(Not all tracks up yet) Before the Velvet Underground there was The Feelies. Here Before is their first album in 20 years. It has some great tracks, and the track featured here, Bluer Skies, is my favourite on this mix – sounds like blissed out Clean. More old timers with the Wedding Present from the 1991 album, Seamonsters with some grungy cow punk tunes. Leader Cheetah sound like The National gone country – they are Aussies btw. Karen Dalton was a contemporary of Dylan who lived in Greenwich village in the 1960’s. She has a distinctive voice, Billie Holiday’ish, that appeals.  The Ollie Gilbert track is taken from a compilation by Max Hunter maintained by the Missouri State University. Spooky field recording of an Ozark woman.

The Max Hunter Collection is an archive of almost 1600 Ozark Mountain folk songs, recorded between 1956 and 1976. A traveling salesman from Springfield, Missouri, Hunter took his reel-to-reel tape recorder into the hills and backwoods of the Ozarks, preserving the heritage of the region by recording the songs and stories of many generations of Ozark history. As important as the songs themselves are the voices of the Missouri and Arkansas folks who shared their talents and recollections with Hunter.

If you like this track, there are over 500 more here with lyrics etc. Don’t you love the interweb?

Finally, the Harry Nilsson track is just excellent, I am looking forward to watching the recent BBC doco on him.