The Redwood Mountain Dulcimer All-Star Collection
Various artists
From Celtic to ragtime, klezmer, and beyond, a selection of innovative, elegant, and rousing mountain dulcimer instrumentals from all the artists that have performed and taught at Redwood Dulcimer Day in Santa Cruz County, CA from 2001-2010.
A Celebration of Robert Burns's 250th Birthday
Various Artists
Sex, religion, and politics were his favorite subjects. He was a poet of the people who believed a person's sense meant more than their status. He was a fervent Scot whose songs helped keep Scottish music alive when the English burned fiddles to suppress it. He was Robert Burns.
For ten years, Community Music School celebrated Robert Burns with an anniversary concert, now commemorated with a live-recording compilation CD of the best of our Burns performances, engineered by Barry Phillips. The CD features our Celtic music faculty, audience singalongs, and of course a recitation of "Tam O'Shanter" by the late beloved Tom Cuthbertson. If you've ever attended a Burns concert, you need this CD. If you never have, you need it even more.
Verdant Groves:A Musical Journey through Four New England Shaker Villages
Debra Spencer, Shelley Phillips, & Lars Johannesson
In 1997 the Community Music School received a grant to make an album of Shaker songs to benefit the Shaker village museums in New England as well as the music school. The album was recorded live in the Shaker villages in New York, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, featuring traditional songs sung with flute and Celtic harp.
In Sweetest Union Join
The United Sacred Harp Musical Association
This release, a double CD field recording of the United Sacred Harp Convention (September 1999, Henagar, Alabama), comes as close as possible to capturing the awesome energy, intense feeling and powerful harmonies of live shape note singing. Over 200 singers were present, many of them lifelong singers in the tradition. The album commemorates the 40th anniversary of the 1959 United Sacred Harp Convention (held in nearby Fyffe, Alabama) recorded by Alan Lomax, legendary music collector and archivist for the Library of Congress. Amazingly, more than 20 singers recorded in 1959 also sang at the 1999 event! This CD contains a beautiful full-color booklet that tells their story. Rare historic photos included.
$20 (2 CD set)
Available at CDBaby
Saints Bound for Heaven
Community Music School Shape Note Society
Shape up with shape notes! Our own Shape Note Society has produced a delightful studio tape of Sacred Harp songs to accompany walking (though honestly we think it's fun to listen from the couch as well). The tape starts at 100 beats per minute (bpm) and speeds up to 120 bpm by the beginning of the second side. Then it slows down again at the end for a cool down. Listening to the tape also provides a good way to practice your part on over 30 songs. Great cover art by singer Donna Thomas, too.
$10
Available at CDBaby
Mid Earth Rejoices
Our Lady of Perpetual Help Chant Choir
This Santa Cruz group features: Jesse Autumn, voice and harp, Suzanne Duval, voice, Jane Hancock, voice and recorder, Janet Herman, voice, recorder and percussion, Shelley Phillips, voice and harp, Debra Spencer, voice, Deby Benton Grosjean, fiddle, Barry Phillips, cello and percussion, and William Visscher, organ. It is Yuletide in miniature, from the preparation of Advent through the Twelfth Day of Christmas. As the old year glides into the new, we reconsider the worth of our earthly goods. The rich reach out to the poor, and the poor give back surprising riches.
California Celt
Jesse Autumn & Friends
A CD by the first crop of CMS-grown musicians: Jesse Autumn - voice, double-strung harp and piano, with friends George Grasso - flute and guitar, David Brewer - drum, pipes and whistles, and fiddlers Theo Paige, Emily Swanson, Linnaea Wilson and Daniel Roberts. Active in the traditional music scene and in music education, these talented college-aged musicians from the Community Music School Celtic music program received a grant from the California Arts Council sponsoring the production of their CD. From enchanting airs to toe-tapping jigs and reels, the group performs contemporary arrangements of traditional music from Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and also features special guests Devin Shepherd - fiddle, Annie Swanson - Cape Breton piano, William Coulter - guitar, and Barry and Shelley Phillips - cello, harp, and percussion.