Recordings
Mailing list
Finest Kind
Finest Kind Tech Sheet
Ian Robb
Jiig
Friends of F.G.
Old Sod Band | |
Customers can now order with a
major credit card, using the PayPal Shopping Cart interface. Click on the button beside each item you wish to purchase. You can also view your Shopping
Cart at any time by clicking on one of the 
buttons. Once you are satisfied with your order, click on the Shopping Cart
Check-out button to enter payment details. The
check-out procedure no longer requires you to open a PayPal account, but
after your payment details have been entered you will be given the option of
opening an account to make future transactions simpler.
If you prefer not to use a credit card,
just check the prices below and order by email
or fax (613-722-6887). Be sure to include your shipping/mailing address,
including postal code. Then mail a cheque to Fallen Angle Music, 285 Spencer
Street, Ottawa, ON K1Y 2R1 Canada. Your order will be shipped as soon as your
cheque arrives.
All prices
are in US$
CDs: $15.50
Cassettes: $9
Add shipping
and handling as follows:
Order value up to $15.50: $5
Up to $35: $8.50
Up to $46.50: $9
Up to $62: $12
Over $62: $15
Orders will
generally be shipped by Light Packet or Small Packet mail and should arrive within 3
weeks. Please notify Fallen Angle,
not PayPal, if your order does not arrive.
Home
from Home
Tim Radford
with Guests:
Ian Robb, Finest Kind,
James Stephens, Chris Leslie, John Roberts, Jeff McClintock and Brian
Sanderson.
FAM08
Released in May 2005
Biography & info
|
CD: US$15.50
|
|
Tim Radford, an English singer now living on Cape Cod, has recorded again after a period of near thirty
years, his singing inactivity being due to decades of concentration on Morris dancing in the villages of Adderbury and
Kirtlington, Oxfordshire.
Now back to his first love, this recording contains songs old and new with 10 accompanied and 7 unaccompanied tracks. It includes a range of material from chorus songs to ballads, mainly traditional material but with a scattering of composed songs, some written by old friends.
There is a strong commitment to songs collected in the south of England, particularly from Hampshire and Dorset, a part of the country where Tim was born and raised.
The seventeen
tracks on the recording are: |
|
° Come, Come my Friends
° John Barleycorn
° The Bird in the Bush
° Fair Maid of Australia
° Winter Man (Chris Leslie)
° New Year (Jehanne Mehta)
° The Month of January
° Cupid's Garden
° The Brokendown Gentleman
|
°
Love in June
°
Lymington Round & Round (Rick
Keeling)
° The Spotted Cow
° Washing Day
° George Collins
° The Rolling of The Stones
° Here is My Home (Si Kahn)
|
Jiig
2005
Canadian Folk Music Award
Awarded Best Singer - Traditional
Nominated for Best Album - Traditional
Ian Robb
with
James Stephens, Ian Clark and Greg T. Brown
FAM06
Release in Feb 2005
Biography
|
Listen
to a sample
(mp3: 2.9Mb)
CD: US$15.50
|
| Ian
Robb teams up with three great players in James Stephens, Ian Clark and Greg T.
Brown for a wonderfully varied selection of old and new songs and tunes. A
long-awaited follow-up to his 1994 recording From Different Angels, Jiig
again offers everything from great solo ballad singing to jigs reels and
waltzes. Guest appearences from Grit Laskin, Ben Grossman, Philip Murphy
and Finest Kind's Ann Downey and Shelley Posen. |
|
The thirteen tracks on the recording are:
|
|
° Chicken on a Raft
° Missing the F in C, Shindigo Jig, The End of
Winter.
° The Oggie Man
° I Should Like to be a Policeman
° The Rambling Sailor
° Fen’s Bedtime, The Conundrum
|
° The Rose in June
° The Female Rambling Sailor
° The Gallant Frigate Amphitrite
° Angeline the Baker, Abe’s Retreat
° Sweet Thames Flow Softly
° The Bonny Black Hare
° The Rose of Allandale, Swannanoa
|
Feasts & Spirits
Finest Kind
with
John D. Huston
as Charles Dickens
FAM07
Released in Nov, 2004
Finest Kind Biography
|
CD: US$15.50
|
| The
rich and sparkling vocal harmonies of Finest Kind are a natural setting for
Christmas carols and wassails. Add some classic excerpts from Charles
Dickens's A Christmas Carol, masterfully delivered by Mr.
