Compilation 4

(IT-055)

Featuring tracks from recent I-Town releases

• 1. Jsan and the Analogue Sons - Mics and Instruments
• 2. 1 Ft. Ganja Plant - To Each
• 3. Thousands of One - One More Hand
• 4. Crow Greenspun - Small Man of HIstory
• 5. John Brown's Body - New Blood
• 6. IY - East
• 7. The Thins - Cicada
• 8. Glen the Owl - One Push
• 9. Sean Kobuk - Lost Boys
• 1. Kevin Kinsella - Ring of Fiya
• 11. Five2 - Last Stop
• 12. Trevor MacDonald - The Highways
• 13. Joejo - Big Ship

Sample MP3's

Compilation 3

(IT-042)

• 1 - Black Butterfly, Patti Witten
• 2. Here Forever - Hank Roberts & Wiggy Dog Boy
• 3. In An Instant - Sim Redmond Band
• 4. Butterflies - Oculus
• 5. The Lucky Ones - Crow Greenspun
• 6. Long Way Home - Paso Fino
• 7. Midnight Landing - 10 Ft Ganga Plant
• 8. Storm By Storm - Speer Specker Henrie
• 9. Nickels And Dimes - Cletus & The Burners
• 10. Carry Go Bring Come - Justin Hinds with John Brown's Body
• 11. Souls Of Birds - Tom Mank & Sera Smolen
• 12. Duva Duva - David Gould
• 13. When Do You Want To Be Found - Sunny Weather
• 14. This Song Ain't About You - Urban Horse Thieves

Sample MP3's

Compilation 1

(IT-014)

Features one track each from most all of the official I-Town Records releases at the time of pressing.  Each artist is represented here at their best.

• 1.Holes in the Ground - Sim Redmond Band
  
• 2.Healing in the Name - Kevin Kinsella
  
• 3.Officer - Plastic Nebraska
  
• 4.Song for Leigh - Silas
  
• 5.Baby's Mother - Mbusi & One Love
  
• 6.Sleepwalk - Gabriel Tavares
  
• 7.Vihoo Vihoo - Adonai and I
  
• 8.In This Heart - Sunny Weather
  
• 9.You and I - Double Irie
  
• 10.Head Toaster - Wingnut
  
• 11.Sunny Foundation - 10 Ft Ganja Plant
  
• 12.Gates of Heaven - Rompa Room
  
• 13.Vanity - John Brown's Body
  
• 14.Azul/Nyekeem Wicka - Hank Roberts
  

Remembering what makes ordinary New York great is central to everyone's current agenda. Three compilations released this year offer sonic slices of day- to-day communities and recall the best qualities of home: variety, engagement, the striving hearts of a jubilantly noisy population. Despite lingering sadness, these beats go on.

I-Town Records" (IT-014) is the debut compilation from the city's most idealistic record label. It instantly transports the listener to a clear summer day where reggae grooves waft through the air and long-haired men dance with women in gauzy skirts. I-Town is a collective, and its bands share tastes as well as principles; most of the album's 13 tracks show a great appreciation of Jamaica and a sneaking love for the Grateful Dead.

Most songs don't sound dated. The production is clean, and the disc's best songwriters aim for catchiness, not just jam band-style introspection. Bittersweet humor distinguishes "Baby's Mother" by One Love, while "Adonai and I", by David Gould with the vocalist Amy Glicklich, turns a Hebrew prayer into a Caribbean dream.

If the I-Town scene has a star, it's Kevin Kinsella, the label's founder, who has a solo track here as well as one by his band, John Brown's Body. His gospel-tinged "Healing in the Name" might have fitted on the Smithsonian's tour through New York's boroughs. Yet like all the songs on this disc, Mr. Kinsella's music is rooted in his home, a more relaxed place than downstate. This compilation offers fresh small-town air to New Yorkers sorely needing such refreshment.

Sample MP3's