A couple of days ago I listened to this great story on the radio about Dan Zanes (anybody remember the Del Fuegos?). He just put out a record called Parades and Panoramas: 25 Songs Collected by Carl Sandburg. I had never heard of Sandburg's book The American Songbag. Heck, my knowledge of Sandburg never went much past the following: poet, Chicago, fog. I should probably remedy that situation. Apparently, Sandburg was a 'collector' of songs and used to sing some of them after his readings.

When I make discoveries like this the first thing that comes to mind is "You know, you still haven't bought any of those Alan Lomax recordings". Yea, I'll remedy that as well.

In the meantime, I do own a copy of this fine recording by Deborah Holland. It's a collection of depression-era songs done up with a very sparse instrumentation set of bass, percussion, harmonica and kalimba.

Deborah Holland? She was the singer for the pop 'supergroup' Animal Logic (with Steward Copeland and Stanley Clarke.) More important, her voice is fabulous..especially on these versions of "Brother Can You Space A Dime" and Woody Guthrie's "Do-Re-Mi". Check it out.

(First posted on Mark Is Cranky)