Album Notes

Swanee features vocals and instrumentals performed by the most popular and acclaimed artists of today's contemporary acoustic music scene, including:

Tim O'Brien
Laurie Lewis
Jay Ungar & Molly Mason
Norton Buffalo
Tony Trischka
Rob Ickes
John Reischman
Marty Atkinson
Todd Phillips
Joe Craven

Listen for yourself, and discover why Swanee's early reviews are all glowing!

"Assembled by producer Joe Weed and performed by an all-star ensemble of old-time acoustic players ... the arrangements presented on this album are simplicity personified: voice and guitar, lonesome harmonica solos, sad fiddles and fast-break mandolins. For those interested in American music, this is required listening."

Dan Aquilante
"All-American and All Right"
The New York Post
July 3, 2001



"This is the first all-Foster CD in 10 years, and the first with this type of performance since the start of bluegrass, country, folk, and the other styles represented by the fine contemporary musicians assembled for this collection. For the thousands of times I've heard these songs, some of Joe Weed's arrangements are already vying as my favorites."

Deane L. Root
Director, Center for American Music
Stephen Foster Memorial
University of Pittsburgh

"Simply put, 'Swanee' is the rarest of gems. Producer Joe Weed has created a collage of some of the planet's greatest traditional players and Foster's finest, most lasting works. This thoughtful and tastefully done project deserves a space in everyone's home music library."

Ray Edlund
Host/Producer, "Pig in a Pen"
KPFA-FM
Berkeley, CA

"This album can easily stand beside other traditional music classics like the "Oh Brother Where Art Thou" soundtrack. This is not only the best tribute to Foster's music that I have ever heard, it is a strong and engaging piece of Americana in its own right."

Charles Wolfe
Professor of English, Middle Tennessee State University
renowned author and writer on traditional folk and american music

"Producer and guitarist Joe Weed ... has released a stirring new collection of Foster songs, recorded with the help of folk's finest, including Tim O'Brien, Laurie Lewis, Sarah Elizabeth Campbell, Joe Craven and Jay Ungar. ... Weed and his collaborators handle these songs with the reverence they deserve. The disc's crystalline production and moving performances should make this the definitive Stephen Foster collection."

Wallace Baine
Santa Cruz Sentinel
May 31, 2001

"The performances are highly accomplished, nuanced, and uniformly sensitive to historical performance practices all the while being deliciously attractive to contemporary ears. Joe Weed's production is a marvel of great music and great music-making."

Dale Cockrell
Professor of Musicology
Vanderbilt University

"Joe Weed's "Swanee" is valuable and welcome because the full range of Stephen Foster's compositions, from minstrel show tunes to parlor ballads, has not previously been available on a single, in-print CD."

Ken Emerson
Author, Doo-dah! Stephen Foster and The Rise of American Popular Culture