Category Archives: Music

Sound Bites — Francophone folk and rock roundup

North America has a sizable contingent of French speakers, including much of the Canadian province of Quebec, and much of southern Louisiana. The two regions are connected by history, too; the ancestors of the Louisiana Cajuns were driven out of … Continue reading

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Steeleye Span’s Wintersmith

It would be easy to say that a collaboration between Steeleye Span and Terry Pratchett was always inevitable, given their respective histories and their proclaimed admiration of each other’s work.  It may be an example of retrospective inevitability now that … Continue reading

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June Tabor and The Oysterband’s freedom and rain ’91 tour sampler

If it can be said that the tour programmes such as the one done for Steeleye Span’s 40th Anniversary Tour 2009 are ephemera, as they are one-offs that virtually are unobtainable after the tour ends, then the radio world has … Continue reading

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Wes Montgomery’s In The Beginning

Wes Montgomery was a self-taught guitarist from Indianapolis – not exactly a hotbed of jazz – who went on to become one of the most influential and popular players in the mid-20th century. Who knows what he might have accomplished … Continue reading

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Steeleye Span’s Mummers Play

Seeking out the early history of folk traditions can be rife with problems. The further back one goes, the less clear can become the timeline of the custom’s development. Just try finding the definitive history of Morris dancing, for example! … Continue reading

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Thelonious Monk’s The Complete Riverside Recordings

Like all geniuses, pianist Thelonious Monk was initially misunderstood, even scorned. His ideas about harmony were ahead of his time, and he definitely didn’t fit in with the strictures of bebop, the lingua franca of the jazz world in the … Continue reading

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Kathryn Tickell & The Side’s Kathryn Tickell & The Side

There are so many groups and musicians who claim they have a unique sound that it is truly refreshing to come across a group that really has without boasting about it. Like Kathryn Tickell & the Side. I have only … Continue reading

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Jerry Lawson: Just a Mortal Man

Jerry Lawson spent 40 years as lead singer and arranger of the a capella vocal group The Persuasions, singing gospel, soul, rock ‘n’ roll, R & B, and covering artists as diverse as Frank Zappa and Bob Dylan on more … Continue reading

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Mark Cunningham’s Horslips: Tall Tales, The Official Biography

Horslips were, and in many ways still are, the Irish equivalent of Steeleye Span and, to a lesser extent, Fairport Convention, as they blend English and Irish traditional material and a rock and roll sensibility into what was the first … Continue reading

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Loened Fall’s The Complete Recordings

The group Loened Fall (“bad beasts” in Breton) is, like Storvan and Skolvan, a relatively small group consisting of Herve Bertho (violin), Marthe Vassalo (vocals), Ronan Gueblez (vocals), Sabine Le Coadoù (bombarde), and Marc Thouenon (acoustic guitar), but it sounds … Continue reading

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