What's New at Your Library?

Music CDs and DVDs

The Fayette County Public Library has about 300 music CDs and over 200 DVDs, with over 200 more music CDs on the way. (The music CDs were funded by a gift from the Fayette County Friends of the Library). Since many people have developed their own music CD collections and are beginning to collect DVDs, the library is offering selections which you wouldn’t necessarily have in your own audio-visual library. We have music CDs like The Ultimate Wedding Album, containing vocal music by Luciano Pavarotti, Jose Carreras, Kiri Te Kanawa and Placido Domingo and classical music such as Handel’s Water Music, Clarke’s Trumpet Voluntary and Mendelssohn’s Wedding March.

A more unusual CD in our popular music collection is The Best of Spike Jones. This music, from the 1940s and 1950s, simply has to be heard to be appreciated. It’s from the big-band-and-vocalist era, but has a healthy dose of humor and special vocal and instrumental effects. Cow bells, barking dogs, clown’s horn, gargling and a tin-can xylophone are just some of the sounds you’ll hear on Cocktails for Two, this CD’s first song.

We also have jazz CDs, blues, folk, popular music, classical and sacred music. A particular favorite of library customers has been world music, featuring the sounds of various countries. We’re lucky to have customers who were born in various parts of the world and it’s great to hear sometimes strange (to our ears) and often very rhythmic music. Party tip: if you want to get some great party music, come to the library and get a few CDs with music from the Caribbean. It perks up a cold winter’s day!

Bluesland is a DVD featuring blues performances by Muddy Waters, Dinah Washington, Leadbelly, Son House and Big Joe Turner. “A uniquely creative and highly visual look at American Blues, Bluesland travels the expansive landscape of the music, tracing its roots from the beginning of the 20th century through the Mississippi Delta to Louisiana, Texas, Kansas City and Chicago.”

Not only do we have DVDs featuring music, but history (Amistad, The Civil War, A History of Britain), drama (Beloved, Casablanca, and three versions of A Christmas Carol) and classic comedies such as The Ghost and Mrs. Muir with Rex Harrison, and Bell, Book and Candle with James Stewart. We even have the classic BBC television historical, hysterical comedy Blackadder.

Oh, yes…we still have books!

Steve McMinn