NEW
Son House, FOREVER ON MY MIND (Easy Eye, $15.98) – Edward James “Son” House (1902 – 1988) was a Delta blues master who first recorded for Paramount Records in 1930, and was later recorded by Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress in 1941. He was one of the many blues pioneers who were “rediscovered” in the early 1960s, recorded again, and played folk clubs, colleges and festivals.
Forever on My Mind is an intimate recording from November 23, 1964, and never before released. It is showcase for his expressive singing and beautiful guitar work, with powerful versions of “Preachin’ Blues,” “Death Letter,” “The Way Mother Did,” and “Forever on My Mind,” among others.
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: ON WENLOCK EDGE & Other Songs (Hyperion, $19.98) – Tenor Nicky Spence and pianist Julius Drake play Ralph Vaughan Williams’s The House of Life; selections from his settings of English Folk Songs; Four Hymns (with Timothy Ridout, viola); and the centerpiece, On Wenlock Edge, with the Piatti Quartet.
EASTER MUSIC
BACH: ST. JOHN PASSION (Deutsche Grammophon, 2 CD/1 Blu-Ray, $22.98) – Recorded on Good Friday, 2021, at Sheldonian Theatre, University of Oxford, John Eliot Gardiner conducted the English Baroque and the Monteverdi Choir.). This is Gardiner’s third recording of the work (the first was in 1986), and, as he states, this work “remains truly special to me. Bach conceived the piece as much as an act of worship as a work of religious art. Almost 300 years after it was heard for the first time, it continues to move listeners of all faiths and none.”
The package includes two CDs and a Pure Audio/Video Blu-Ray
Dave Douglas, SECULAR PSALMS (Greenleaf, $14.99) – Trumpeter Dave Douglas, “was invited by the City of Gent and Handelsbeurs Theater to commemorate 600 years since the creation of the Gent Altarpiece by Jan and HubertVan Eyck.” Douglas assembled an international sextet (remotely) which incorporated period instruments like the serpent, lute, and pump organ, as well as guitar, cello, and drums. Douglas draws “on the Latin Mass, on early medieval folk songs, on composers of the period like Guillaume DuFay, and on jazz and improvised music.”
To order CDs, for questions and suggestions, special orders, or to join the CD/Book of the Month Program, please email me directly: agoldinger@politics-prose.com