Category Archives: Music

Celtic Colours Wycocomagh Gathering

It was billed as “Cape Breton meets Denmark via Boston,” and it was all that and more as the two Celtic Colours 2013 Artists in Residence hosted a fiddling extravaganza Sunday night in Wycocomagh on Nova Scotia’s Cape Breton Island. … Continue reading →

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Celtic Colours — Tee and Tunes, Acadian Celtic Crossroads

Tee and Tunes Fiddler Martin Hayes and guitarist John Doyle brought the capacity crowd to their feet in a spontaneous standing ovation at the conclusion of a stunning set of reels, the climax of an evening of traditional and contemporary … Continue reading →

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Katie McNally’s Flourish

Flourish is a good choice of title for this fine collection of fiddle tunes. It aptly describes the tasteful touches that young Boston fiddler Katie McNally adds to the repertoire to make it her own, and in its other meaning … Continue reading →

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Bill Evans Trio’s How My Heart Sings!

I didn’t realize how much I had come to love Bill Evans’s music until I found that I was listening to this CD on repeat almost daily. This is such a superb album that it could easily work its way … Continue reading →

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Martin Simpson: Vagrant Stanzas

I remember seeing Martin Simpson at a festival in England in the early 1980s. He was then one of the bright new hopes in English folk music, and had released his first album. I liked him, bought a few albums, … Continue reading →

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The Horse’s Ha’s Waterdrawn

Waterdrawn from The Horse’s Ha seems like a good companion piece to Anais Mitchell’s 2012 Child Ballads. Most of the songs and the entire spirit of this project are drawn from the same well as those old Anglo-American ballads with … Continue reading →

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Sam Amidon’s Bright Sunny South

Sam Amidon is a Vermont native formerly active in the New England folk scene, now based in London. Bright Sunny South is his fourth full-length release but his first on a major label. In addition to his solo work, he … Continue reading →

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Maya and the Ruins’ Take This Song With You

It’s always exciting to find a fresh new voice, and that’s exactly what Maya Lerman is: fresh, new and utterly charming. The young singer and songwriter from Virginia sings in a style that is at once old-time and refreshing as … Continue reading →

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Vishtèn’s Mosaïk

Among what is now a plethora of artists and groups playing the traditional music of Francophone Canada, the trio Vishtèn is taking things in a different direction. Their release Mosaïk could maybe be described as progressive Acadian, in much the … Continue reading →

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Cesaria Évora’s Mae Carinhosa

Cesaria Évora died in 2011 at the age of 70, having spent most of her life singing. This posthumous release gathers a baker’s dozen tracks she recorded over her career but which never ended up on any of her 11 … Continue reading →

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