Hard Times Come Again No More

By Paul Rootsical

 


Hard Times Come Again No More 

UK-American folk music session. Leads with some amazing tracks by folk-rock legends The Oysterband and songs from the Bob Pegg's The Last Wolf. Again we borrow heavily from various Aly Bain Transatlantic Session recordings. Cover pic shot right here in Mahasarakham, Thailand.

 


 

 Bob Pegg's The Last Wolf (1996) is an acoustic album that covers a number of topics and styles, including the rather odd Man from Luddenden Dene, a traditional Calderdale ditty (I know Luddenden well as I used to walk the dog while waiting for my MOTs up there haha). He teams up with the late Chris Coe for a 'hard times' local lament. Richard & Linda Thompson cover by Allison Krauss. Superb band version of Both Sides of the Tweed by Dick Gaughan. Multi-instrumentalist Paul Brady (formerly of The Johnsons) stuns on Arther McBride while Iris DeMent absolutely soars on Wings of a Dove.

SPOTLIGHT ON PALESTINE 

Images of ethnic cleaning & displacement from disparate times & places; from the 19th century highland clearances in Scotland to Gaza right now. In both instances Big Money is seen to trample over people & human rights. Short musical spotlight midway highlights the dreadful genocide & forced mass-starvation in Gaza led by the powerful 1987 Joan Baez song, Lebanon. Here she laments the insane state of constant war that Isreal's neighbours must live under and the lives wasted. Although its a 40 year old song, its just as relevant today. Strangly the song was omitted from her current LP of the time (Recently 1987). This surely wasn't down to musical reasons as its a strong recording; the music publisher must have come under pressure to keep it off the record (think Michael Jackson a couple of years later). Ricky Skaggs, Rosanne Cash, Anna McGirrigle & Gillian Welch bemoan the fate of orphans while praying for better days. Edward II were a great but underrated folk/reggae festival band 1980s/90s. Here their instrumental Blue Blue Morning blends beautifully with Hard Times. Blue sky hungry mornings in Gaza. Show of Hands complete the selection with another cut of the excellent Exile.

 

Hard Times Come Again No More 


Continuous mix 90 minutes

Download via the streaming link above

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