Bonny North Tyne: Northumbrian Country Music (1974)

Topic 12TS239

Topic Records made many great "World Music" LPs back when the genre consisted of mostly ethnographic field recordings. I always pick up any LP I see on the Topic label (as well as other great "world music" labels, such as Original Music or the LPs in the Nonesuch Explorer Series).

This was a thrift store find (99¢), in beautiful shape, except for the red tape along the top of the cover. It sounds near new. It is not on CD.

From the LP:
"John Armstrong: fiddle, Billy Atkinson: mouth organ, Billy Conroy: whistle, George Hepple: fiddle, Joe Hutton: small-pipes, Donald Ridley: accordeon, Recorded and produced by Tony Wilson and Tony Eagle"

John Armstrong & Joe Hutton: The Rowan Tree/Jock Of Hazeldean

Additional tracks, by request:

Billy Conroy: Green Castle/Spot On/Corn Rigs

Billy Conroy: Jenny Bell Polka

Billy Conroy: Napoleon's Grand March/Untitled March

Billy Conroy: Liverpool Hornpipe/Steamboat Hornpipe

John Armstrong & Joe Hutton: Sir Sidney Smith's March

From the LP: "The Billy Conroy tracks were taken from tape recordings originally made by Pete Knowles for the North-East Folk Federation"

Eric Schoenberg: Steel Strings (1982)

Rounder Records 3041

Eric Schoenberg is a fingerstyle guitarist and an innovator in ragtime guitar playing. He went on to found Schoenberg Guitars, a maker of very well-regarded acoustic guitars.

Two songs from Steel Strings, "Sidh Beag Agus Sidh Mor" and "All In Good Time" appear on the CD Rounder Guitar: A Collection of Acoustic Guitar. Otherwise, his solo albums are not on CD.

I picked this LP up at a garage sale in Brooklyn along with another Schoenberg LP, "Acoustic Guitar." I paid two or three dollars for it. It is in good condition, though with an audible scratch through half of "Sunflower Slow Drag."

From the LP: "All tunes arranged for finger-style guitar by Eric Schoenberg."

Talk About Suffering

Sunflower Slow Drag

More Eric Schoenberg here.