WVA Occasional 7/95
So what happens if you're making an album of folk songs, and you have lots of friends, talented friends hanging around? They help, of course.
This is Cindy Mangsen and Anne Hills' album, but a host of guest appearances including John Hartford, Tom Paxton, Laurie Lewis, Gordon Bok, John Roberts and Tony Barrand crowd the star-studded roster. Add to that the boisterous aid of Chicago area string band Volo Bogtrotters, and this album is a sure hit on the folk shelf.
Cindy Mangsen, with three solo albums to her credit, has additional folk status for having had her album, Songlines, chosen as a top ten release by the Boston Globe. Known primarily for her duet work with her husband Steve Gillette, as well as Priscilla Herdman and Anne Hills, Cindy is considered a top-notch song-finder. Her instrumental expertise is with the concertina and the guitar. Originally from the Chicago area, she moved to the East and has developed a loyal following there as well.
Anne Hills has also acquired acclaim for her work in the folk scene, notably a top rating from the Chicago Tribune and the Austin Chronicle for her solo album, October Child. Also a gifted seeker-out of folk songs as well as a writer of songs, Anne is widely respected.
Two such talents as Cindy and Anne would naturally attract prestigious artists to help them with this current project, Never Grow Old (not that they need help, mind you). There are duets, trios and quartets with a myriad of instrumentation, all preserving the folk flavor.
A hymn, "Where We'll Never Grow Old," opens and closes the album. The first time is a duet with Anne and Cindy with wonderful piano accompaniment by Pete Sutherland. The ending cut is a vocal-only quartet, adding the distinctive voices of John Roberts and Tony Barrand. The bookending both sides of the album is delightful.
A couple songs commemorate the contributions of the Carter Family: "Curtains of Night" and "Railroading on the Great Divide." A ballad of lumbering tragedy, "Lost Jimmy Whalen" is sung as a duet sans-instrumentation. The haunting arrangement and harmony makes this song a tuneful soap opera.
One of the most striking additions on the album is the shape-note hymn, "Evening Shade," that Cindy and Anne sing in a quartet with John Roberts and Tony Barrand. The instrumentation of the Volo Bogtrotters on "Oh My Little Darlin’" and "Light of Red & Green" complements Cindy and Anne's duets.
My pick of the cuts on this album, probably a reflection of my frustration of the moment, was an acapella duet by Cindy and Anne, 'Housewife's Lament." (The housewife sings, "I've spent my whole life in a battle with dirt," and when she dies, "She laid down and died and was buried in dirt.").
Never Grow Old is enthusiastically recommended to anybody who appreciates the classics of folk by classy folk.