A Touch of Tyrol

This undated and virtually unavailable LP includes a wide variety of music from the Austrian Alpine range. The recordings are not just choruses and polkas, but the "lusty, leg-slapping dances of local bucks in their lederhosen...pretty girls accompanying local brass bands with their Schnaps for refreshment." And the tracks even claim (through the power of legend-absorbing stylings) to, "tell an old tale such as that of Laurin, King of the Dwarfs, who lived among the rocks of the Rosengarten and enticed the heroes of the Ostrogoths and Lombards to enter his kingdom..." But mostly it's just a heel-kicking good listen. In fact, the only time the pace slows down is for a dazzling display of vocal control in the form of a hearty yodel. You've got to love a good yodel. I mean, they most likely haven't evolved more sophisticated pipes, and yet they're able to do things with their voices that I can barely imagine even after I've heard it. Very impressive. And fashionable. And intriguing. And....sitting on my record player, ready for another spin.

"Old an new, gay and forbidding - the Tyrol runs the gamut. Unified by nature and by tradition, it is unified by music, too - music that is vigorous, warm and joyful, with an underlying strength that stems from a hardy, courageous people."

I deem it: "A veritable dance party!"