Released August 15, 2000 Artist Dave Alvin Producer Dave Alvin Genre Folk music | Length 1:01:15 Release date 15 August 2000 Label HighTone Records | |
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Recorded April 2000 at My Place or Yours Studio, Glendale, California Public Domain
(2000) Out in California
(2002) Similar Blackjack David, Ashgrove, West of the West, Dave Alvin and the Guilty Wo, Eleven Eleven | ||
Public Domain (subtitled Songs from the Wild Land) is an album by American artist Dave Alvin, released in 2000.
Contents
Background
In an interview with No Depression magazine, Alvin stated that during the time of his father's terminal illness, he would go hiking in the mountains and would sing folk songs. "That gave me the idea for the Public Domain record. It finally dawned on me that those folk songs are poor people's therapy... The reason they got into the public domain was they touched a nerve.You're thrown into this world where bad things happen—tragic death and economic injustice—so how do you deal with it? Well, one way of dealing with it is in these songs. It's a way of explaining the world."
"The Murder of the Lawson Family" was recorded by The Stanley Brothers in March 1956. It is based on the mass murder of his family by Charlie Lawson.
At the 43rd Annual Grammy Awards the album won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album.
Reception
Writing for Allmusic, music critic Denise Sullivan wrote of the album "This is the work of a scholar as well as a master craftsman." Robert Christgau wrote "If Harry Smith is what some people love about folk music, this is what other people hate about it, summed up by a title that claims humility as it sneaks presumption in the stage door—a title worthy of a brilliant record and dishonored by this dull one... It's not that these songs are all obvious or overdone—this nonfolkie had never heard a few of them. It's that they're so soft they squish even when Alvin tries to rev one past you, which usually he doesn't."
Track listing
All songs traditional unless otherwise noted.
- "Shenandoah" – 4:08
- "Maggie Campbell Blues" – 3:26
- "A Short Life of Trouble" – 3:41
- "What Does the Deep Sea Say?" – 3:01
- "Engine 143" (A.P. Carter, Traditional) – 3:56
- "Delia" – 3:38
- "Dark Eyes" – 3:59
- "Walk Right In" (Gus Cannon, Hosea Woods) – 3:28
- "Murder of the Lawson Family" – 4:18
- "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" – 4:35
- "Railroad Bill" – 3:27
- "Texas Rangers" – 5:07
- "Mama, 'Tain't Long For Day" – 3:19
- "East Virginia Blues" – 4:17
- "Sign of Judgment" (Kid Prince Moore) – 3:45
- "Untitled Instrumental Track" (E. Smith) – 3:01