Dickens himself, and you have all the ingredients of a spirit-raising feast
for the ears. Canadian actor John D. Huston is known for his acclaimed one
man show Charles Dickens Reads A Christmas Carol. |
|
The eighteen tracks on the recording are:
|
|
°
Shepherds
Arise
° A Tight-Fisted
Hand at the Grindstone
° Horsham Tipteerers'
Song
° The Face in the
Knocker
° Gower Wassail
° Party at
Fezziwig's
° The Holly and the Ivy
° The Cratchit's Christmas Dinner
° While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night
|
°
The Two
Children–Ignorance and Want
° The Homeless
Wassail
°
Grieving for Tiny Tim
° The Cradle Carol
° Christmas Morning
° O Little Town of
Bethlehem
° The End of It
° Please to See the
King
° Oh Beautiful Star of Bethlehem
|
Silks
& Spices
Finest Kind
FAM05
Released in Aug, 2003
Finest Kind Biography
|
CD: US$15.50
|
|
"I simply recommend
every track on this joyous album"
Roy Harris; The Living Tradition
The long-awaited third CD from
Finest Kind. In the trio's own words:
Finest
Kind’s repertoire has so many sources, our musical closet so many
skeletons, and our performances so many opposing elements, there’s no
neat summing us up. “Folk music” serves as a point of departure, but
in our case obscures as much as it explains.
The best we’ve come up with is a slogan, “Old Songs in Close
Harmony.” But it too only partially covers the ground. Take the word
“old:” on Silks & Spices
there’s blackletter-broadside old, Napoleonic-days-of-sail old,
Victorian-Christmas and golden-age-of-country-music old,
Ottawa-Valley-logging and early-American-sheet-music old, antiwar-protest,
civil-rights, and bellbottom-pants old—plus one song with a tune as old
as Canada but words written 136 years later.
As for “close harmony,” well, we’re often told that Finest Kind
sounds like no one else, but in our arrangements we hear the harmonic
strains of the Copper Family and Young Tradition, barbershop quartet and
Sacred Harp, doo wop and country brother duos, and many more. How can we
bundle that up in a nice neat phrase?
So
we decided Silks & Spices
was an apt title for this CD. Finest Kind is not one thing or another, but
some of each and every. Once you hear us, you understand what we do.
Produced
by James Stephens, who also adds his instrumental magic to the CD.
|
|
The
fifteen songs on the recording are:
|
|
°
Bright Shining
Morning
°
Fair Maid
Walking
°
At the End of a
Long Lonely Day
°
The Ten Dollar
Bill
°
The Maple Leaf
Forever
°As
I Roved Out
°Jack
the Jolly Tar
|
°
Shepherd of the
Downs
°John
Barleycorn
°
Sweet
Forget-Me-Not
°
Shepherds
Arise
°
Blackest Crow
° The
Painful Plough
°
The Times They
Are a-Changin'
°
Will You Still
Love Me Tomorrow?
|
|
Grass
Roots
The Old Sod Band
FAM04
Released in Nov, 2001
Old Sod Band Biography
|
CD: US$15.50
|
|
"An absolutely brilliant recording."
Dirty Linen
'Grass Roots' is the first release by 'The Old Sod Band' and includes some
familiar faces from 'Finest Kind'. Based on a strong melody line delivered
by Ian Robb (concertina) and Dan Schryer (fiddle), the group has been playing
for Contra-Dances for 13 years. This recording covers a range of musical
roots from Quebec to Ireland, the U.S. and Scotland. Although primarily traditional, the recording features some
favorite original jigs, reels and waltzes from around the globe. Solid accompaniment by Ann
Downey (bass, banjo, percussion), Ian Clark (guitar), Philip Murphy
(guitar, mandolin) and Tim Cutts (mandolin, mandola, tenor banjo, nyckelharpa) gives each tune a
unique flavour and drive. A note for dancers- some sets are long enough to
be used at your bandless dances! Guest appearances include Denis
Lanctot, Don Kavanagh, Raj Mudhar and James Stephens. Produced by James Stephens.
