River of Song
is a companion double-CD set to a four-part 1999
PBS
television series of the various styles of music found along the Mississippi River, from northern Minnesota to the river's mouth in Louisiana. It has 36 complete performances that the documentary makers recorded as part of the project, encompassing
Delta blues
(
Robert Lockwood, Jr.
), Native American powwows,
Cajun
D.L. Menard
) and
zydeco
Geno Delafose
), New Orleans
soul
Irma Thomas
),
rockabilly
Sonny Burgess
singer/songwriter
folk
Greg Brown
bluegrass
,
gospel
polka
jazz
, and less expected things like
traditional
Swedish, Laotian, and
norteno
music. There's even
alternative rock
, via
Babes in Toyland
(whose selection is frankly ill-fitting),
Soul Asylum
, and
the Bottle Rockets
. This might be better seen on film than heard all at once: it covers a full smorgasbord of American music in one go, and although in concept that might be appealing, remember that when you actually eat at smorgasbords, you don't try to sample every last damn dish in the course of one meal. The most unusual items are
the Skal Club Spelmanslag
's
"Red-Headed Swede,"
with its eerie musical saw;
'
"T for Texas,"
on which he sounds far more like a genuine
man than a cult
singer; and
the Memphis Horns
and
Ann Peebles
"St. Louis Blues,"
done without a rhythm section.
Little Milton
Henry Butler
Levon Helm
James Cotton
Fontella Bass
John Hartford
are some of the other recognizable names contributing to the album. If you're interested, the project also generated a book with the same title as the CD, written by
Elijah Wald
John Junkerman
, and published by
St. Martin's Press
. ~ Richie Unterberger