Down Harmony Road
April 2008
Here’s
a solid and very enjoyable 14-track album primarily composed of old
time duet songs by Canadians Arnie Naiman and Kathy Reid-Naiman.
Several other picker friends join them here and there (including Chris
Coole on banjo on a very nice version of LOUISVILLE BURGLAR), but for
the most part it’s just good duet singing simply but effectively
accompanied by two guitars or guitar & banjo. There’s a good
selection of songs, with especially nice versions of BLUE RAILROAD
TRAIN, AIN’T GOT NOWHERE TO TRAVEL, and SAILOR ON THE DEEP BLUE SEA.
It’s attractively packaged, with a neat cover drawing of famous old
time artists including the Delmore Bros., the Carter Family, Uncle Dave
Macon, Charlie Poole, Riley Puckett—and of course the Naimans: nice
idea and nicely executed.
County Sales
David Freeman
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Down Harmony Road
Review
Ragged But Right is the duo of Kathy Reid-Naiman and
Arnie Naiman, both of whom have been involved in the folk music community of
the Toronto area for decades, Kathy being especially known for her children's
recordings and Amie for his clawhammer banjo playing. Down Harmony Road is their first recording as a duo. The fourteen
tracks on the CD include ten from the old-time string band tradition, two in
jazz style dating from several decades back, and two contemporary songs,
including Rick Speyer's "Harmony Road", from which the CD draws its name. On two
tracks, including "Harmony Road", Ragged But Right are joined vocally
by Finest Kind (Ann
Downey, Shelley Posen,
Ian Robb), and on a few more they are joined instrumentally by several
musicians, including Ken Whiteley, but on fully nine of the cuts Ragged But
Right perform by themselves. The duo takes
its name from a raucous Riley Puckett recording, the duo's interpretation of which
is included on the CD.
The CD is built around the duet harmonies of Ragged
But Right, drawing from the Delmore Brothers (two tracks), Charlie Poole and
the North Carolina Ramblers, Riley Puckett, the Boswell Sisters, Uncle Dave
Macon, and others. The harmonies on most of the original recordings were not male-female duets, and Ragged But Right do not aim at recreation of the originals
(as the New Lost City Ramblers sometimes did), but rather at reinterpretation
in a manner consistent with the spirit of the originals. This is illustrated
in their renditions of the Delmore Brothers songs, in which the male-female
split causes the voices to be farther apart than in the Delmores' versions.
ln "I Ain't Got Nowhere To Travel", with the female voice singing the
melody, this worked extremely well;
in "Blue Railroad Train", in which the female
voice sang the harmony, to my ears it seemed that the harmony dominated the
melody. Their rendition of the Boswell Sisters' "Dinah" is noteworthy for
the transformations that went into its arrangement: first the Boswell Sisters'
jazzy trio harmonies were learned from the recording, and then these were adapted as male-female
duet harmony.
To anyone who is fascinated by the sound of two-part
harmony, this is an extremely welcome issue, and it is to be hoped that there
will soon be more than one Ragged But Right CD to listen to.
They are definitely down Harmony Road, and not up Harmony Creek.
Jim Grabenstetter, Calgary, Alberta
Canadian Folk Music Vol. 41.4 Winter 2007 - 2008
Jim Grabenstetter
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Down Harmony Road
Down Harmony Road is the Canadian duo of Kathy Reid (guitar and vocals)
and Arnie Naiman (clawhammer banjo and vocals). Here they are joined by
several guest musicians to create an interesting collection of old-time
songs and ballads. The most striking aspect of this collection is
Kathy's lead vocals on numbers like "A Mothers Last Words To Her
Daughter," "Sailor On The Deep Blue Sea," and "Didn't I Dance." Other
highlights include "Louisville Burglar," Uncle Dave Macon's "On The
Dixie Bee Line," and Arnie's whimsical treatment of "A Nose Full Of
Nickels." Anyone who appreciates down to earth old-time picking and
singing will find plenty to savor on "Down Harmony Road."
June 2008
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Down Harmony Road
The Old Time Herald June / July 2008
Volume 11, Number 5
You can tell a lot about a CD by its
cover. Here we see a portrait of Kathy Reid-Naiman and her husband Arnie
Naiman, standing in front of a music store, with A. P., Sara, and Maybelle
Carter on their left, the Delmore Brothers on their right, and, sitting in
front, Uncle Dave Macon, Charlie Poole, and Riley Puckett. You think,
"This CD probably has some good singing-they certainly chose some great
sources to learn from." And it doesn't just have some good singing-almost
every song is a gem. In Canada, even in the southern part, winter
comes early and stays late. A couple from Toronto who enjoys singing and
playing old-time music will have the chance to work out arrangements carefully,
choosing vocal harmonies and instrumental parts to make the song sound Iovely.
