Jean Ritchie Discography
Field Trip
Jean Ritchie
A re-issue of Jean’s 1954 field recordings from England, Ireland
and Scotland, compared side by side with versions of Jean's Apalachian
family songs.
Here’s
Jean’s preface to the new edition:
“A note about this re-issue: And here we are – almost fifty
years since putting out this first recording from our Fulbright year collection.
What a short time ago it seems – and what a hard job it was to get
a record out in the early ‘50’s,
especially as we had no money and did all the considerable leg work ourselves!
But what impresses most is how well these songs wear. Recorded just before
the last ‘folk revival,’ they were sung in a very relaxed way – just
as people sing around the house for their own enjoyment, and they’re
as fresh and vibrant now, fifty years later, as they were when we first
heard them. Something like this should not be put on a shelf and forgotten.”
Childhood Songs
Jean Ritchie
Previously available on cassette only, this collection of songs from Jean’s
childhood, and songs she sang to her children is now available on CD. The
booklet contains directions for the singing CD
Exultation of Dulcimers
Lorraine Lee Hammond and Roger
Nicholson with Jean Ritchie
(Newly re-released on CD)
On both sides of the Atlantic the dulcimer revival has produced many fine
players and makers, and the instrument has earned new status after years
of neglect. This revival began in the 1950s and was mainly due to
Jean Ritchie, who brought the dulcimer to new audiences and encouraged
people to play it.
Of the “second generation,” Lorraine Lee Hammond and Roger Nicholson
have also been widely influential. Lorraine, from Massachusetts, bases
her style on traditional playing, but by adapting mandolin picking techniques,
has created a fluid duclimer method of great versatility, particularly
suited to accompanying other instruments, including the piano and banjo
of Rick Lee. The dulcimer is not indigenous to England, or widely played
there, which is reflected Roger’s personal fingerstyle approach with
influences from other sources, such as the lute, harpsichord and pipes,
resulting in a complex solo style.
Together, Lorraine and Roger’s playing blend to produce a new and
exultant dulcimer sound over a wide range of music. It is also happily
appropriate that they are joined here by Jean Ritchie.
PS If you enjoy
this record half as much as they enjoyed making it, then they’ll
have enjoyed it twice as much as you …
1. La Volta (2:55) 2. How Should I My True Love Know (2:08) 3.
Blarney Pilgrim (1:40) 4. Limerick’s Lament/ Killiecranky (3:35) 5.
Star of the County Down/ My Dearest Dear (3:36) 6. Bonaparte’s
Retreat (2:14)7. Rondo from First Symphonic Suite (1:09)8. Carolan’s
Concerto (3:02) 9.
Black Sarah (3:49) 10. The Bellringing (2:30) 11. One, I Love
(3:03) 12. Elizabethan Medley (2:10) 13. Monck’s March Medley
(2:49)
Mountain Born
Jean Ritchie & Sons
Celebrating 50 Years of Music
1995 was Jean Ritchie’s fiftieth year as a performer of her family’s
Appalachian traditional music. Jean is joined by her sons Jon and
Peter on Mountain Born, to celebrate these fifty years. The title song
is also the title of the recent PBS documentary of Jean's life.
Jean says of this
recording, “The title song, Mountain Born, just about sums up
how I feel about my Kentucky hills, my kith and kin — my home. The song
is my own, composed for the stage version of the book Hillbilly Women,
which was performed at the Actor’s Studio in New York City, directed by
Arthur Penn. I began
to sing it in my recitals, and for friends, and it has become a sort of underground
favorite. So here it is, to let all those folks know that it has at last
been recorded. Also included here is my song for my mother, Abigail, recorded
for the first time. Others were chosen because their originally recorded
versions are no longer available; for instance, May Day Day, and, My Dear
Companion.
“Like most of my forty or so albums, Mountain Born follows the ‘slice-of-life’ idea.
