Track List

Reviews

This album is a brilliantly successful marriage of contemporary rock arrangements with a respectful traditional vocal presentation. Some purists may cringe, but college radio should go ga-ga over Cordelia's Dad. Dave Schramm produced and plays lap steel and assists singer/bassist/banjo player Tim Eriksen, drummer Peter Irvine, and guitarist Tom King on music that would make the Waterboys dewy-eyed, Elvis Costello anxious, and Alejandro Escovedo begging them to join his orchestra. Imagine a Feelies-like drum pattern clearing a path to a campfire tradeoff of oral-history singing. There's a hymn to the wonders of Rhode Island (Narragansett Bay), a sad tale of a women who lost her husband and home (Delia), and fabulous vocal harmonies accented by rhythm guitar and banjo (Bend to the East). The song Sweet William, found in a Library of Congress recording, has all the drama of a world epic and simplicity of a Methodist church song. If this is more than a fluke, Hoboken may reclaim the title it lost to Seattle as the center of so-called alternative music. I think I'll send it to Courtney and Kurt for little Bean­imagine being the daughter of Lear. - Option

how can I sleep? is '90s attitude music... sticky and grungy, its rock was born in a garage, but its folk is the purest, all milk white and winding sheets... if you care one iota you need this - yesterday! - Simon Jones, FolkRoots, England

Their use of traditional ballads is far more radical than anything on SubPop. - SPEX, Germany

Cordelia's Dad is coming to town, proving that the knots of ancient music can be ever-so-wildly tied together with the gritty sounds of mod rock and roll... It's energetic, angry and relentlessly raw. Cordelia's Dad mines in the song book of old, producing beautifully aged jewels that wax eternal in a contemporary light. - Valley Optimist, Northampton, MA

Liner Notes

Idumea mates an 18th century Methodist hymn text with an older ballad tune. John Leland, from Cheshire, Massachusetts, wrote verses 3 & 6 and is famous for giving Thomas Jefferson a 1400 pound piece of cheese. Narragansett Bay made its way from a printed source into oral tradition and back again, or vice versa. We added an additional verse and fitted it with a new tune. Farewell to Old Bedford comes from the singing of Mr. Lee Monroe Presnell of Beech Mountain, North Carolina; a standout among the many talented singers that folk song collectors Anne and Frank Warner befriended and recorded from the late 1930s to the early 1960s. Imaginary Trouble comes from another of the Warners' finds, Mrs. Lena Bourne Fish of East Jaffrey, New Hampshire. Again, we have imposed our own tune on her set of words. Mrs. Fish said that this song was popular with soldiers in the American War for Independence. Bend to the East came about when we realized our in-studio attempt to remember the fiddle tune been to the east had completely failed. The Texas Rangers were a group of mounted volunteers organized to combat people who had lived there before they did. Delia is a song that has been popular in a number of American singing traditions, its more well known relative being Frankie and Johnny. Sweet William comes from a Library of Congress recording of the North Carolina couple, Mr. & Mrs. I.G. Greer. Little Margaret was recorded in the 1920s by North Carolina lawyer and banjo player Bascom Lamar Lunsford. Harvest Home was adapted from a 19th century song and fitted with a new tune. All songs traditional, arranged by Cordelia's Dad, except for bend to the east, harvest home, music by Tim Eriksen, narragansett bay, imaginary trouble, music by, and san francisco, words and music by Tom King. Additional Notes (1998) Both the tune and arrangement of this version of Imaginary Trouble differ from that on the later recording, Spine, but the words are the same. Bend to the East was mistakenly called Swiss Nanny, a now obscure topical reference, on the first printing of the European release of this album, but the music is the same on all versions.

Recording Info