The Uncensored Folk Music of Austria - Various Artists

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Customer Reviews

CD 454 Two CD set.

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Why would a CD called the Folk Music of Austria, with a cover photo of three older Austrian gentlemen playing a clarinet, an accordion and a hammered dulcimer have a Parental Advisory - Explicit Content sticker on it? Why is it called the Uncensored Folk Music of Austria? What's going on here?

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p>The Uncensored Folk Music of Austria is 2-CD set of authentic regional music, recorded between 1967 and 1998 by Arhoolie Records founder Chris Strachwitz and his friend Johnny Parth. Sixty-one songs recorded in almost every province in Austria - many released here for the first time! These location recordings bring you authentic amateurs and semi-professionals in various vocal combinations, many accompanied by unique instruments: hammered dulcimer, zither, barrel organ, jaw harp, cembalo, tarogato, brick xylophone (yes - brick xylophone), grenade glockenspiel (yes - grenade glockenspiel), flute, clarinet, accordion, fiddle, guitar and more.
And yes, several of the songs are of a very explicit sexual nature. The booklet contains extensive notes, and embedded in the CD (accessible via computer) are all of the lyrics transcribed in their original Austrian dialect, and translated into High German and English. So you can read what it's all about.

Items with an (*) are unexpurgated songs, mostly Gstanzel, which contain explicit sexual language probably not suitable for young ears or eyes!

Disc 1 (CD 454)
1. Original Herberstein Trio: Der Steirische Brauch (The Styrian custom)
2. Fefi Eibisberger: Wann der Schildhahn balzt (Ein Almlied) (When the Schildhahn has his mating season)
3. Peter Reitmeier: Polka aus Schwendberg (Polka from Schwendberg)
4. Bock, Wanzenbock, and Gollinger: Mei Haus steht auf a sechs oder siebn Spreizen (My house rests on six or seven sticks)
5. Ladislaus Wenzel: Magyar Signallied (Hungarian signal song)
6. Original Herberstein Trio: Gott sei Dank, es dauert nimmer lang(*) (Thank God n it won't take much longer)
7. Fritz Stradner: Jagdrufe (Hunter's calls)
8. Christian Ortner: Oh, Mullerin, du stolze (Oh, miller woman, you proud one)
9. Original Herberstein Trio: Steirer san ma, Steirer bleib'n ma (Styrian we are, Styrian we'll remain)
10. Karl Scherrer: Dreistettner Lied (Dreistettner song)
11. Trude Mally and Heini Griuc: Unterm Lindenbaum (Edwin Kolbl) (Under the linden tree)
12. Peter Reitmeier: Zillertaler Tanzl (Dance from the Ziller valley)
13. Blaskapelle Oberwart: Bauernwalzer (Farmer's waltz)
14. Bock, Wanzenbock, and Gollinger: Der schonste Mann von Wien (The handsomest man in Vienna)
15. Karl Scherrer: Potpourri (Die letzte Rose - Hobellied - Improvisation) (Potpourri)
16. Original Herberstein Trio: Als der Bauer vom Felde kam(*) (When the farmer came home from the field)
17. Fritz Forstinger: Bauernpolka aus Ubelbach (Farmer's polka from Ubelbach)
18. Lois Blamberger and group: Jakobischutzenmarsch (Knappentanz) (March of the Jakobischutzen)
19. Pepi Rottensteiner: Wienerlieder-Potpourri: (Drunt in Erdberg is a Gasserl/Heut g'freu i mi auf d' Nacht) (Potpourri of Viennese songs)
20. Franz Themessel: Steinriegler Marsch (Steinriegler march)
21. Anna Gratz: Scheiben Jodler
22. Bock, Wanzenbock and Gollinger: Wie lustig ist's im greanen Wald (*) (How much fun it is in the green forest)
23. Familie Buchbauer: Buchbauer's Walzer (Buchbauer's Waltz)
24. Hermann Hartel and Group: Der Turlhofer (*) (Walzergstanzln) (The Turlhofer-waltz Gstanzln)
25. Franz Radosta: Schackerl, Schackerl Marschlied (Musik: Theodor Wottitz)
26. Heini Griuc: Matzleinsdorf, mein Heimatort (Josef Obermayer) (Matzleinsdorf, my hometown)
27. Karl Scherrer: Schwarzaugig's Dirndl (*) (Der Landkirta) (Franz Mika) (Black eyed girl)
28. Lois Blamberger: Wohl in der Niederschwing
29. David Themessl and Gunrich Netmessnig: Lei aufn� lei aufn, der Hochalma zua (Head on towards the high mountain pasture)
30. Anna Gratz and Roswitha Neumayr: Djehuliri Jodler
31. Original Herberstein Trio: Gstanzln aus dem Feistritztal (*) (Gstanzln from the Freistritz valley)
32. Ludwig Gangoli: Tischlied (Table song)
33. Hermann Hartel and Group: A Zither und a Geign (*) (Polka) (A zither and a fiddle)