|
|
The Tunes:
|
Julia Delaney/Tam Lin/The Banshee
Miss Sarah McFadyen/Princess Nancy/Hills of Sharon
Far Away/Old Madera
Vingt Quatre Juin/Reel de Fauberg/Pointe au Pic
Margaret Brown's Favourite/Ben Keily's Delight/Pay the Reckoning
Johsefins Dopvals
Trip to Durrow/Paddy Ryan's Dream/Sheila Coyles
Sonny Brogan's/Brian O'Lynn/Blue Jay
Over Land and Sea/Reel Beatrice |
|
Lost in a Song
Finest Kind
FAM02
Released in 1996
Finest Kind Biography
|
Listen
to a sample
(mp3: 3.4Mb)
|
|
Finest Kind's debut CD and cassette release from Ian
Robb, Shelley Posen and Ann Downey. Lost in a Song is
a collection of old and new songs from Britain, Canada and the US, all
delivered with Finest Kind's trademark hair-raising vocal harmonies.
The songs are about half-and-half acapella and accompanied, and the latter
feature some very tasteful fiddle and mandolin back-up from producer James
Stephens, in addition to the trio's own guitar, bass, banjo and concertina.
|
|
The seventeen songs on the recording are:
|
|
° The Banks of Sweet Primroses
° Give me Just a Little More Time
° The Miner's Dream of Home
° Blue Mountain
° The Sussex Drinking Song
° The Night Pat Murphy Died
° The Storms May Roll the Ocean
° Goodnight-Loving Trail
° Only Remembered
|
° Fa-Sol-La
° Going to the West
° A Handful of Maple Leaves
° Gower Wassail
° What Was I Supposed to Do
° I Heard the Bluebird Sing
° The Faded Roses of December
° A Pilgrim's Way
|
|
From Different
Angels
Ian Robb
FAM01
Released In 1994
Biography
|
|
|
With: Finest Kind, The Old Sod Band, Friends of Fiddlers
Green, Garnet Rogers, Chris Whiteley. Produced by Ken Whiteley.
Grand vocal harmonies from
Finest Kind and fine musicianship. A tribute to the late Peter Bellamy,
Ewan MacColl and Stan Rogers.
|
|
The sixteen songs on the recording are:
|
|
° The Santa Fe Trail
° Farmer's Boy
° The Moving Cloud / Miss Thornton /
Skepper Schotish
° The Big Hewer
° Make and Break Harbour
° Ye Mariners All
° Garnet's Home-Made Beer
° The Last Minute Waltz /
Midnight on the Water
|
° A-Roving on a Winter-s Night
° Green Groves
° Charlie Hunter / McGuire's / Cape Breton Dream
° The Lag's Song
° D-Day Dodgers
° They're Taking it Away
° Cattle in the Cane / Vladimir's Steamboat
° The Mary Ellen Carter
|
|
This Side of the Ocean
The Friends
of Fiddler's Green
FOFG 3
Re-released In 1997
(with additional live tracks)
FOFG Biography
|
CD: US$15.50
|
|
CD re-release of the Friends' first vinyl album, produced by Ken Whiteley.
Enriched with a bunch of live tracks recorded in the intervening years. Great
songs, tunes and stories, from a band which refuses to take itself seriously.
Vintage FOFG, matured (huh?) in the barrel, challenging to the palate, a big
nose and nice legs. Has been known to make grown men cry.
|
|
The twenty songs on the recording are:
|
|
° Oats and Beans
° Polkas: Salmon Tails Up the Water / Harper's Frolic
° Kelty Clippie
° Down in the Coalmine
° The Golden Vanity
° Come Me Little Son
° The Shetland Fiddler / High Road to Linton
° The Oily Rig
° Hornpipes: The Black Swan /
The High Level Bridge
° The Works Outing
|
° Torn A' Ma Goon / Captain Ross
° Kiss Me Goodnight, Sargeant-Major /
Bless 'Em All
° The Hole in the Wall / Once I Loved a Maiden Fair
° The Hell-For-Leather Polkas
° Freedom Come All Yes
° Over the Gate
° Arky's Toast
° Malpas Wassail
° Miss McLeod of Raasay /
The Mason's Apron
° The Dogs
|
|
Rose & Crown
Now
re-released on CD!
