From the early '80s to the late '90s,
Fast Folk magazine was an important document of and voice for the
folk-rooted New York
singer/songwriter scene. The magazines came with compilation albums -- no less than 105 of them -- allowing subscribers and purchasers to sample the work of many young and unknown, and some veteran and relatively well-known,
singer/songwriters. The magazine stopped publishing in 1997, its holdings donated to
the Smithsonian a couple of years later. This first retrospective of the massive body of
Fast Folk is a 34-track, two-CD set including 142 minutes of music spanning 1982-1997. Some of the performers are famous, like
Suzanne Vega,
Shawn Colvin (represented by a 1985 version of her
"I Don't Know Why"),
Dave Van Ronk, and
Steve Forbert; others are fairly well known, like
Christine Lavin,
John Gorka,
Lucy Kaplansky, and
Christine Lavin. But most of these names will be unfamiliar, even to many
folk fans. And while the music is often acoustic
folk, sometimes solo, it's sometimes mild
folk-rock with fuller arrangements, too.
Fast Folk was undoubtedly a valuable organization and medium for exposure, but good intentions don't always make for great music. Most of this is earnest confessional and/or narrative material, on the undistinguished side melodically, lacking the idiosyncratic and arresting vocal personalities of the best
singer/songwriters -- and not just
Bob Dylan, an obvious reference point for much of this style (though these performers are on the whole far more polite than
Dylan), but even
Dave Van Ronk, though his
"Another Time and Place" wouldn't be considered one of his best performances. What are the best performances on this disc, though?
Elaine Silver's
"Share the Failure" has the pristine seriousness of the sort heard on early
Judy Collins and
Joan Baez outings;
Patrick John Brayer's
"Bourbon as a Second Language" has a refreshing
country-influenced lightheartedness;
Germana Pucci's
"Corpo Gracile," sung in Italian, has a
gypsy feel;
Christine Lavin's
"Don't Ever Call Your Sweetheart By His Name" has her usual comic touch that, while hard to take in concentrated doses, stands out on this comp as a welcome blast of levity. Comic relief's not always a good thing, though, as demonstrated by the bombastic crude wit of
Andy Breckman's
"Railroad Bill." ~ Richie Unterberger