Some love songs, a child’s song, a hymn, a play-party, honor songs
for home, for family. A collection of songs to celebrate, again, a way of
life, a loved place in the world, and pass on the memories gathered by all
the people there.”
Tracks: Mountain Born / Loving Hannah / Love Somebody, Yes I Do! / The
Cuckoo / You Are My Dearest Dear / Barley-Bright / Abigail / Deep Shady
Grove / When Sorrows Encompass Me Round / Come All You Fair and Tender
Ladies / May Day Day / My Dear Companion / Come Let Us Sing / One More
Mile / Our Meeting Is Over
Kentucky Christmas Old and New
Jean Ritchie, Family
and Friends
This is Jean Ritchie’s classic Christmas album, now available in
CD and cassette.
Here is an excerpt from the liner notes in which explains
the roots of the work:
“Being the youngest, my Christmas memories are of our home in Viper,
Perry County, Kentucky, but May, Ollie, Mallie, Una, Raymond, Kitty, Truman,
Patty, and Edna remembered the earlier years in Knott County. May, our oldest
sister, now gone on, recollected being five years old, setting out with mom
into a big twilight snowstorm on Christmas Eve to hunt for something exciting
and different — a Christmas tree. This was the year 1900, and this
tree was the first anyone in those parts had ever seen. Granny Katty, dad’s
mother, was still quietly observing ‘Old Christmas’ on the 6th
of January, making light of our December 25th celebration as ‘new-fangled.’ Now
the years have passed and our children are grown, and their children are
growing, and changing, and Christmas celebrations are growing and changing
along with them.
“On this album, you will hear some songs from the old times, and some from
our recent times with our new friends. There are old songs, recorded without
instrumental accompaniment or with their original flavor, there are other
old songs modified to reflect the changing family and the passing seasons;
there are newly composed carols — one written this very year.”
Tracks: Brightest and Best / The World is Old / Christ Was Born in Bethlehem
/ A King Was Born / The Holly Tree Carol / Wintergrace / I Saw Three Ships
/ The Moon Shines Bright / Little Bitty Baby / Carol ot the Cherry Tree
/ In the Valley / A Christmas Carol / Christ Church Bells
None But One / High Hills and Mountains
Jean Ritchie with special guest artists Janis Ian,
Mary Travers, Oscar Brand, Eric Weissberg and Kenny Kosek
Two complete albums on one CD
None But One
This recording caused quite a stir when it was originally
released on a major label. Unanimously excellent reviews cropped
up in national and international magazines as well as in the obscure folk
journal and newsletters. It even prompted Rolling Sone to present
Jean with its prestigious Critic’s Circle Award as Folk Artist of the Year. The
important reissue of this classic LP should be welcome to those who missed
it the first time around and to those fans who report that hey have nearly
worn out their orginal copies.
Tracks: Fair Nottamun Town / Too Many Shadows / Black Waters / None But
One / The Orphan's Lament / Flowers of Joy / See That Rainbow Shine / The
Riddle Song / Sweet Sorrow in the Wind / Wondrous Love / Now is the Cool
of the Day
High Hills and Mountains
As artist in residence at California State University
at Fresno, Jean became friends with Kenny Hall and the Bluestien Family,
as well as other musicians in the area and they naturally began to make
music together. Enhanced by the old timey stringband playing
of the “Fresno Friends” the resulting recording provides an
exuberant sampling of some of the best of Jean’s music.
Thousand Mile Blues / Sugar on the Floor / The Cuckoo / With Kitty I’ll
Go / Little Pack O’ Tailors / The L&N Don’t Stop Here Anymore
/ High Hills and Mountains / The Royal Telephone / Old George’s Square
/ Old Daddy Grumble / Here Sits a Young Lady / Jemmy Taylor-O / Let the
Sun Shine Down On Me
The Most Dulcimer
Jean Ritchie with special guest artists John McCutcheon, Mike Seeger, Diane
Hamilton, Jon and Peter Pickow
The songs on this recording are drawn from a variety of traditions — Irish,
Scottish, and Appalachian, plus a few of Jean’s originals — and showcase
solo and duo dulcimer in combination with guitar, banjo, mandolin, harpsichord,
recorders, jaw harp, hammered dulcimer, synthesizer, and handbell choir.
