Art of Field Recording, Vol. 1 [4 CD Box]

Performer: Various Artists
Distributor: Forced Exposure Dist.

Notes: As much an audio syllabus for an American cultural anthropology course as a collection of songs, the Dust-to-Digital label's mammoth 5-CD box set ART OF FIELD RECORDING, compiled by artist and collector Art Rosenbaum, may prove daunting to even the most insatiable roots-music fans. Thankfully, the label also issued a 17-track primer that highlights key performances from the box set and chronicles more than 50 years in the unfettered realms of America's musical heritage--hollers, yodels, gut-bucket blues, Sacred Harp, steel guitar, and all points in between. Although he's not exclusively a folklorist or musicologist by profession, Art Rosenbaum has been making field recordings since his teenage years. The four-CD, 110-track box set Art of Field Recording, Vol. 1, as big as it is, has just a portion of the folk music he's documented between 1956 and 2007. It's divided into four separate thematic discs, one a "survey" or sampling of the breadth of what he's recorded; one devoted to religious songs; one for blues; and one comprised of instrumental and dance tunes. If nothing else, the sheer size and variety of this anthology is impressive; if it doesn't include every last strain of American folk music, it certainly covers more of them than almost any comparable collection. There's country blues, gospel, fiddle music, fife and drum, a cappella vocal, Mexican corrido, and pieces on which the primary or sole accompaniment is pump organ or mouth bow. The Gospel Supremes' "Do, Lord, Remember Me" verges on classic-style soul music, yet many other performances, if not exactly amateur, are certainly casual snapshots of common folk playing music for their own edification rather than out of any professional ambition. A few names here and there will be familiar to the folk or blues specialist, like Scrapper Blackwell, Yank Rachell, and Buell Kazee. But mostly these are performers working wholly outside of the commercial music business, even including an a cappella vocal of a children's ballad by Rosenbaum's father (which Art Rosenbaum rightly acknowledges might not be to everyone's taste in his liner notes). As wide-ranging as it is, and as decent (for the most part) as the sound quality is, how does it stack up against some similarly ambitious folk collections from the decades preceding this 2007 release? To be truthful, it's not as compelling or exotic as the anthologies overseen by the likes of Alan Lomax and Harry Smith, who had the good fortune to be able to collate much of the earliest such folk music recorded in the U.S. The styles contained in this box have now been documented by many releases -- not just Lomax's and Smith's -- and the plaintive homespun nature of many of these performances will be of more academic interest than entertainment value to many listeners, even some folk enthusiasts. Taken as a whole (which does admittedly take about five hours), however, it does impress with its mosaic of American folk forms, as well as present those forms as more of a living, breathing presence than those mustier if mightier field recordings of greater vintage. It's also enhanced by the 96-page booklet, in which Rosenbaum's unpretentiously informative liner notes are complemented by numerous photos and drawings. ~ Richie Unterberger

The Wire (p.56) - "[A] rich, incredible blend of sounds and visions....In terms of sonics, spirit and construction, this music exists almost outside the framework of time altogether."

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