September 2007 Best CDs

Of the CD's that arrived at WRPI in September, 2007, the ones I liked best were:

1. Sowing the Seeds - The 10th Anniversary. This is a compilation CD from Appleseed. It includes some tracks from prior albums, as well as some new material. I have two of the Pete Seeger tribute CD's (Where Have All the Flowers Gone and Seeds), and it overlaps with the material on those albums. There's a lot of Pete Seeger influence on the 10th anniversary CD, including both tracks recorded by him and songs associated with him being performed by others. It's a mix of old and new performers, famous and not so famous. The idea is that Appleseed is trying to support the people who will become the Pete Seegers and Woody Guthries of the future. It seems like they really put some thought into the order the songs appear on the CD. I like that, I like CD's that are put together with thought rather than just a bunch of random songs. If you're into this sort of thing (Pete Seeger, the 60's, songs of social change), this album is worth adding to your collection.
2. Oasis World Volume VII Number 3. Oasis puts together compilations, usually of lesser known artists, and sends them to DJ's. They usually do a really good job. That is, we get a lot of CD's by lesser known artists who are lesser known because they aren't very good, but Oasis seems to mostly include the good ones. Some of those people who send us CD's are navel-gazing singer/songwriter types who just strum a guitar, but the songs on the Oasis CD generally have rich instrumentation. Although this CD is classified as "world," it tends to be people in the US drawing on influences from other cultures, rather than people from other cultures. Sometimes I feel I can't play the world music I like on my regular radio show, because my regular show is mostly American, Canadian, British, and Celtic, but I think most of the songs on this album would fit on my radio show. That could be a drawback if you are looking for something different from what we usually hear in English-language folk music, but I like what's on the album.