Stephen Foster - Beautiful Dreamer
Product Information
Track List: Beautiful Dreamer
Click on or song title to hear an audio clip. Windows Media player is required.
- Beautiful Dreamer - Raul MaloDownload & Buy
- Slumber My Darling - Alison KrausseDownload & Buy
- Don't Bet Money On The Shanghai - BR5-49Download & Buy
- Nelly Was A Lady - Alvin Youngblood HartDownload & Buy
- No One To Love - Judith EdelmanDownload & Buy
- Camptown Races - The DuhksDownload & Buy
- My Old Kentucky Home, Goodnight - John PrineDownload & Buy
- Autumn Waltz - Henry KaiserDownload & Buy
- In The Eye Abides The Heart - Beth Nielsen ChapmanDownload & Buy
- Old Folks At Home (Swanee River) - David BallDownload & Buy
- Oh! Susanna - Michelle ShockedDownload & Buy
- Willie We Have Missed You - Grey DelisleDownload & Buy
- Hard Times Come Again No More - Mavis StaplesDownload & Buy
- Gentle Annie - OllabelleDownload & Buy
- Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair - Roger McGuinnDownload & Buy
- Ah, May The Red Rose Live Always - Suzy BoggussDownload & Buy
- Holiday Schottisch - Will BarrowDownload & Buy
- Comrades Fill No Glass for Me - Ron SexsmithDownload & Buy
More Stephen Foster CDs and Albums
- Stephen Foster Songs: Parlor & Minstrel Songs, Dance Tunes & Instrumentals
- Favorite Songs
- Civil War Songs
Album Details: Beautiful Dreamer
- Release Date:
- 08/24/2004
- Label:
- Thirty Tigers
- UPC:
- 635759159428
User Reviews: Beautiful Dreamer
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Energy level is high on this exhilarating tribute
, October 11, 2004Reviewer:
Joe Ross - See all Joe Ross's reviews
read all (1) user reviews for Beautiful Dreamer
Pro Reviews: Beautiful Dreamer
| EXPERT RATING: From AMG Reviews If ideas move forward on the shoulders of giants, and that is certainly true in the world of American pop music, then Stephen Foster's shoulders are the ones at the bottom of the heap, because he is the first truly American songwriter. Drawing both from the transplanted song traditions of the European émigrés and the rhythmic sophistication of AfricanAmerican spirituals and folk pieces, Foster cobbled together a truly multicultural base for popular American music in the 1840s, turning out such enduring compositions as "Beautiful Dreamer," "Camptown Races," "Old Folks at Home" (probably best known as "Swanee River"), "Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair," "Oh Susanna," and "Old Kentucky Home," pieces that dressed up aspects of the frequently risqué and racist minstrel tradition in fine new clothes (with the offensive parts thankfully excised). Foster was also the first American songwriter to get royally fleeced by the music business, and he died in 1864 with only 38 cents to his name, a forgotten resident of the Bowery. Foster was the founder of the pop music you hear on your car radio, whether it's jazz, country, rock, or rap, because all of these forms draw on the crossthatching of traditions that Foster first joined into a single stream of American music nearly 150 years ago. This interesting collection of Foster songs by an assortment of country, folk, and pop performers points out how versatile (and how exceedingly lovely) these pieces continue to be. A song like "Don't Bet Money on the Shanghai," done here by BR549, even exhibits eerie postmodern sensibilities, right down to its hardtopindown ironic tone, and one could easily imagine Randy Newman having written it. A version here of the oftenmaligned "Camptown Races" (just remember the rendition in the movie Blazing Saddles) by the Duhks restores its inherent polyrhythmic richness, while Mavis Staples brings gospel wisdom to the elegantly sad and hopeful "Hard Times Come Again No More." Roger McGuinn turns "Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair" into a lost Byrds' classic, and it is interesting to recall that the Byrds recorded Foster's "Oh Susanna" for their second album in 1966. Foster's songs have all too often been viewed through the lens of nostalgia (a device Foster deliberately employed and willingly exploited), but their deceptively simple melodies and rich cultural histories full of merging rhythms from different continents make them a good deal more than that, not only the first true American songs, but also among the best. Their amazing longevity proves the point, because in pop music nothing survives without utility. - Steve Leggett, All Music Guide |
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Stephen Foster Biography
Stephen Foster stands as the first great American composer of popular songs. It is often difficult to classify his style, as it contains folk, popular, and classical elements, yet remains a product of none of these. My Old Kentucky Home, Oh Susanna, ...Full Stephen Foster Biography
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-- ©2008 All Media Guide, LLC
Pros: Artist variety
Cons: Some renditions really push the envelope
As one of America