The Dream City Essential Recordings Vol. 2 1997-2006 arrived today from
Red House. The 16 songs on the first disc are from earlier recordings,
and the second (27 minutes) has 4 unreleased tracks. The first is an
alternative version of Lull It By - with Greg doing vocals and acoustic
guitar and Peter Ostroushko playing fiddle and mandolin, He plays on
tracks 2 and 3 as well. I still like the banjo Lull It By best! There
are a few new lines in this version.

As far as I remember, this is the first time Verona Road has appeared
outside of Barn Aid - what a great song!

In Gallery, Greg wanders through a sort of mental portrait gallery of
women he has loved . The first one he describes as smart and fresh -
Martha Stewart's niece who liked to read Molly Bloom's soliloquy aloud
from Ulysses, and he continues with about half a dozen vignettes, all
quite poignant and tender. It has a very melancholy feel to it, but it
looks as though he wrote it some years back, so hopefully he's happier
in his love life now!

The Christmas Song was recorded live 12-15-06 at Swallow Hill. It's an
alternative take on the Christmas story - funny, gentle, moving. I hope
he'll release some of the other Swallow Hill stories sometime - I know
of one more, and maybe there are others.

Short as it is, the second disc makes buying the set worthwhile - even
if you have all the others. Many of the songs I would choose as most
essential aren't on here, but I'm sure everyone will find some they
would have chosen. Too bad they didn't let us vote!
NLR