Long-time fans of and first-time listeners alike often ask Jean Ritchie,
“Which of your albums has the most dulcimer?” After years of
having no ready answer to this question, Jean decided to put together this
collection of songs and tunes featuring the Appalachian dulcimer.
Tracks: Over the River to Feed My Sheep / Pretty Saro / Edward / Killiekrankie
/ The Haven of Rest / Wintergrace / Locks and Bolts / Mourning Tears /
Movin’ on Down the River / Dabbling in the Dew / Jubilee / Four Marys /
Aunt Rhodie R.I.P. / The Parson's Farewell / Come You Home Again* / The
Soldier*
*New on the CD version
Jean Ritchie and Doc Watson at Folk City
This
historic Smithsonian/Folkways CD re-release documents a live 1963 performance
by Jean and Doc at the legendary Folk City in Greenwich Village. The CD features
four tracks that were not released on the original Folkways edition, presumably
because of the space limitations of the LP format.
Here is an excerpt from
the article Jean and Doc at Folk City: A Backwards Glance 27 Years Later
by Joe Wilson, which accompanies the original liner notes.
“It could
only have happened in real life, this mixing of two Appalachian family
musical traditions on the stage of a hip Greenwich Village nightclub before
an audience of fad-following New Yorkers. Nothing that improbable is allowed
in fiction.”
Tracks: Storms are on the Ocean, Go Dig My Grave, Spikedriver Blues, Over
the River Charlie *, Soldier’s Joy, Swing and Turn Jubilee, East
Virginia *, Hiram Hubbard, Where Are You Going, Blue Ridge Mountain Blues*,
Pretty Polly, Willie Moore, What’ll I Do With the Baby-o?, Pretty
Saro *, Wabash Cannonball, the House Carpenter, Amazing Grace
*Previously
unreleased
Child Ballads in America
Sung by Jean Ritchie
These collections were originally released in 1961 by Folkways Records,
and have now been re-issued by Smithsonian/Folkways. They contain American
versions of ballads contained in a collection compiled between 1882 and
1898, titled The English and Scottish Popular Ballads by Francis James
Child. Each volume contains extensive notes on the song origins, and introductory
notes by Jean Ritchie and Kenneth S. Goldstein.
Tracks: Volume One:
Gypsy Laddie, False Sir John, Hangman, Lord Bateman,
The House Carpenter, Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender, The Merry Golden Tree,
Lord Lovel, Old Bangum, Barbry Ellen, Fair Annie of Lochroyan Volume Two:
The Unquiet Grave, Little Devils, Sweet William and Lady Margaret, There
Lived an Old Lord, The Wife of the Usher’s Well,
Cherry tree Carol, Edward, Gentle Fair Jenny, Lord Randall, Little
Musgrave
Carols for All Season
Jean Ritchie, LaNoue Davenport,
Robert Abramson
This digitally re-mastered CD re-issue of Jean’s early Tradition
Records LP is a beautiful collection of carols from the singing tradition
of the Ritchie family, and other sources. In addition to Jean’s dulcimer,
LaNoue Davenport and Robert Abramson provide tasteful recorder and harpsichord
accompaniments. The collection features carols appropriate to the different
seasons of the year.
Tracks: The Carnal and the Crane, I Saw Three Ships, Dame Get Up and Bake
Your Pies, Children Go Where I Send Thee, Down in Yon Forest, Brightest
and Best, Cherry Tree of the Cumberlands, The Pig Went Out to Dig, Christ
Church Bells, The Flower Carol, The May Day Carol, The Cambridgeshire May
Song, The Holy Well, The Little Family, Christ Was Born in Bethlehem, The
Holly Bears the Berry, Wassail Song