Disc 2 (CD 455)
1. Bock, Wanzenbock, and Gollinger: Da hor'n ma den Kuckuck aus der Literflasch'n schrei'n (We can hear the cuckoo yell out of the liter bottle)
2. Karl Scherrer: Da setz i mein grean's Huatl auf (Then I'll put on my green hat)
3. David Themessel and Gunrich Netmessnig: D'Wurzengraber (The root diggers)
4. Anna Gratz Duo: Schon grau ist der Morgen (Nice and grey is the morning)
5. Unknown Iron Collector: Kaufruf (Street cry)
6. Ladislaus Wenzel: Ein Liebeslied (A love song)
7. Original Herberstein Trio: Feistritztaler Marsch (Aber g'rebelt muass er sein) (March from the Feistritz valley)
8. Fefi Eibisberger: Heuberger Jodler (Mountain pasture yodel song)
9. Peter Reitmeier: Landler von Josef Span (A laendler by Josef Span)
10. Fefi and Josef Eibisberger: I bin der schene Bauernfranzl (Almlied) (I am the pretty farmer Franz) (Mountain song)
11. Original Herberstein Trio: Stoanabrunnl Jodler (Stone well yodel song)
12. Karl Scherrer: Ein Kirchenlied (A church song)
13. Bock, Wanzenbock, and Gollinger: Djulliullioh, a Landpartie wird g'macht (Yodel, we will make a trip to the country)
14. Lois Blamberger and Co.: Geradtaktiger Landler (Laendler in straight time)
15. Original Herberstein Trio: D'lustigen Holzhackerbuam (Tiroler Holzhacker-Buam, Marsch) (The jolly wood chopping boys)
16. Hermann Hartel and Group: Gstanzln: War a wia ra war / Gott sei Dank, es dauert nimmer lang(*) (Gstanzln: If he were like he was/ Thank God, it won't take much longer)
17. Duo Stadlmayr-Krupa and Maly Nagl: Der traurige Bua (Alexander Baumann) (The sad boy)
18. Anna Gratz: Hahnbalzwalzer (Heath cock mating waltz)
19. Christian Ortner: Radltruch'n Polka (Wheel barrow polka)
20. Maly Nagl: I hang an meiner Weanastadt (I love my hometown, Vienna)
21. Original Herberstein Trio: Kuckuckswalzer (Waltz of the coocoo bird)
22. Hermann Hartel Trio: Der Laufnitzer
23. Ludwig Gangoli: Meine Geige ist zerbrochen (My violin is broken)
24. Josef Bock and Johann Schwendenwein: Der Hackenstiel (*) (The handle of an axe)
25. Original Herberstein Trio: Dingl, dangl, Hammerstiel(*) (Dingl, dangl, handle of a hammer)
26. Emil Thun (street singer): Wie mein Ahnl 20 Jahr (When my grandfather was 20 years old)
27. Familie Buchbauer: Polka
28. Fefi Eibisberger: Wann d' Sunn untergeht (When the sun goes down)

Reviews

Parental Advisory: Explicitly Austrian Content

January 27, 2010

I write somewhere around here that I’m disinclined to use this forum for the reviewing of records, as it seems like the internet is comprised solely of pornography and record reviews, but one of the latest Arhoolie releases has struck me as something so exciting, fresh, and sui generis and, being so surprised that I felt thusly, I wanted to do my part to spread the word about it.

Chances are you’re like me: regardless of how much you fancy that you care for the traditional music of the world, that of Western Europe is well towards the bottom of your list, with the Germanic variety probably bringing up the rear. (That’s probably why I have seen, as they say in the King’s English, fuck-all about this record, which came out last July. Nothing in shops, not in magazines, not on the record-reviewing internet.) Almost wholly obscured on these shores by the classical tradition, the oom-pah band, and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Edelweiss” — and over-shadowed closer to home by the made-for-TV pseudo-folk of Volkstümliche — the songs sung and tunes danced to in the country beer-halls and alpine cowsheds might be some of the most unheard music in the world.

So this project, begun in 1967 and completed in 1998 by the dynamic duo of Johnny Parth (native Austrian; founder of Document Records) and Chris Strachwitz (native German; founder of Arhoolie Records), was a necessary one, but few might have guessed it’d be so good. Recorded at performers’ homes, in pubs, on the street, and in a ski lodge, these two CDs include unaccompanied ballads sung solo and in duets and trios; dance tunes and lyric songs played by brass bands and on clarinet, accordion, drums, and cimbalom; instrumentals on harp (traditional and jew’s), brick xylophone, and something called a “grenade glockenspiel,” which is in fact just what you think it might be. They’re packed with warmth, tenderness, giddiness, and humanity, not to mention some downright filth, much (though hardly all) of which is provided by the Original Herberstein Trio. These three elderly men performed regularly at a tavern in Eastern Styria, and their repertoire is filled with sly, raw, and kinky sex. Erectile dysfunction abounds, as do euphemisms involving barnyard fauna and pieces of fruit. Priests get involved in some nasty business, and one gets thrashed by a cuckolded husband. I’m sure the Arhoolie gang were pleased to be able to stick a “Parental Advisory” warning on the cover of this one, though as long as your kinder aren’t fluent in any number of Austro-German dialects or in a position to get their hands on the PDF file on Disc 1 that contains all lyric transcriptions, you’ll be all right.

It’s not all gleeful filth and nastiness, though. Strachwitz and Parth met dairy farmer Fefi Eibisberger at her home in the Styrian mountains, and with her plaintive yodel and hammered dulcimer accompaniment she’s one of the most affecting voices I’ve heard in recent memory. Her ballad of the changing seasons — “When the Heath Cock Has His Mating Season” (it’s more innocent that it sounds) — and delicate songs of milkmaids’ amorous affairs are utterly lovely. Somewhat less lovely but no less tender is the hyper-falsetto of street singer Emil Thun, who Parth rightly describes as sounding like an Austrian Tiny Tim. His “When My Grandfather Was Twenty-Years Old,” even in translation, is an achingly lonesome bit of pastoral poetry, made all the more so by his bizarre vocalizing.

Portions of these discs have been previously released on LP by Arhoolie and Roots (in Austria), but plenty of unreleased material has been included here. Truer, more humane music has seldom been recorded, and I can’t recommend this set more highly. As Karl Scherrer, Lower Austrian innkeeper, singer, and brick xylophonist croons:

Therefore, my dear people, do me the honor
and come to my inn, you won’t regret it.
My playing and yodeling will excite you,
so when you think about me later, your hearts will laugh.

From:
Root Hog or Die