Uncensored Folk Music of Austria

These are two wonderfully down-home compilations of folk musicians, mainly recorded in Austria by Arhoolie boss Chris Strachwitz in 1967 and 1971, with some supplementary tracks from the 1990s. They include lively music sessions in bars and pubs – with the Original Herbstein Trio (clarinet, accordion and hammer dulcimer) for instance – or intimate performances by veteran singers and musicians such as Karl Scherrer on brick xylophone and grenade glockenspiel (made out of old artillery shells). It’s not as magnificent as the Cajun, zydeco and Mexican music that has made the Arhoolie label famous, but it’s shamefully unknown. Given the great classical tradition in Salzburg and Vienna, Austria’s local folk music largely gets overlooked – although I suspect it’s still lurking there, even now, in the backwaters. Strachwitz encountered it accidentally when he was serving with the American army in Austria during the 1950s.

The other selling point of this double CD is the ‘uncensored’ label – although it’s only those with an idiomatic knowledge of Austrian dialect that will be bothered by the explicit content. But complete lyrics in Austrian dialect, German and English are provided in a pdf file on the first disc, which reveals a song that comes close to inciting gang rape: ‘Girl, show your pussy, there'll be a bunch of riders. If each one of them dips in, it will get wider’. You’d never believe what is going on behind those sweet yodels and accordion polkas.