Rating Carolina CD Review : Carolina Chocolate Drops LEAVING EDEN

Picture is copyright Jim Brock Photography

With 2013 still early in its run, an early contender for my favorite CD of the year is Carolina Chocolate Drops LEAVING EDEN (and yes I know it came out in 2012). It has been a while since I was so thoroughly in love with a CD from first song to last (Terry Callier’s opus SPEAK YOUR PEACE comes to mind, and that is high praise indeed).

I like their 2006 debut cd, DONA GOT A RAMBLIN MIND, but I don’t love it. The same can be said for their 2009 concert CD entitled CAROLINA CHOCOLATE DROPS & JOE THOMPSON. However their latest LEAVING EDEN is another story. It is an album that is not only listenable from first song to last, it is immediately re-listenable. An album that can be on rotation in your cd player often without wearing out its welcome; no small feat in this day and age of too much, too fast, too poorly done.

What really endears me to this CD is how these young children of the Diaspora, these four children of the atom, of the early 21st century, are so thoroughly channeling and keeping alive this quintessential music of the early 20th century. What endears is how these young men and women of the race: Human, of the ethnic group: Nubian/Black, of the Nation: American and of the tribe: Artist; are creating music that incorporates the width and breath of all of the above.

LEAVING EDEN is at once joyous and jubilant and haunting and innovative, and sublime. The spirit of Robert Johnson moves strongly here, and well. ‘Howls in the bones of her face’ to borrow from Dylan, the cd LEAVING EDEN howls in the bones of your face.

Not only do I have a new favorite CD, I have a new favorite band. And luckily they are touring this year so if coming to a city anywhere close to you I highly recommend checking them out in person. I had the chance to see them in concert last year and missed it. I won’t miss them this year, and if you are smart neither will you.

Their touring schedule is here.

And their CD LEAVING EDEN? In an age of digital and Itunes do CDs still have a place? That appears to be the question of the moment. My answer? When they are this good, hell yeah CDs have a place. Owning just an mp3 sample would just be a crime. This is a work of art in the listening, and should be a work of art in the displaying. Grade: A+.

You can buy cds here:

Leaving Eden

And Don’t fail to also check out the following essential CDs:

Speak Your Peace

The Complete Recordings (The Centennial Collection)

And for more Carolina Chocolate Drops albums go here:

CDs available

Picture is copyright Jim Brock Photography

PODCAST OF THE DAY: B-MOVIE CAST #217 Connery in OUTCAST (1981)

B-MOVIE CAST is easily one of my favorite podcasts. Every episode is a joy. Give a listen, you might find it becoming your favorite as well.

Listen to it here!

And view their website here!

And subscribe to their award winning podcast (they won the WELLES AWARD!!! An award which I’ll be dusting off and having a 2012 version of this fall) here!

Enjoy and tell them HT sent ya!!

Greatest Radio Program/OTR ever! Archibald MacLeish’s FALL OF THE CITY

“Small wonder they feel fear…
presentiments that let the living on their bed sleep on
woke dead men out of death… and gave them voices!”

What does it mean to be the best?

To be the best of an entire medium? What does it mean?

And heavy the head, that must make that call.

What is the single best television show of all time? Difficult question.

Single best movie? even more difficult question.

Single best song? Impossible decision to make, right.

So why is it, if you ask me the single greatest OTR (Old Time Radio)/radio program ever produced… I have no trouble, what so ever, coming up with a name.

FALL OF THE CITY.

I’ve listened to both of the ‘original’ audio versions of this great Archibald MacLeish teleplay, FALL OF THE CITY. The 1937 one with Orson Welles as the announcer, and the 1939 with Burgess Meredith as the announcer.

I haven’t listened to ALL audio drama, being a relative young’un, probably not as much as a few of you reading this, though that said I am quite compulsive, and a bit single minded, so I tend to power listen through whole libraries of shows, so I’ve listened to a lot of shows, thousands upon thousands of shows easily, a nice cross section. More than most of you reading this.

So what I say next, I say taking all those thousands of shows into consideration…

Of all those shows, from Shadow to Columbia Workshop to Mercury Theater to Inner Sanctum to Escape to Suspense to Holmes to Dimension X to Lights Out, etc, etc….

Of all those shows, If you were to tell me I could only save one show, just one example of OTR to pass on to a future generation, a horrible thing to tell anyone, but if that’s my choice…. my cross to bear so to speak 🙂

I would choose the 1937 Orson Welles announcer/narrated FALL OF THE CITY (blows away the 1939 Meredith announcer one).

That’s how important and powerful a bit of work it has always struck me as…

It is ever a cautionary tale, that is ever timely, ever… relevant.

Ever irreplaceable.

Listen for yourself… and decide. 🙂

1937 FALL OF THE CITY (It’s an OGG file, better than MP3, and playable by better programs everywhere.VLC media player for one, will play it with no problem)

THE VOICE OF THE ANNOUNCER:
The sun is yellow with smoke. . . . the town’s burning. . . .
The war’s at the broken bridge.
THE VOICE OF THE GENERAL: (Shouting)
You! Are you free? Will you fight?
There are still inches for fighting!
There is still a niche in the streets!
You can stand on the stairs and meet him!
You can hold in the dark of a hall!
You can die!
. . . or your children will crawl for it!
THE VOICE OF THE ANNOUNCER: (Over the tumult)
They won’t listen. They’re shouting and screaming and circling.
The square is full of deserters with more coming.
Every street from the bridge is full of deserters.
They’re rolling in with the smoke blowing behind them.
The plaza’s choked with the smoke and the struggling of stragglers.
They’re climbing the platform: driving the ministers: shouting . . .
One speaks and another . . .