What’s New for the 7th of June: Foxes in literature, live Balkan music, comforting jazz, Americana jazz, and wonderfully weird fusion jazz; and John Fogerty live

When I was young and in my prime (in my prime)
I left my home in Caroline
Now all I do is sit and pine, for all those folks I left behind

I got the Blue Ridge mountain blues, and I sat right here to say
‘My grip is packed to travel, and I’m back to ramble
to my Blue Ridge far away’

John Fogerty’s ‘Blue Ridge Mountain Blues’

Though fox hunting by the gentry was common in Scotland for centuries, this Estate never allowed them to be hunted here, so the Estate foxes have thrived. Even when we had a Groundskeeper here, before we abolished that position and created the Estate Head Gardener position that I now hold, they were safe from being hunted.

Foxes, both mythical and real, have shown up in literature for a very long time now. Our selected book reviews reflect multiple threads of their story. We’ve got two of the kitsune myth, one riffing off the British myth of the intelligent fox and one looking at an interesting take on foxes that I hadn’t run across before.

Oh and Charles de Lint, one of beloved writers here, has one as a character  in his story set in the Appalachians which is illustrated by Charles Vess, so we get to see the foxes in their glory. The Cats of Tanglewood Forest naturally being set in a very old forest has to have at least one fox among the characters that the girl Lillian here will meet; this one is named rather charmingly T. H. Reynolds.

It’s a short list, so you have time to go to your favourite bookstore to order a copy The Cats of Tanglewood Forest. Yes it’s that good and it makes really good reading any time of year. Though it is marketed as a young adult novel, I think it’s a fine novel for any adult interested in fantasy literature as well.

Cat introduces us to the foxes of Rita Mae Brown’s Crazy Like A Fox: ‘What is fascinating is the deep, loving look at that culture, and though the novels are always built upon the story in the previous novel, the author does a perfect job of giving the reader enough information to know why a character, say a fox, who was a cub in an earlier story, is now an adult. Yes, it’s a charming plot device, having the creatures speak, that allows Brown to give depth to story that’s simply not possible if only the humans in the story were speaking, and it’s particularly entertaining when the a fox and a foxhound trade insults, as they often do in these novels.’

His second offering to us is not a book but rather a film which is based off a graphic novels, so yeah it’s literature based. It’s Hellboy: Sword of Storms which his review will tell you more about, but the fox is described here: ‘a kitsune which is a Japanese fox spirit who though she does not speak a word here, and yes, I believe that all of the kitsunes are female, is wonderfully depicted here and is given enough character that you feel that she is quite real…’

In Ben Aaronovitch’s What Abigail Did That Summer (Rivers of London #5.83), there are foxes, very special ones. Let’s have have Lis introduce them to us: ‘When Abigail realizes that Natali and Jessica, the girls who invited her and Simon to the “happening” that never happened, have disappeared, she can’t let go of it. She insists on investigating. Simon introduces her to the Cat Lady, who is a good deal more interesting that that label alone suggests. A talking fox named Indigo approaches Abigail, and says Abigail is needed for something the foxes can’t do on their own.’

A fox, another Asian kitsune, is central to following novel. An albino one to be exact. Who may or may be haunting him. Robert’s review of 9Tail Fox that whittles down the general genre label and gets to the heart of the story. ‘The book cover claims that Jon Courtenay Grimwood’s 9Tail Fox is ‘A novel of science fiction.’ Considering what science fiction has become over the past generation, that could well be valid — with some qualifications. I’m going to call it ‘slipstream’ in honor of its genre-bending tendencies and let it go at that.’ So how does the fox fit in? Read the novel to see how.

Gary here with new music. First, some live music!

‘I was a member of a trio that trekked to North Portland on the last night in May 2026 to enjoy the ambience of the Rose City Book Pub and the music of Trio Tsuica, which bills itself as Portland’s only four member trio. The ensemble is named for țuică, a fiery Romanian plum brandy, and they play a fiery blend of music from Romania, Hungary and other places in central and eastern Europe.’

Next, some moving and comforting jazz. ‘Kris Tiner & Cathlene Pineda’s Sung is a deeply intimate record by this trumpet and piano duo from Southern California; every moment of this chamber jazz recording reflects a close personal connection between the two musicians.’

Jazz and Americana fiddler John Mailander has a new EP out, called Little Wheel // Hope Looming. ‘This EP could just as easily be called a single, featuring as it does two full tracks and one brief electronic ambient sample, but it is a timely recording whatever you call it. Forecast plays the kind of jazz informed Americana beloved of Bruce Hornsby fans, no surprise since that’s been a major one of Mailander’s many gigs in the past few years.’

Phillip Golub’s new album Partisan Ship had me grasping for descriptions that were weird enough. ‘It sounds like free association, but if you listen closely you realize it’s not. It’s composed music, each part intricately woven together into a fascinating and often moving whole. High speed keyboard runs, polyrhythmic drum and percussion parts, deep honks from low clarinets, melodic flute, Klezmer trumpet lines, all undershot with a multitude of synthesized sounds that create those atmospherics that make it such a good accompaniment to a good SF narrative.’

Cat found a concert recording, John Fogerty’s The Long Road Home which he really liked: ‘Though Creedence Clearwater Revival was one of the best bands of the Sixties, I’m more fond of the recordings of the post-CCR career of vocalist John Fogerty. And his best recordings are by far the concert recordings, both the legit ones like this release and of course the many bootlegs done as soundboard recordings.’

Of course we can’t leave you without music from him, so here is ‘Blue Ridge Mountain Blues’ from his concert at the Air Canada Centre, Toronto twenty years ago.