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<\/a><\/p>\nI\u2019ve written about Pandora Radio before<\/a>. Through Pandora, an internet service that allows you to create your own radio stations, I learned about Olabelle<\/a>, now one of my All-Time Favorite Groups.<\/p>\n So, I was listening to an Ollabelle-heavy station on Pandora a few weeks back when I heard the unmistakable sound of Ollabelle singing a song I had never heard, \u201cGentle Annie,\u201d by Stephen Foster (left). That set me on a hard search for the Ollabelle album containing that song. And there is no such thing. I couldn\u2019t find many cuts from this album on YouTube, but I thought I would share a few Stephen Foster songs anyway. Though no Catholic, Foster (1826\u20131864) was our first great writer of American songs. And I think you\u2019ll agree that his concerns, though they sound dated to \u201csophisticated\u201d 21st-century ears, were really our concerns.<\/p>\n While I couldn\u2019t find Ollabelle singing \u201cGentle Annie,\u201d YouTube has a cut of the McGarrigle sisters, Kate and Anna, singing the tune about a loved one who has died: \u201cShall I nevermore behold thee?\u201d<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=rcbIjfLYxOY?fs=1<\/a>\n Here\u2019s one cut from the \u201cBeautiful Dreamer\u201d collection that did make it to YouTube, a gorgeous collaboration of singer Alison Krauss, Yo-Yo Ma, and other instrumentalists. It\u2019s a lullaby that sings, \u201cPray that the angels will shield thee from harm\u201d:<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Xftn_mV7czA?fs=1<\/a>\n More uptempo, here\u2019s Johnny Cash\u2019s version of another Foster favorite, \u201cCamptown Races,\u201d from the Bell Telephone Hour, videotaped only 51 years ago in 1959:<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=noYptXPHiAE?fs=1<\/a>\n And here\u2019s a cut from the album\u2014the American country band BR549 singing \u201cDon\u2019t Bet Money on the Shanghai\u201d\u2014with a Krazy video accompaniment!<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=H8uQzcG06gU?fs=1<\/a>\n Just to show how \u201ccontempo\u201d Stephen Foster is, here\u2019s another tune (not from the album) offered by a quartet you may have heard of.<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=I_md_z_g8sk?fs=1<\/a>\n
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It turns out that a 2005 Grammy was won by an absolutely gorgeous album of Stephen Foster music titled \u201cBeautiful Dreamer\u201d and put together by an enterprising group called American Roots Publishing. It offers arrangements of Foster songs by a host of contemporary artists, from Ollabelle to Roger McGuinn, formerly \u201cJim\u201d McGuinn of my Truly-All-Time Favorite Group, the Byrds. You can order the Foster collection here<\/a>, and I recommend that you do so.<\/p>\n