by Leonard Cohen (1971)

I guess Leonard Cohen‘s third album, Songs of Love and Hate could be considered baby Van’s first album pick because he’s been quite moved to kick and punch whenever it’s played. Looks like he’ll be one moody little poet kid because Jim Morrison also gets him going. Fortunately mommy likes the album too. It’s got my favorite Cohen song possibly of all time, the incredibly sad Famous Blue Raincoat.

The entire album is perhaps his most effectively depressing with suicide, infidelity, the pain of becoming obsolete, and lost love as just a few of the topics covered. It’s spare and sparse (only eight tracks) with the focus being on his signature melancholy and beautiful lyrics. I’d call him the perhaps the best lyricist of all time, and this album is certainly evidence of this.

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Posted on September 26, 2010

by Holderlin (1972)

Take a base of traditional folk, add one part Jethro Tull, a generous drop of Nico, a splash of Amon Duul II, and a garnish with Peter and the Wolf, and you’ll end up with Holderlin’s Traum, a musical concoction perfect for a handcrafted clay goblet. It’s a beautiful and gentle first album by the German band that has recently made a sort of comeback with a new album.

This early seventies effort is as appealing and ethereal as the album art and title (Traum translates “dream”) and worth a listen for anyone with a soft spot for folk, krautrock, lilting female voices, and the flute. The songs will stay in your mind, even as you hum along to the unknown lyrics (well, unless you speak German of course). I am surprised this band has not been as rediscovered as others of the genre, but with recent accessibility (amost of their albums are now available on iTunes) I think that might change. Like several former Brix Picks, I might soon hear it playing over some brunch in Brooklyn.

Click here for the rest of Holderlin’s Traum

See more: Albums 1970s Folk German Prog Rock

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Posted on November 29, 2009

Please to See the King is the most Renaissance-faire appropriate of the entire electric folk genre. Every song on the Steeleye Span is traditional and entail stories of betrayal, insanity, the devil, and romance.

Not only are the songs themselves culled from the traditional past of England, they use medieval techniques – like singing into the hallow of their instruments to amplify their voices to eerie effect.

Folk greats Maddy Prior, Tim Hart, Peter Knight, Ashley Hutchings, and Martin Carthy unite to make beautiful unique music here.

My favorite of the lot are Cold, Haily, Windy Night and Female Drummer, and Boys of Bedlam, but we've been listening to the whole album while gearing up for the fair.

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Posted on September 14, 2009

Joni Mitchell, universally lauded for her impact and song-writing, is kind of an acquired taste. Thanks to extremely poignant and relevant environmental lyrics and the beautiful refrain, “Don't it always seem to go, you don't know what you got till it's gone” (which was oddly sampled by Janet without any regard to the original meaning), Big Yellow Taxi is one of Mitchell's most popular and accessible songs.

Even reluctant listeners, like my friend Mike you used to torment the little hippy girls in high school by singing, “I wanna shampoo your haaaaaiiir” in a mocking falsetto would have to admit that this song has a lasting and pretty ring to it.

Written during a trip to Hawaii when Joni, “…took a taxi to the hotel and when I woke up the next morning, I threw back the curtains and saw these beautiful green mountains in the distance. Then, I looked down and there was a parking lot as far as the eye could see, and it broke my heart… this blight on paradise.”

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Posted on April 20, 2009