Category Archives: Music

Fairport Convention’s Live At The BBC 

With the release of the original Heyday cassette in 1976, Fairport Convention was probably one of the earliest groups to take advantage of the “BBC Sessions” format. Since then, it has become reasonably commonplace for bands to release such artefacts, sometimes to … Continue reading

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Nigel Schofeld’s Fairport Unconventional 

What I consider the best book ever written on this English not quite just folk band was never actually released as a book. Confused? Well let me sort out this matter. Back in 2002, the thirty-five anniversary of the band, … Continue reading

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Arsis Hand Bell Ensemble’s Awake, my heart!

Eric Eller penned this review. Hand bells have always meant one thing to me — Christmas. How limited my concept was — the Arsis Hand Bell Ensemble sets this conception clearly as the narrow, provincial perspective it is with Awake, My Heart!. … Continue reading

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Warsaw Village Band’s Uprooting

The Warsaw Village Band burst onto the world music scene when their album People’s Spring was released internationally in early 2004. This young Polish group set out to combine a deep respect for the fiddle traditions of their homeland with a punk rock … Continue reading

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Warsaw Village Band’s People’s Spring 

As could probably be guessed by the band’s name, the Warsaw Village Band hails from Poland’s capital city, but plays the folk music that developed in its homeland’s villages. What might surprise people, though, is how this group of six young Poles … Continue reading

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Vasilic Nenad Balkan Band’s Folk Songs 

Joe Karrman penned this review. For many years composers from all over the world have been inspired by the traditional music of the Balkans and Eastern Europe. The Vasilic Nenad Balkan Band, led by Bass player Nenad himself, have taken a … Continue reading

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Various artists’ Music from Montenegro

Music of the Balkan region has gained a certain amount of popularity in world music circles in recent years. But, just as the area’s political struggles of the past decade have largely bypassed Montenegro, so has this area’s music remained … Continue reading

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Various Artists’ Unblocked: Music of Eastern Europe 

Brendan Foreman penned this review. The traditional music of the European continent has tended to get a short shrift here in the States. This is most likely due to the fact that the majority of Americans who claim ancestry from Europe, … Continue reading

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Various Artists’ The Rough Guide to Hungarian Music 

Mention Hungarian music in a sentence and the word gypsy will inevitably follow. But as is the case with stereotypes, that doesn’t give you the whole picture (a lot of it, but not all of it). The Rough Guide to Hungarian Music takes you all through … Continue reading

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 Okros Ensemble’s Transylvanian Village Music

Brendan Foreman penned this review. The music of Transylvania reflects the many cultures that have inhabited it: Romanian, Hungarian, Romany, even some Jewish and German. It’s a haunting, rough style of music, featuring strange harmonies, microtonal note, and some very sophisticated … Continue reading

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