Category Archives: Music

Stan Getz Quartet’s Live At Montreux 1972

Stan Getz’s audiences must have been a little confused when he rolled out the songs he played at Montreux in July 1972. Most of his program was made up of songs he and his new quartet had recorded that March, … Continue reading

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Thompson’s Family

Fans of Richard and Linda Thompson have been waiting for them to record together again since they broke up more than 30 years ago. I suppose a reunion of sorts became inevitable when two of their offspring, Teddy and Kami, … Continue reading

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Cahalen Morrison & Country Hammer’s The Flower of Muscle Shoals

Fresh off his earlier 2014 release with Eli West I’ll Swing My Hammer With Both My Hands Seattle’s Cahalen Morrison moves easily from old-time and Appalachian music to a classic country-western sound with his band Country Hammer on The Flower … Continue reading

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Aallotar’s In Transit

Aallotar is a new duo making contemporary Finnish folk music. Finnish-American fiddler Sara Pajunen (who I previously knew from two albums cut with American guitarist Jonathan Rundman in Kaivama) and Finnish accordionist Teija Niku (Polka Chicks) met in early 2013 … Continue reading

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Cory Branan’s The No-Hit Wonder

Cory Branan’s The No-Hit Wonder is a bracing reminder of what a superb songwriter and performer he is. A Tennessee native who records on the Chicago indie label Bloodshot, Branan comfortably wraps himself in a patchwork Americana quilt that’s equal … Continue reading

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Richard Thompson’s Acoustic Classics

Richard Thompson’s style and competence as a solo performance have evolved a lot in just the past 20 years, and even more since he broke up with his former wife and singing partner Linda Thompson and set out on his … Continue reading

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Locust Honey String Band’s Never Let Me Cross Your Mind

What?! Another youthful string band? Yes, and to my ears this one rises above most of its peers. Here’s the short version: Fourteen songs in the old-time Appalachian tradition, sung in two- and three-part harmony by young women who also … Continue reading

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Ataloft’s Ataloft

After about 20 years fronting the alt-country band Frog Holler, singer and songwriter Darren Schlappich has gone off on a side project to record some songs that don’t quite fit that band’s mold. The new band is called Ataloft, after … Continue reading

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Cannonball Adderley’s The Black Messiah

Three and forty years after it was recorded, this amazing set of live jazz by the Cannonball Adderley Quintet is seeing its first release on CD. It’s a revealing snapshot of where jazz and especially Adderley were in those heady … Continue reading

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Bumper Jacksons’ Sweet Mama, Sweet Daddy, Come In

Sweet Mama, Sweet Daddy, Come In is jazz of a populist kind, blending all sorts of Americana influences into a sweet, funky stew. The Bumper Jacksons at their core are two vibrant, multi-talented musicians from different backgrounds. Jess Eliot Myhre … Continue reading

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