Box Set Reviews

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Published: Dec 13, 2006

There are, or were, at least two record companies called Sugar Hill. The first, a groundbreaking hip-hop label featuring The Sugarhill Gang, Grandmaster Flash and Spoonie Gee, was founded in 1974 and based in Englewood, N.J. That one's not around anymore. The other, founded in '78 in Durham, N.C., is still kicking but not quite a rapper's delight; it's home to Allison Moorer, Nickel Creek, Tim O'Brien and Dolly Parton. While the earlier, if shorter-lived, Sugar Hill wins points for instantaneous impact on the culture at large, its southern, gentlemanly counterpart certainly gets points for perseverance and poise.

Originally intended to commemorate the label's 25th anniversary — but delayed for unspecified reasons — the four-CD, one-DVD Retrospective box set paints the picture of a label steadfast in its advocacy for bluegrass, folk and country music. And while those genres have had their share of jesters, sellouts and experimentalists, you won't find such heretics here. Expert guitar slides, banjo pointillism, lonesome choruses and sincere mustaches abound even as the chronologically arranged set leaves the late-'70s folk revival behind and arrives at the modern age. Of course, within the comfortable confines of this traditional music, there's plenty of room for the stars to shine. There are big names — Ricky Skaggs, Tony Rice, Doc Watson, Jerry Douglas, etc. — and Grammys on every third track or so, but the lesser-knowns put on a good show, too (Blue Rose and Tara Nevins, especially).

Dolly Parton wrote the blissful ditty "Sugar Hill" to honor the label but she paid a more meaningful tribute in 1998 when she chose it as the home base for her back-to-basics bluegrass rebirth. The sound of sequins and Motown-via-Memphis were replaced with softpickin', catchy choruses and lyrics ripe with Appalachian charm. The Acoustic Collection box — really just three solitary, previously released albums, a DVD of videos and concert footage and a flimsy cardboard shell — is your one-stop-shop for Dolly's recent Sugar Hill era. Most every track has her belting out tales of love, longing and spiritual desperation over peppy banjos or reverent guitars. Just for kicks she throws in a psycho Boo Hag song like "These Old Bones" (from 1998's Halos and Horns) wherein she spins a tale of clairvoyance and bloodshed in the voice of a cackling mountain grandma. And by now you might have heard her oddly showtuney remake of "Stairway to Heaven," but you don't know the power of Dolly until you've see what she can make out of Collective Soul's "Shine."

—Patrick Rapa

The black velvet cover is swank. But it's what's inside Tommy Boy's numbered, limited-edition box — 12 CDs and 144 furry funky tracks not all connected to the legendary label — that's most styling. Along with liner notes penned by the likes of hip-hop nation representatives Jeff Chang, Nelson George and snapped by rap documentarian Martha Cooper, the collection is filled with initiators (Funky 4 + 1), adventurers (Jungle Brothers), teachers (Boogie Down Productions) and dummies (Beastie Boys). It takes into consideration the silliest of trendoids ("Pee Wee's Dance" by Joeski Love), the most serious of historians ("Rebel Without a Pause" by Public Enemy) and the most radical of rap technicians and lyricists from Big Daddy Kane and Rakim to "I Cram 2 Understand U" by MC Lyte. There are as many obscurities as hits and plenty of Philly dawgs to represent Tommy Boy's rap game before it got gangsta and before it went big business.

 

—A.D. Amorosi

Popularizer if not quite progenitor of the musical bastard known as Western Swing, Bob Wills set up shop at the crossroads. Born in rural Texas not far south of Dallas, Wills seemed to absorb every type of music that drifted past his window. Though nominally a country artist, Wills disliked being grouped with "them hillbilly outfits," trademarking a shape-shifting blend of country, jazz, blues and anything else that might rise out of the Southern earth. Even played straight through, this four-disc, 105-track box sounds like an iPod stuffed with the history of pre-WWII American music and set to shuffle. One minute, you'd swear your stereo was possessed by the ghost of Hoagy Carmichael; the next, it's Louis Armstrong's Hot Seven. Spanning over four decades of music-making, Legends is comprehensive without being exhausting, the rare boxed set that feels just the right length.

 

—Sam Adams

I know that you know that Australia's finest Brothers Gibb made mad sweet '60s pop and dizzying harmony-driven psychedelia before they went blue-eyed disco-soul. But neither of us knew how great it could sound because no one bothered to remaster it, highlighting the luster of their unique arrangements and playing skills (Colin Petersen, Vince Melouney and nice bass work, Maurice). So from the rousing orchestration of the falsetto-singing trio's "Turn of the Century" and "Chocolate Holiday" to the silly (but no less dedicatedly melodic) Coke commercials "Another Cold And Windy Day" and "Sitting in the Meadow," this six-CD look-see into the Bee Gees' first three LPs is a must. There's all the AM hits — "Massachusetts," "Words" ramped to usual Rhino remix standards — but damn if demos and alternate takes of "Craise Finton Kirk Royal Academy of Arts" and "New York Mining Disaster 1941" don't sound equally dynamic.

 

—A.D. Amorosi

Though there are more comprehensive boxes to be found (RCA Victor's Years series, packages dedicated to organ studies and piano), the three-disc Ask/Ain't is a tart smart start for those unfamiliar with Waller's prickly playing style, his Cheshire cat-like vocals or his collaborations with writer/arranger Andy Razaf. While novelty hits find themselves next to deeply sentimental ballads, it's "His Rhythm" that stands out furthest — whether found on self-penned songs like "The Panic Is On," yearning stirring takes on Tin Pan Alley classics like "Dinah" or playfully dramatic instrumentals like "Star Dust" where you can hear him carousing verbally in the background. Goofy beauties like "Ain't Misbehavin'" and "Honeysuckle Rose" make this box easy on the uninitiated. But tipped in ragtime and jiving blues, Fats Waller's further developments — unique in the reverie of the swing era — are as crucial to serious jazz's development as Ellington. And way more fun.

—A.D. Amorosi

Inside Baseball
Rainer Maria
Kimmel Vision
Dan Sartain
Cartoon Christmas Trio
Philadelphia Chamber Music Society
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