Stephen Foster - Beautiful Dreamer - The Songs of Stephen Foster
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Stephen FosterEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
CD Release Date: 2004-08-24
Music Label: Emergent
Soundtracks:
- Beautiful Dreamer-Raul Malo
- Slumber My Darling-Yo Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer and Mark O'Connor featuring Alison Krauss
- Don't Bet Money on the Shanghai-BR5-49
- Nelly Was A Lady-Alvin Youngblood Hart
- No One To Love-Judith Edelman
- Camptown Races-The Duhks
- My Old Kentucky Home-John Prine
- Autumn Waltz-Henry Kaiser
- In The Eye Abides The Heart-Beth Nielsen Chapman
- Old Folks at Home (Swanee River)-David Ball
- Oh! Susanna-Michelle Shocked & Pete Anderson
- Willie We Have Missed You-Grey DeLisle
- Hard Times Come Again No More-Mavis Staples
- Gentle Annie-Ollabelle
- Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair-Roger McGuinn
- Ah, May The Red Rose Live Always!-Suzy Bogguss
- Holiday Scottisch-Will Barrow
- Comrades Fill No Glass For Me-Ron Sexsmith
Free Music Notes for Beautiful Dreamer - The Songs of Stephen Foster
Free Music Review: Excellent Tribute Album
Hit: 5 Stars
Some very talented musical friends have gotten together and produced a wonderful album entitled "Beautiful Dreamer" as a tribute to the great American songwriter, Stephen Collins Foster. At sixty-two minutes and eighteen excellent tracks, it will only be possible to highlight a few of the songs.
On the title track, Raul Malo's vocals on "Beautiful Dreamer" are broad and full and gorgeous. It's like being a passenger in a car and having so much confidence in the driver that you can close your eyes and completely relax.
Not being familiar with the song, "Don't Bet Your Money on the Shanghai", I was not overly-optimistic about liking it, but that was the track on this album that I played back more than any other. The curious melody and comedic lyrics in BR-549's offering display Foster's finely-tuned sense of humor.
The Duhk's version of "Camptown Races" is like seeing the original bright colors of an ancient fresco, brilliant and vibrant, which might have lain long-hidden under layers of accretion. When I heard this track I thought, "This is the way it should be."
Mavis Staple's soulful "Hard Times Come Again No More" will prickle the hair on your arms and the back of your neck, evoking some sense in the human soul which is older than fire.
Roger McGuinn's "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair" might be the most handsome and prepossessing track with it's sixties folk-rock feel.
On "Ah, May the Red Rose Live Always" Suzy Bogguss hits each splendid note the way William Tell hit the apple, sweet through the center, and the effect is both moving and dazzling.
Will Barrow's lively "Holiday Schottisch" is joy with no need for words, and provides strong evidence that Stephen Foster was not beyond tapping his toes.
And that does not even cover half of the wonderful tracks on this album.
Perhaps there are those who might think that the purest way to honor Stephen Foster would be to put his original sheet music in an argon gas-filled bell jar and burn beeswax candles before it, but the truest, best tribute to this great American genius is for these wonderful artists to reflect Foster's works in their own artistic mirrors, which is what they have done magnificently, creating a most entertaining album.
Stephen Foster died in 1862 at the age of thirty-seven. In his pockets were found thirty-eight cents and a scrap of paper with the words "dear friends and gentle hearts". And those are the very people to whom I would whole-heartedly recommend this gorgeous tribute album. To anyone who for whatever reason does not possess citizenship in either one of those two groups, I would nevertheless recommend Judith Edelman's rendition of Foster's song "No One to Love", which at least bears the hopeful message that it is not too late to change.
Beautiful Dreamer - The Songs of Stephen Foster Poster
Although America's first great songwriter, Stephen Collins Foster, died 140 years ago, his legacy lives on in the hundreds of songs he left behind. Beautiful Dreamer: The Songs of Stephen Foster was recorded to celebrate his enormous gift to American culture. Foster's compositions (including "Oh! Susanna," "My Old Kentucky Home," "Camptown Races," "Jeanie With The Light Brown Hair" and "Hard Times Come Again No More") are woven into the fabric of our national identity, yet most music fans today know little about him. Foster has been unjustifiably overlooked in recent decades. No collection of his music recorded by contemporary artists has existed until now. Although tribute albums have become much too common, this project's historical significance distingusihes it from a crowded field.Beautiful Dreamer: The Songs Of Stephen Foster is a collection of Foster's most beloved compositions ? and lesser-known exquisite parlor songs of his day ? sung by some of today's most respected musical artists. The album includes songs by: Raul Malo, Alison Krauss with Yo Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer and Mark O'Connor, BR549, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Judith Edelman, The Duhks, John Prine, Henry Kaiser, Beth Nielsen Chapman, David Ball, Michelle Shocked & Pete Anderson, Grey De Lisle, Mavis Staples, Ollabelle, Roger McGuinn, Suzy Bogguss, Will Barrow and Ron Sexsmith.
All of the proceeds from Beautiful Dreamer: The Songs of Stephen Foster will benefit American Roots Publishing, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving American regional culture through literature and art. Goals are accomplished by supporting artists who honor regional culture through their work and by linking them with communities in focused educational programs.
Stephen Collins Foster is sometimes called America's first great songwriter, but you could make the case that he was also the country's first real pop star. Writing songs such as "Camptown Races" and "Oh! Susanna," Foster, a college dropout, was self-destructive, couldn't keep a marriage together, and ended tragically. Living on the Bowery, he gashed his throat in a fatal fall in 1864 at age 37, dying with only 38 cents in his pocket. The idea of a Foster tribute record may seem staid and archaic, particularly as his lesser known tunes are parlor and stylized minstrel songs. But minstrelsy was a lot like rock & roll, and the Pittsburgh native left behind an impressive body of work that draws upon the diverse branches of music brought to America by settlers and slaves from Europe and Africa. Beautiful Dreamer, on which 22 artists celebrate 18 of his compositions, surprises with its breadth of subject matter, tempo, and interpretation, including the use of the glass armonica and santour. Most of all, the album is uncommonly soulful--Mavis Staples's dignified but heartbreaking performance of "Hard Times Come Again No More," David Ball's elegiac "Old Folks at Home (Swanee River)," and the feathery rendition of "Slumber, My Darling" by Alison Krauss, Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, and Mark O'Connor resonate in both the heart and the head. If Foster, the pop star, were alive today, he'd likely sit at the piano in shades and gelled-up hair. But he'd be playing these same songs, timeless and achingly poignant. --Alanna Nash
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