Rating: **** (4 stars)
Title: Folkways: A Vision Shared - A Tribute To Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly
Company: Columbia
Catalog: C-44034-1
Year: 1988
Grade (cover/record): VG+/VG+
Comments: gatefold sleeve; original inner sleeve
Available: 1
GEMM catalog ID: 4128
Price: $12.00
Cost: $1.00
To be honest, while admirable, Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly's work has seldom struck a chord with us - Woody's voice is certainly an acquired taste and their collective catalogs are simply too raw for our tastes.
Well, based on this poorly titled anthology, we may have been wrong in our initial judgement.
1988's Grammy winning "Folkways: A Vision Shared - A Tribute To Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly" found executive producers Don DeVito and Joe McEwan pulling together what may be the year's most impressive collection of all-stars. With profits from the album going to the Smithsonian Institution and their efforts to purchase original recordings and other historical musical items, it's pretty easy to see why these name acts were more than willing to participate in the project. Moreover, anyone familiar with their individual catalogs can see that they owe a creative debt to Guthrie and Leadbelly (okay, maybe not Fishbone). That makes some of the artistic failures almost as interesting as the successes. Among those failures, U2's over-the-top "Jesus Christ" and Willie Nelson's cumbersome "Philadelphia Lawyer". So what are the highlights? The two Sweet Honey In the Rock efforts, Dylan's authentic "Pretty Boy Floyd", Brian Wilson's slightly bizarre "Goodnight Irene" and Little Richard (backed by Fishbone) tear-it-up cover of "Rock Island Line".
"Folkways: A Vision Shared - A Tribute To Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly" track listing:
(side 1)
1.) Sylvie (Sweet Honey In the Rock)
2.) Pretty Boy Floyd (Bob Dylan)
3.) Do Re Ne (John Mellenamp)
4.) I Ain't Got No Home (Bruce Springsteen)
5.) Jesus Christ (U2)
6.) Rock Island Line (Little Richard w/ Fishbone)
7.) East Texas Red (Arlo Guthrie)
(side 2)
1.) Philadelphia Lawyer (Willie Nelson)
2.) Hobo's Lullabye (Emmylou Harris)
3.) The Bourgeois Blues (Taj Mahal)
4.) Gray Goose (Sweet Honey In the Rock)
5.) Goodnight Irene (Brian Wilson)
6.) Vigilante Man (Bruce Springsteen)
7.) This Land Is Your Land (Pete Seeger w/ Sweet Honey In the Rock. Doc Watson and the Little Red School House Chorus)