Category Archives: Music

Rolf Lislevand’s La Mascarade

Rolf Lislevand is a Norwegian performer of early music specializing in plucked string instruments — lute, vihuela, baroque guitar and theorbo. We’ve run into him before here, but I should take this opportunity to note that as well as being … Continue reading

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Rolf Lislevand’s Diminuito

Rolf Lislevand, in his essay accompanying Diminuito, says that this collection is about the Italian renaissance, “how it understood itself, how we understand it today, and how we would have understood it if we had been contemporary with it.” That’s … Continue reading

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Red Clay Ramblers’ It Ain’t Right

The Red Clay Ramblers have been playing what’s now known as “new old-time” music since the early 1970s, and it’s entirely possible that they invented the genre, or at least played a part in its birth. They’ve put out more … Continue reading

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Rocky River Bush Band’s Sea Boots And Swags

Tim Hoke penned this review. The title gives a good sense of what can be heard on this disc. The selections mostly have to with the sea (including four traditional shanties), with a couple of Australian bush songs thrown in, and … Continue reading

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Enya’s And Winter Came…

While her siblings and uncles in Clannad may have created the Celtic/New Age hybrid genre, it was Enya who brought the style to its commercial and artistic peaks. Enya’s 1987 self-titled debut defined all the core elements of her sound, including multiply-layered … Continue reading

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Anna & Elizabeth’s Sun to Sun

Anna Roberts-Gevalt and Elizabeth LaPrelle took the folk music world by storm with their 2014 self-titled album. It made my Top 10 for the year and was similarly honored by media from American Songwriter to No Depression to NPR to … Continue reading

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Çudamani: The Seven-Tone Gamelan Orchestra from the Village of Pengosekan, Bali

Implicit in the subtitle of this CD is a bit of information that is important in Balinese gamelan music: most orchestras come from particular villages, working in the traditions of those villages. They also compete for honors, reflecting glory not … Continue reading

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Various Artists’ American Pop: An Audio History

Brendan Foreman penned this review. American Pop from Minstrel to Mojo: On Record 1893 to 1957, Allen Lowe’s amazing examination of the origins and nature of American popular music. To accomplish such a daunting task, Lowe sifted through his obviously … Continue reading

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Red Mountain White Trash’s Chickens Don’t Roost Too High

The Red Mountain White Trash is a traditional band with a decidedly untraditional name. But don’t let the moniker put you off. This outfit plays old-time fiddle-based dance music with roots deep in the rich Southern soil. The Birmingham septet … Continue reading

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Various Artists’ Beautiful: A Tribute to Gordon Lightfoot 

“The way I feel is like a robin Whose babes have flown to come no more Like a tall oak tree alone and cryin’ When the birds have flown and the nest is bare” When Gordon Lightfoot was in hospital … Continue reading

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