The Best of the Vanguard Years in Bloomington, MN

Best of the Vanguard Years
marks the first upgrading of the
Ian & Sylvia
CD catalog with an improved version of
The Essential Ian & Sylvia
; with cleaner mastering and some songs added (most notably a pair of numbers -- the best here -- from the
Live at Newport
disc issued in the '90s) for a total of 25. The sound is an improvement over the earlier CD versions, although the duo's music was so utterly underproduced -- what annotator
Ed Ward
calls a hallmark of their sound -- that this is represented by quieter background, rather than any astoundingly vivid textures. The obvious songs (
"Four Strong Winds,"
"Some Day Soon,"
"You Were on My Mind,"
"The Circle Game,"
"Early Morning Rain,"
"Changes"
) are here, along with many less familiar numbers (
"Mary Anne,"
"This Wheel's on Fire,"
"Satisfied Mind,"
"Keep on the Sunny Side,"
a live version of
"The Greenwood Sidie"
), although quite a few superb album tracks are still to be found exclusively on the duo's individual CDs. The main drawback is that the duo weren't always that interesting -- both are surprisingly credible working in a
blues
idiom (
"Rocks and Gravel,"
in a previously unissued alternate take), but when they cut with a full
rock
band, as on
"When I Was a Cowboy,"
it's not always very inspired or effective; on the other hand, the harmonizing on
"Play One More,"
melded with the unobtrusive string and horn section, is breathtaking. ~ Bruce Eder