These arrangements (and their instrumental breaks) sound effortless, which
means, of course, that effort was spent in getting to that point. Hearing some
of these songs inspired me to go to our CD collection and check out some of the
originals, to see what has been added and taken away. "Leaving Home,"
which I first heard done y the New Lost City Ramblers long before I heard
Charlie Poole's original, sounds great as a duet. ( Arnie's three finger banjo
playing isn't bad, either.) Riley Puckett's "Ragged but Right" also works
well with two voices. Even more interesting is their method for rendering Delmore
Brothers songs: instead of the standard brother configuration of lead voice and
close tenor harmony only a few notes above, Kathy sings lead, while Arnie sings
the tenor harmony an octave lower. They use the same system for Whitey and
Hogan's "Gosh, I MissYou All the Time"-a wonderful song and my
favorite of the CD. The Carter Family's "Sailor on the Deep Blue Sea" was done with two close
voices. While I miss A. P.'s bass from the original, this too works well as a
duet. I also appreciate that they learned these songs from the original
recordings and point the listener to these recordings with their well-written
and careful liner notes. All of the songs discussed above use simple harmonies,
played using only the 1,4, and 5 chords, and harmonies using notes in those
chords. However Arnie and Kathy also enjoy singing more complicated harmonies-like
the ones that the Boswell Sisters of the 1930s used for songs like
"Dinah." They said, "In our version, since there are only two of
us, we do a bit of vocal part switching to cover all the bases." And they
do it well. They also do two songs with five voices: "A Nose Full of
Nickels" and "Harmony Road," adding the three singers of
Finest Kind to their two voices. The 1930s pop songs (and the recently composed
"Harmony Road") are nice, but I most enjoyed the simpler
harmonies of the duets. Even if you think you know all of these songs and would
probably prefer the original recordings to any possible modern cover you ought
to buy this CD. It's worth listening to. Furthermore, for folks who enjoy the
old-time songs but are unable to appreciate the old recordings (because of the
primitive production values and/or the more stilted old-time vocal styles ),
this is an excellent CD choice.
Pete Peterson
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Down Harmony Road
Penguin Eggs Issue No. 38 Summer
Ragged But Right are primarily the
duo of Arnie Naiman and Kathy Reid-Naiman. They take their name from a 1934
recording by Riley Puckett, a blind banjo player. This association of old time
musicians and vintage recordings is a close one as several of the numbers on
this disc were learned from recordings from the 1920s and '30s by the likes of
The Delmore Brothers, Washington Phillips, Lou Carter, Uncle Dave Macon, and
The Carter Family.
The rustic cover art by John Martin pictures them among their heroes.
The Toronto pair don't work in a vacuum,
however, and are also influenced by the contemporary folk scene. A song by
fellow Toronto folky Rick Speyer is featured, as are performances by Ken Whiteley and
Chris Coole. A gentle and accomplished set of oldtime picking and singing that
grows on the listener by subtle degrees.
Barry Hammond
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Down Harmony Road
Vol. 52 #2 Summer 2008 Sing Out!
Ragged But Right is the Toronto-based husband-wife
duo of Arnie Naiman and Kathy Reid-Naiman Their previous recorded work has included
a pair of fine old time banjo duet volumes with their longtime partner Chris
Coole released under the title 5 Strings Attached (Merriweather 01and 02). While
the second of these volumes featured a few vocals among the mostly instrumental
fare, Down Harmony Road is a collection of fourteen old time songs and country
ballads drawn mostly from the early days of country music, with a couple of contemporary
originals that fit the bill. Fittingly enough
among the tunes is the Riley Puckett classic from which they draw the band's
name, while other tracks hearken back to the Delmore Brothers (“I A’in't Got
Nowhere To Travel," "Blue Railroad Train"), the Carter Family
("Sailor On The Deep Blue Sea"), Uncle Dave Macon ("OnThe Dixie
Bee Line") and Charlie Poole ("Leaving Home"). Of particular interest is their version of
"A Mother's Last Words To Her Daughter," a song by 20's-era black street
preacher and singer Washington Phillips that has resonated throughout and been
recorded over the years in many corners of the folk music world.
The Naimans are backed on several songs by a fine
cast that includes Coole and Ken Whiteley, but they're wise enough not to let the
instrumentation get in the way. The beauty of these songs is that they lend themselves
well to the simple, direct harmony and treatment the Naimans give them,
and it's their singing that seems to prove the old adage that if you listen closely
enough, the song will tell you what it
wants. John Lupton
John Lupton
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