Category Archives: Music

Bria Skonberg’s Into Your Own

Bria Skonberg is a native of Chilliwack, in the Canadian province of British Columbia, but she’s currently a rising star on the New York jazz scene and at festivals everywhere. She’s best known as a trumpeter playing traditional jazz, but … Continue reading

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Ernst Reijseger, Tenore e Cuncordu de Orosei, and Mola Sylla’s Requiem For A Dying Planet

Rarely have I learned as much when preparing to write a review as I have learned because of this album. Not only is this the most beautiful recording I’ve heard in years, listening to and learning about it has been … Continue reading

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Øyonn Groven Myhren and Marit Karlberg’s Tostemt, and Kvedarkvintetten’s Tagal

Here are a couple of new albums by Norwegian women’s vocal groups singing in different folk traditions. Øyonn Groven Myhren and Marit Karlberg first recorded together as members of the vocal group Dvergmål, which released albums in 1996 and 2004. … Continue reading

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Haugaard & Høirup’s Rejsedage/Travelling

This year marked a milestone for the Danish folk duo Haugaard & Høirup. It’s 10 years since they first collaborated. In those years, they’ve won seven Danish Music Awards, played more than 850 concerts and traveled the world. They’ve released … Continue reading

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Haugaard and Hoirup’s Gaestebud/Feast

Danish musicians Harald Haugaard and Morten Alfred Hoirup continue to make beautiful music together on Gaestebud/Feast, their fifth release. This time, they’ve invited a bunch of friends along, and truly created a feast of Nordic (and related) acoustic folk music. … Continue reading

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Dreamers’ Circus’s Handed On

During the enforced downtime of the Covid pandemic, the members of Denmark’s roots music trio Dreamers’ Circus composed a bunch of tunes, which they published as a book called Handed On. Now that they’re able to tour and record again, … Continue reading

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Yonglee & the Doltang’s Invisible Worker, and Michael Sarian’s Esquina

I think of myself as more of an acoustic jazz fan than anything, but I’m definitely a sucker for the jazz-rock fusion of my youth: Mahavishnu Orchestra, Bitches Brew-era Miles Davis, Return To Forever, Weather Report. Especially if it has … Continue reading

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Sean Wilentz and Greil Marcus’s The Rose & the Briar: Death, Love and Liberty in the American Ballad

A while back Gary Whitehouse reviewed a compilation CD entitled The Rose & the Briar: Death, Love and Liberty in the American Ballad here in these very pages. It was a CD containing twenty American “ballads.” The book of the … Continue reading

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Eric Brace & Karl Straub’s Hangtown Dancehall

Nashville’s Eric Brace has teamed up with fellow singer-songwriter Karl Straub to write a “folk opera” set during the California Gold Rush, based on the story behind “Sweet Betsy From Pike,” one of the most durable folk songs to come … Continue reading

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Yves Brouqui’s Mean What You Say, and Brian Charette’s Borderless

I don’t think you’ll hear a better new album of straight ahead guitar jazz this year than Yves Brouqui’s Mean What You Say. Brouqui has been playing professionally since he began in Paris in 1986, and since a long stint … Continue reading

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