Ian Robb
Folk Legacy C-106
Released In 1985
Biography
|
Cassette & CD: Please order directly from Folk
Legacy.
|
|
A collection of songs and tunes featuring some of Ian's own songs, most notably his anthem to the English pub, "The Old Rose and Crown", which has been sung
wherever there are pubs, around the world. Aided and abetted by the fine
musicianship and singing of Ian Bell, Anne Lederman, Grit Laskin, Alistair
Brown and Shelley Posen.
|
|
The ten songs on the recording are:
|
|
° The Jolly Grinder
° Aftermath
° Diana
° The Trees They Do Grow High
° Song for the New Year
|
° The Old Rose & Crown
° The Iron Lady
° The Female Rambling Sailor
° Sherborne Waltz /
Sweet Forget-me-Not /
Gaspe
° Singer's Farewell
|
|
The Barley Grain
For Me
Margaret Christl
& Ian Robb
Folk Legacy CD-62
CD only
Originally released In 1976
Re-released in 1998
Ian Robb Biography
|
CD: US$15.50
|
|
Re-release on CD of Ian and Margaret's 1976 album on Folk Legacy.
Traditional songs, many of them of British and Irish origin, collected in Eastern and
Central Canada by Helen Creighton, Edith Fowke, MacEdward Leach, Kenneth
Peacock and others. Great accompaniment and vocal back-up by Grit Laskin. This
re-release is dedicated to the memory of Ontario song collector, writer and
scholar, Edith Fowke.
|
|
The fourteen songs on the recording are:
|
|
° Campbell, the Drover
° Hard Times
° Save Your Money While
You're Young
° The Crockery Ware
° Oh, No, Not I
° Green Bushes
° The Barley Grain For Me
|
° Jack, The Cow Boy
° The Weaver
° The Foggy Dew
° Willie Drowned in Ero
° The Banks of Newfoundland
° The Ten Dollar Bill
° By the Hush
|
|
Ian Robb
& Hang The Piper
Folk Legacy C-71
Cassette only
Released In 1979
Ian Robb Biography
|
Cassette: Please
order directly from Folk Legacy.
|
|
Cassette re-release of Ian's 1979 album for Folk Legacy. A blend of Ian's
mostly English songs with mostly Irish instrumentals. Ian, Grit Laskin, John Goodman
and Terry Rudden are joined by Sligo fiddler extraordinaire Seamus McGuire for some
great tune sets.
|
|
The thirteen songs on the recording are:
|
|
° Warlike Seamen
° Cherish the Ladies
° The Handloom Weaver's Lament
° O'Connell's Lamentation
° Jim Jones
° Old Hag, You Have Killed Me /
I Buried My Wife and
Danced on Her Grave /
Coppers and Brass / Tom Billy's
|
° The Banks of Red Roses
° The Little Stack of Wheat
° The Black Swan
° Clear Away the Morning Dew
° The Crab in the Skillet /
Travers Reel
° Champion at Driving 'em Crazy
° Two Mazurkas
° Rolling Down to Old Maui
|
Sources for Other Related Recordings
|
Locating other recordings by performers who appear on the Fallen Angel label
|
|
|
|
By Alistair Brown:
|
alistair@alistairbrown.com
TEL: 519-673-0334
Alistair is also a good source for Castagnari accordions
at discount prices.
Contact him for a price list.
|
|
|
|
By Grit Laskin:
|
grit@interlog.com
|
|
By David Parry:
|
Contact Caroline Parry
carolinebp@sympatico.ca
|
|
|
Other Canadian Sources for Ontario and Québec Recordings:
|
|
|
Ground Floor
Music
|
Excellent Ontario based source for a wide variety of
folk music.
|
|
|
|
Thirty Below
|
Great collection of Québec traditional music
|
|
|
|
Camsco Music
|
An excellent source for hard-to-find
recordings of British, Irish,
Canadian and U.S. traditional music: |
|
