Beautiful Dreamer - The Songs of Stephen Foster

Although America's first great songwriter, Stephen Collins Foster, died 140 years ago, his legacy lives on in the hundreds of songs he left behind. Beautiful Dreamer: The Songs of Stephen Foster was recorded to celebrate his enormous gift to American culture. Foster's compositions (including "Oh! Susanna," "My Old Kentucky Home," "Camptown Races," "Jeanie With The Light Brown Hair" and "Hard Times Come Again No More") are woven into the fabric of our national identity, yet most music fans today know little about him. Foster has been unjustifiably overlooked in recent decades. No collection of his music recorded by contemporary artists has existed until now. Although tribute albums have become much too common, this project's historical significance distingusihes it from a crowded field.
Beautiful Dreamer: The Songs Of Stephen Foster is a collection of Foster's most beloved compositions – and lesser-known exquisite parlor songs of his day – sung by some of today's most respected musical artists. The album includes songs by: Raul Malo, Alison Krauss with Yo Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer and Mark O'Connor, BR549, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Judith Edelman, The Duhks, John Prine, Henry Kaiser, Beth Nielsen Chapman, David Ball, Michelle Shocked & Pete Anderson, Grey De Lisle, Mavis Staples, Ollabelle, Roger McGuinn, Suzy Bogguss, Will Barrow and Ron Sexsmith.
All of the proceeds from Beautiful Dreamer: The Songs of Stephen Foster will benefit American Roots Publishing, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving American regional culture through literature and art. Goals are accomplished by supporting artists who honor regional culture through their work and by linking them with communities in focused educational programs.

Stephen Collins Foster is sometimes called America's first great songwriter, but you could make the case that he was also the country's first real pop star. Writing songs such as "Camptown Races" and "Oh! Susanna," Foster, a college dropout, was self-destructive, couldn't keep a marriage together, and ended tragically. Living on the Bowery, he gashed his throat in a fatal fall in 1864 at age 37, dying with only 38 cents in his pocket. The idea of a Foster tribute record may seem staid and archaic, particularly as his lesser known tunes are parlor and stylized minstrel songs. But minstrelsy was a lot like rock & roll, and the Pittsburgh native left behind an impressive body of work that draws upon the diverse branches of music brought to America by settlers and slaves from Europe and Africa. Beautiful Dreamer, on which 22 artists celebrate 18 of his compositions, surprises with its breadth of subject matter, tempo, and interpretation, including the use of the glass armonica and santour. Most of all, the album is uncommonly soulful--Mavis Staples's dignified but heartbreaking performance of "Hard Times Come Again No More," David Ball's elegiac "Old Folks at Home (Swanee River)," and the feathery rendition of "Slumber, My Darling" by Alison Krauss, Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, and Mark O'Connor resonate in both the heart and the head. If Foster, the pop star, were alive today, he'd likely sit at the piano in shades and gelled-up hair. But he'd be playing these same songs, timeless and achingly poignant. --Alanna Nash

These two girls are cousins living in the Bu?i Vie?n neighborhood. The girl on the left is called 'Ti? Hon,' which means tiny in English. The girl on the right's name is Thu?y, which means beautiful in English, but everyone calls her 'Thu?i,' which means stinky or smelly. She is now stuck with that name.

Thu?y's mother is imprisoned for selling illegal substances and Thu?y's father has abandoned her in pursuits of other mistresses. Thu?y now lives with Ti? Hon's family and an aging grandmother.

Lonely and without a fatherly figure, Thu?y has adopted me as her older brother. Yes, I got it right. I didn't adopt her; she adopted me. Despite being only 5 years old, she calls me 'anh Long' and refused to call me uncle.

What am I to do but fulfill the role of an older brother. When I am in the Bu?i Vie?n area, I take Thu?y's pictures, take her shopping, and take her to the neighborhood parks...

Sundae :D
This is my most favorite picture ive taken of her. :)
Her nickname, or should i say second name? Is "baby kitty" because shes short and small. Shes a year old and still looks like shes 6 months old. She is a beautiful little girl, and means a lot to me. Shes spoiled, thats for sure, and she plays fetch :D i should upload a video of her doing so. Shes a smart kitty and a good hunter. :o haa, i love me some sundae.
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