Rebecca Swain wrote this review.
This fifteen-song CD is a sampler of The Collected Works of Jack Hardy which was released in 1998 in two boxed sets of five CDs each. If you already know and love Hardy, you will undoubtedly want the complete set. But, if you are just discovering him, you might want to listen to this to see what he has to offer.
Hardy has been an extremely influential figure on the folk scene since his arrival in New York City in the mid-Seventies. Disappointed to find that most of the well-known folk performers and clubs were no longer there, he helped revivify the folk movement by founding clubs and compiling recordings of the folk singers who remained. He originated the idea of fast folk (songs written and recorded quickly), and founded The Fast Folk Musical Magazine, which he edited until 1996, when he resigned to concentrate on his songwriting. He conducts weekly songwriting workshops, and some of his more notable students have included Lyle Lovett, Suzanne Vega, and Shawn Colvin.
This sampler presents songs from the ten albums Hardy released before 1995. The tracks are not arranged in chronological order, however. This makes it hard to follow any development or progression is Hardy’s work, but the order of the songs is satisfying aesthetically.
Some of the songs sound like traditional folk songs, though Hardy wrote them all. “May Day” and “The Tinker’s Coin” sound Celtic. “May Day” features a tin whistle and a fiddle in a rollicking dance tune, and the Roches’ harmonies add to the traditional sound. “The Tinker’s Coin” opens with Jack Hardy on the tin whistle and tells a haunting story about the happenings in a tavern. “The 11th Pennsylvane” is a ballad about the Civil War. “The Wren” also sounds centuries old, in my opinion.
In contrast, “The Zephyr” has a definite country influence, with its twangy instrumentation and train lyrics, and so does “Swing Song,” a track from very early in Hardy’s career.
There are many dark songs here, some of whose meanings I haven’t figured out yet. “White Shoes” seems to be about an aging woman. The rhythmic “Porto Limon” could be about either drug running or a war. My favorite cut, “The Hunter,” seems to express the grief and restlessness of a hunter as his culture turns to gathering.
Other cuts on the sampler include the love song “Forget-Me-Not,” the saxophone-filled “The Coyote,” and a tribute to New York City, “Night on the Town,” as well as “Potter’s Field,” “Through,” and “The Knight’s Dream,” which uses Arthurian imagery to symbolize modern feelings.
This sampler is well worth having on its own, if you don’t have $70 to spend on the boxed set. But after you hear it you will almost certainly want to buy the whole set, so start saving your money.
(Prime CD, 1998)
