If you didn't go to college in western Massachusetts, or don't spend much time hanging around folk festivals in the mid-Atlantic or places like the Tractor Tavern in Seattle, then chances are you haven't heard of Cordelia's Dad (I'm still not sure if that's a King Lear reference, but I intend to find out).

It was while attending college that I first heard this band. Smith College, to be exact, in Northampton, Massachusetts. At the advice of a friend, I went down to the Iron Horse Music Hall, one of Northampton's three or so nightclubs.

At the time (this was around, oh, 1993 or 1994 or so), the band usually played two sets a night. The first was all-acoustic, with drummer Peter Irvine playing a bodhran, a frame drum of Irish origin. The second was all electric.

I didn't know it at the time, but Cordelia's Dad was in something of a transition. Their first, self-titled album had been all-electric -- rock arrangements of traditional folk songs. Their most recent album, Comet, is all acoustic except for a single bonus track, and they currently play only acoustic music at their shows, though they continue to also perform electric music under another name.

Confusing? Sure. Hopefully, the history of Cordelia's Dad will become clear in a subsequent article. For now, though, let's take a look at their discography. Or at least as much of it as I have access to at the moment.

The album Cordelia's Dad was released in 1989. The list of songs printed on the CD liner looks like the set list for a girl-and-guitar about to take the stage at an open mike: "Will the Circle be Unbroken," "Loch Lomond," "Lowlands of Holland," even "Scarborough Fair," which everyone's probably heard enough of already, thanks to Simon and Garfunkel. However, every track on this album is a rock arrangement of a traditional song -- and it's worth noting that every single song is on a depressing subject, with the exception of "Rolling Down to Old Maui". This is the most obvious difference between actual folk music, by which I mean a body of music that is considered popular, but is rarely heard by the average radio listener or MTV junkie, and groups like the Indigo Girls: the vast majority of the songs are about love, death, or (preferably) both.

At this stage, the band was really just three guys with a gimmick, one that often went unappreciated in their early days. (A friend of mine discovered them when they opened for a Dead Milkmen concert in western Mass several years ago. She was annoyed by the audience's response to the band and left before the headliners even took the stage. She says of that concert, "There's nothing quite like hearing `Will the Circle be Unbroken' as a rock song." She's been a fan ever since.) Their first album is also notable for its recording of "The Baby Song"; at the first show of theirs I attended, Eriksen announced in response to a shouted request from the audience that Cordelia's Dad would never perform that song live again. Sorry, tough luck.

Second album: How Can I Sleep?, which features the same lineup: Tim Eriksen on bass and singing lead, Tom King on guitar, and Peter Irvine on the drums. This album includes a few acoustic arrangements, and even an unaccompanied rendition of "Farewell to Old Bedford". As with the first album, the liner notes chiefly concern the origins, such as they are known, of the songs.

On the second album, performances are a good deal more polished, and Eriksen's voice has gained in range and depth. Most of the songs were found along the east coast of the U.S., and at least one, "Narragansett Bay," refers to New England. This album is also interesting for its rendition of "Delia," which many people mistakenly seem to think was written by Johnny Cash. It was this recording that was current when I first heard the band live. By then, Eriksen was playing guitar, and King had been replaced by bassist and backup singer Cath Oss, who is still with the band.

In 1995 came the release of Comet, which is almost exclusively acoustic. There are several unaccompanied performances, featuring a duet between Oss and Eriksen, or Eriksen alone. This CD also adds a guest fiddle player, Becky Miller. This album presents a definite, conscious change of sound for the band, although they had been performing several of the songs live, including "May Blooming Field" (which Eriksen refers to as a cautionary tale regarding dating psychopaths) and "Gypsy Davy."

What this album has is, for lack of a better word, groove. It's much more solid than their earlier efforts, and seems to be striving to preserve old music by presenting it in a fresh, appealing way. It'll never make the Top 40, but it doesn't have to, if it gets jaded listeners out of the house and to a live performance.

For this music is strongest when heard live. It wasn't written to be shown off to its best advantage on recordings; these songs were written before sound recording was invented, before Tin Pan Alley, the Beatles, and the recording industry. These days, a band records a CD, then tours to stimulate sales. Listening to Cordelia's Dad recordings has almost the opposite effect; I can't wait for their next Seattle show.

Since Comet, the band has diversified. Roadkill, a live CD recorded at various shows (including a 1994 concert at the Iron Horse; if you listen very carefully, you can hear me applauding in the background...), is apparently their last recording of Cordelia's Dad as a rock band, as they now perform acoustic music exclusively under that name. A permanent fiddle player, Laura Risk, recently joined the group, and they've added the banjo, the lap dulcimer, and the accordion to their arsenal of instruments.

But they haven't given up rocking out old folk songs entirely. One of these days, we'll be hearing from a band named Io that sounds remarkably like the old Cordelia's Dad. Eriksen and Oss have also recorded with singers Jeff Colby and Kelly House under the name Northampton Harmony, a recording of what is known as shape-note singing, entitled The Hookes' Regular Sing. It's a little hard to find, but it's worth hearing; my roots in Northampton go all the way back to the colonial period, and I never knew this music existed.

If you have the opportunity to hear this group live, I highly recommend it. All of the recordings I've mentioned here, and a few I haven't, can be purchased directly from the band at their shows. Their web site is at http://world.std.com/~steeple/cordelia.html, and you can find tour and booking information, a discography, and other tidbits.