Troubadours: The Essential Album

Troubadours: The Essential Album

This two-CD collection features an interesting blend of singer/songwriters from Sun Records through the British folk era and ending up with the folk-techno artists of the 21st century.

The artists selected seem a bit ragged (Mike Nesmith into Johnny Cash into Aaron Neville), but all of the cuts are winners. Expected troubadours Nick Drake, Ralph McTell, John Prine, and Jim Croce sidle alongside Dan Bern, Alejandro Escovido, and Billy Bragg, and although the jumps from one style to the next can be a little jarring, the theme running throughout serves as a good overview of blissfully melancholy storytelling from the last 50 years.

Disk 1:
  1. Hold On Baby - Cale, J. J.
  2. Everybody's Talkin' - Nilsson, Harry
  3. Vincent - Mclean, Don
  4. Time Of No Reply - Drake, Nick
  5. Gutters Full Of Rain - Gray, David
  6. New Train - Prine, John
  7. Pancho & Lefty - Zandt, Townes Van
  8. Another Long Story - Montgomery, Kevin
  9. Sweetness - Bern, Dan
  10. Tell Me Again - Sexsmith, Ron
  11. Therapy - Wainwright, Loudon Iii
  12. A Song For You - Russell, Leon
  13. Juliana - Nesmith, Michael
  14. I Walk The Line - Cash, Johnny
  15. Tell It Like It Is - Neville, Aaron
  16. Time In A Bottle - Croce, Jim

Disk 2:
  1. Brown Eyed Girl - Morrison, Van
  2. Let It Grow - Clapton, Eric
  3. Bell Bottom Blues - Whitlock, Bobby
  4. The Long Goodbye - Brady, Paul
  5. Father And Son - Stevens, Cat
  6. Hidden World Of She - Leven, Jackie
  7. Universal Soldier - Donovan
  8. Breathing In - Haskell, Gordon
  9. Just When I Needed You Most - Vanwarmer, Randy
  10. Strolling Down The Highway - Jansch, Bert
  11. Streets Of London - Mctell, Ralph
  12. Harry Stone (Hearts Of Cool) - Tams, John
  13. Hambledon Hill - Haskell, Gordon
  14. Put You Down - Escovedo, Alejandro
  15. Levi Stubbs' Tears - Bragg, Billy
  16. Shipbuilding - Wyatt, Robert