's Up the River - Mike Seeger, Traditional
East Virginia Blues - Mike Seeger, Carter, A.P.
They're at Rest Together - Mike Seeger, Callahan, Walter "J
The Ballad of Hollis Brown - Mike Seeger, Dylan, Bob
Oh My Little Dutch Girl - Mike Seeger, Traditional
Deep Shady Grove - Mike Seeger, Ritchie, Jean
Cripple Creek - Mike Seeger, Traditional
Oldtime Sally Ann - Mike Seeger, Traditional
Rose in the Mountain - Mike Seeger, Traditional
Little Cabin Home on the Hill - Mike Seeger, Flatt, Lester
Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender - Mike Seeger, Traditional
900 Miles - Mike Seeger, Traditional
Savoy Family Waltz - Mike Seeger, Savoy, Marc
I'm Going to the West - Mike Seeger, Traditional
Bound Steel Blues - Mike Seeger, Traditional
Brown's Ferry Blues - Mike Seeger, Delmore, Alton
You've Been a Friend to Me - Mike Seeger, Carter, A.P.
Frog Heaven - Mike Seeger, Williams, Vivian
The CD includes 23 songs, each featuring Seeger on vocals, mandolin, banjo, guitar, fiddle, autoharp, ukelele, and/or jaw harp. His old-timey trio, the New Lost City Ramblers, who have never officially broken up despite lo... more »ng lulls of inactivity, reassemble for a spirited version of "Bound Steel Blues." Seeger joins his sisters Peggy and Penny for two songs and his step-brother Pete for a terrific version of "900 Miles." The Ramblers, Peggy, Pete, Hazel Dickens and Maria Muldaur, Michael Doucet and Marc Savoy, mandolin virtuoso David Grisman, bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley, Kentucky balladeer Jean Ritchie, Kathy Mattea's songwriter Tim O'Brien, and others all make guest appearances. Perhaps the most notable collaboration is a new recording of "The Ballad of Hollis Brown," with Bob Dylan singing his 1963 song in his older, darker voice, and Seeger giving it a prickly banjo backing. Just as moving in its own way is "They're at Rest Together," a gospel eulogy for T.B. victims sung by Seeger and Dickens with a firm bass line by the Seldom Scene's Tom Gray. Another special moment is "Brown's Ferry Blues," originally done by the Delmore Brothers but given a ragtime spryness by Piedmont bluesman John Jackson. Muldaur redoes the Stanley Brothers' "The Memory of Your Smile" as if it were a Bessie Smith tune; Grisman and Seeger provide the bluesy picking behind her. All 23 tracks--mostly recorded in '93-'94 but some as old as 1980--prove not just the continuing vitality of traditional acoustic music but its tremendous diversity as well. --Geoffrey Himes« less
The CD includes 23 songs, each featuring Seeger on vocals, mandolin, banjo, guitar, fiddle, autoharp, ukelele, and/or jaw harp. His old-timey trio, the New Lost City Ramblers, who have never officially broken up despite long lulls of inactivity, reassemble for a spirited version of "Bound Steel Blues." Seeger joins his sisters Peggy and Penny for two songs and his step-brother Pete for a terrific version of "900 Miles." The Ramblers, Peggy, Pete, Hazel Dickens and Maria Muldaur, Michael Doucet and Marc Savoy, mandolin virtuoso David Grisman, bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley, Kentucky balladeer Jean Ritchie, Kathy Mattea's songwriter Tim O'Brien, and others all make guest appearances. Perhaps the most notable collaboration is a new recording of "The Ballad of Hollis Brown," with Bob Dylan singing his 1963 song in his older, darker voice, and Seeger giving it a prickly banjo backing. Just as moving in its own way is "They're at Rest Together," a gospel eulogy for T.B. victims sung by Seeger and Dickens with a firm bass line by the Seldom Scene's Tom Gray. Another special moment is "Brown's Ferry Blues," originally done by the Delmore Brothers but given a ragtime spryness by Piedmont bluesman John Jackson. Muldaur redoes the Stanley Brothers' "The Memory of Your Smile" as if it were a Bessie Smith tune; Grisman and Seeger provide the bluesy picking behind her. All 23 tracks--mostly recorded in '93-'94 but some as old as 1980--prove not just the continuing vitality of traditional acoustic music but its tremendous diversity as well. --Geoffrey Himes
"If you are a fan of the late Mike Seeger, and/or old time music, I highly recommend this CD. It really does feel as if he is in your living room playing with his friends and family. And what's not to like about the cut with Bob Dylan singing "The Ballad of Hollis Brown"?"