I'll nominate Mayo Thompson's "Corky's Debt to His Father". It's a fantastic album by one of the Red Krayola's founding members and is essentially folk rock that blends together several different genres and is a fantastic listen, even for those who aren't fans of his later post punk work.

Just looked it up. I had no idea Red Krayola had been around since the 60s.

Wishing all our contributors and lurkers a Happy Birthday because the FAIR album club is one year old today !

Some facts and figures :-
We have examined a total of twenty albums and given each album its own thread, listed in this thread´s OP. The threads are still open for votes and comments, but these are the prize-winners so far :-

Highest scoring albums:
Joint first : Nashville Skyline and Fly, Fly, My Sadness with 10 points* each, nominated by Moshe and me
Second place : Passion, Grace and Fire with 8 points, nominated by stp
Third place : Folk Songs and Instrumentals with Guitar with 7 points, nominated by Jack Pat - sorry, I mean Cenotaph

Least popular albums :
Joint last place : This Is Fire and Solar Shears, which both scored 0 !

* This is how I worked out the points:
an Excellent vote = +2, Good = +1, OK = 0, Disappointing = -1, Awful = -2, though everyone has been too polite to ever vote "Awful."

Roll Of Honour :-
This is a chance to thank the people who have helped to keep the FAIR club alive for a year:-

Contributors:
First place:
stp, formally fazstp, who has nominated 10 albums so far. Not one to show off, he actually has an extensive knowledge of, and a keen interest in, a lot of seriously good music in this and other MB forums.
Second place:
Cenotaph, formally Jack Pat, who nominated 6 albums which usually challenged us to edge out of our comfort zone. It`s thanks to Jack Pat that I now have a 22-track compliation of Exuma songs which I regularly play in my car.
Joint Third place:
Frownland has nominated 2 albums and is the most promising newcomer. Don`t know a lot about him yet, but anyone with a Beefheart user-name and, ahem, a Marcel Duchamp avatar can`t be all bad !
Moshe nominated 2 albums, but sadly seems to have abandoned MB.
Runners up:
Newcomer Cru Hoor and missing-in-action members like Petula07 and Ashberry have nominated one album apiece.

Midwives:-
Thanks to tore, whose PFAC showed us how an album club could be done. Thanks to TheBig3, Conan and Jack Pat who were in at the birth of the FAIR club, and thanks to Pedestrian and Janzsoon, who have politely, uncomplainingly, fixed up all my mistakes since !
:)

Hey and thanks to you Lisnaholic for keeping this thing rolling and helping me broaden my musical horizons!

This. I really owe it to Lisnaholic for getting me out of the shoutbox and into this club so that I can extend my music taste. You should've put modesty aside and put yourself as the first place contributor, Lisnaholic! You're the one that keeps the entire Country, Folk, & World Music subforum alive. Happy birthday, F.A.I.R. Album Club!

Hey, guys ! Thanks very much for the positive comments; I`m very glad that you both find something worthwhile in the FAIR Club, and are helping to keep it afloat.
I`ve just come back from a weekend at the beach, which is why I`m late to say thanks, and why I`m running late our next poll ....

:)

Really excited about this club, and I'll probably work on hearing all the picks you guys have made over the next couple of weeks. To give back, I'd like to nominate a personal favorite:

http://www.freecodesource.com/album-...ian-Dances.jpg
Frantz Casseus: Haitian Dances (1954)
A lovely lovely departure through the supple Caribbean fingers of Casseus, Haitian Dances briefs the listener on some of the best folk works in Haiti's canon. The album feels like a soothing lullaby for a gone day and goes well with sunsets and hammocks or a smoke-filled lonely island bar evacuating its final patrons at three in the morning.

That Frantz Casseus record looks awesome. Is that hard to come by?

Thanks for the nomination, Joy Circumcision; a very neat description, and a very interesting choice!
It`s the oldest album to be nominated so far, which is a plus point in the eyes of all those "back-to-the-roots" enthusiasts. I don`t know much about the Folkways music collection myself; I`ve always been daunted by the quantity of their material. So far in the FAIR club, for instance, we`ve only examined one other album from that source, but perhaps you know it already :-
http://www.musicbanter.com/country-f...th-cotten.html

Anyway, your album will go into our next poll. That won`t be until August 7, I`m afraid, as this club advances at a rather sedate pace, but thanks again, and welcome to the club !

Smithsonian Folkways - Haitian Dances - Frantz Casséus

$8 download from their website