A few years ago there was this discussionabout this wonderful Stephen Foster song. Rather than reply to the original thread, which is in the whistle forum, I thought I’d just supply that link and put this new thought in the pub forum. Anyway, here’s what Wombat wrote at the start of that thread:
Well, this is a little late, but I wonder if you might have heard Mavis Staples do that song. I just got an absolutely wonderful CD called Beautiful Dreamerthat is a compilation of many and varied artists doing Stephen Foster songs, and her Hard Times is a knockout. I mean, dead on the floor knockout. The rest of the CD is just wonderful, too. I highly recommend this treasure, which was the maiden CD of a nonprofit publisher called American Roots Tradition, or something like that.
Some of the stuff is so beautiful it hurts.
Carol
PS If you follow the amazon link you can hear snips of each track.
A Great song.
I have a lovely version with De Dannann,Eleanor Shanley and two Gospel singers called Ivan Leparr and Roslind Browne.
Recorded live in Ennis it starts of with the two gospel singers acappella and then Frankie and the boys kick in with some lovely flute and ‘zuk. After about five minutes Frankie picks up the fiddle and the whole lot of them go into a real foot stompin,hand clappin’,hollerin’ praise the Lord,rockin’ and funkin’ jam.
Copies for both of you in the mail..( for research purposes only )
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