Stranded in the USA Early Songs of Emigration US-0326
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MUSICIAL TRADITIONS

Emigration ist eine Grunderfahrung der Moderne. Allein 60 Millionen Leute verließen Europa zwischen 1800 und dem 1. Weltkrieg. Irland, Deutschland, Polen, Italien und die Schweiz waren die Länder mit der höchsten Auswandererquote, aber auch Böhmen, Serbien, Kroatien, Finnland, Norwegen und Griechenland hatten einen Bevölkerungs-exodus zu verzeichnen.
Die meisten Auswanderer gingen in die USA, wo aus der Vermischung der vielfätligen Kulturen der Alten Welt mit neuen Einflüssen eigene amerikanische Traditionen entstanden. Ihre Erfahrungen haben die Auswanderer in Liedern thematisiert, die die ganze Palette der Gefühle widerspiegeln: von unbändiger Hoffnung bis zu tiefstem Heimweh-Schmerz. Da gibt es Songs, die den Abschied als traumatisches Erlebnis schildern, während andere vor Optimismus nur so strotzen und die Tolpatschigkeit der Neuankömmlinge - der „green horns“ - frech auf die Schippe nehmen.

In vielfältigen Brechungen wurden die Klänge der Diaspora, das ganze Geflecht der europäischen Folk-Traditionen in den USA im Zusammenprall mit der Musik der aus Afrika Verschleppten, zum Urgrund einer Allamerikanischen, modernen Popularmusik. Alles floß darin zusammen: die Balladen, die die englischen Siedler in die Bergwelt der Appalachen gebracht hatten, die ausgelassenen Polkas der Böhmen und Deutschen aus Texas und dem Mittleren Westen, die Jodler der Schweizer und Österreicher, die Gesänge der schwarzen Bluessänger aus dem Delta, die wuchtigen Basslinien der Blaskapellen aus New Orleans und anderwo, der Witz der Calypso-Sänger aus der Karibik, die Intensität der Kirchenhymnen aus dem Süden, die wilden Tanzweisen der Cajuns aus Louisiana.

"As ever, America‘s musical heritage is more lovingly cared for outside its own shores than within its brusquely defended, security-seeking "homeland". Following up its frequent forays into obscure gospel, country, jazz and blues, the German label Trikont here offers a similarly fascinating survey of early emigration songs from the wide
spectrum of European, Caribbean and Central American cultures that flowed into the country throughout the last century, many culled from old 78s.
The 26 tracks constitute a collage of overlapping diaspora, from cultures as musically disparate as Ireland (Pat White‘s "I‘m leaving Tipperary"), Trinidad (Wilmouth Houdini‘s "Poor But Ambitious"), Puerto Rico (Conjunto Tipico Ladi‘s "A Puerto Rican Peasant in New York"), Switzerland (Hanns in der Gand‘s "Song of Homesickness"), Ukraine (Pawlo Humeniuk‘s "Ukrainian Wedding in America") and Greece (Rita Abatzi‘s "America, You Ruined Me") - an extraordinary tapestry of hope, loss, anticipation, homesickness, pride and disillusion. It‘s a portrait of an era when America was regarded as a haven for the world‘s dispossessed and persecuted, rather than as a pre-eminent agent of dispossession and persecution, and deserves to be heard over there as a timely reminder of the original melting-pot principles underpinning its culture."
Andy Gill wrote in THE INDEPENDENT on 10th December 04

Easy to forget, in these days of asylum debates and draconian visa restrictions, but during the nineteenth century nigh on fifty million people emigrated from Europe to America. The result was a patchwork of ethnic communities, hungry for songs and stories of the old homeland - an appetite eagerly catered for by major American record companies between the World Wars. As with Annie Proulx's novel Accordion Crimes, Trikont's compilation Stranded In The USA taps an inexhaustible vein of stories from the immigrant experience. Dimitris Perdicopoulos sings of the grey-haired Greek returning home and snatching the prettiest girl in the village for his America-bound bride - from the viewpoint of the young Greek boyfriend left behind. Arthur Kylander, who farmed Christmas trees in California and was an active member of the International Workers Of The World, sings of the Finn hired to work on the railroad, whose sole words of English are, "No sir." Over a score of other tracks tell of immigrant misery or japes: Irish, Trinidadian, Portuguese, Mexican, Serbo-Croatian, German and (the most humorous) Jewish. The whole package, bulging with track notes and several essays establishing historical context, is a remarkable and thorough enterprise from UK-based German music journalist Christoph Wagner, also responsible for last year's book of early twentieth century music postcards, Ear & Eye.
CLIVE BELL - THE WIRE, 02-05

"26 fascinating examples of recorded music available to immigrant groups in the USA before Pearl Harbor. There's stuff here from Ireland, Greece, Portugal, Ukraine, Mexico .. .most of which has never been on CD before. Wonderful notes, photos, digi-packing and, with the unfortunate slowdown of vintage ethnic reissues, an especially welcome release."
Ian Anderson, fRoots - March 2005