Lauren Sheehan, Some Old Lonesome Day (label and release year unknown)
Some Old Lonesome Day is a lovely mixture of American folk music, old and new. Several of the songs are quite old, like "House Carpenter" and "Careless Love," while others, like "The Werewolf," are very modern, but all have their roots in the same traditions.
There are three cheerful little instrumental cuts: "Living in the Country," "Creole Belle" and "Shake That Thing." "The Monkey & the Engineer" is a comic song. I'm not sure how to characterize "Rattlesnake Mountain" and "Say Darlin' Say." Are they serious or tongue-in-cheek? I rather hope it's the latter, especially when the heroine of "Say Darlin' Say" figures the ideal life would be taking in laundry and bearing children while her beloved drinks himself into a stupor in the shade. Bizarre!
There are plenty of traditional themes here, like love and betrayal ("Careless Love," "House Carpenter," "C.C. Rider") and nostalgia ("Won't You Come & Sing for Me?" and "Old Friend"). "Oil in My Vessel" and "Won't You Come & Sing for Me?" have gospel roots as well. As for "Come on Over to My House," the line "if the bed breaks there's a pallet on the floor" says it all.
Lauren Sheehan has been collecting American folk music since the mid 1970s. Her clear, strong voice treats lyrics with respect. She doesn't murder them. She doesn't smother them in elaborate arrangements. She sings clearly and competently, and she is a pleasure to listen to.
The CD liner includes brief notes on each of the seventeen cuts, a couple of pictures and a short introduction. Nowhere does it give the copyright date or the name of the company that published the recording! Even her Web site doesn't say, although it does give links to where to buy the album, as well as a bio, concert dates, more pictures, and lots more. It also mentions her previous CD, Lay Down My Old Guitar, A Tribute to John Jackson, released in 2002 by Centrum Records.
All in all, Some Old Lonesome Day is a pleasant, well-done recording, well worth listening to.
