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Recent Posts
- A Kinrowan Estate story: puppeteers, and their puppets
- What’s New for the 16th of August: Deborah Grabien’s music criticism essays; new Americana and jazz, and some music for the Dog Days of Summer
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Midsomer Strangeness
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Contradances
- What’s New for the 26th of July: Witches in fiction, both books and film; an Americana reissue and some music on a smoky theme
- A Kinrowan Estate story: chicken pot pieces
- What’s New for the 19th of July: Charles de Lint’s Ottawa novels with a quote from Drink Down the Moon, Gary’s review of Nordic fiddle music, It’s Michele Walther and Irina Behrendt playing Aaron Copland’s ‘Hoe Down’ from his Rodeo album
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Midsomer Odd Things
- A Kinrowan Estate story: A Library and Its Librarian
- What’s New for the Fifth of July: Remembering Jane Yolen; some new Americana and jazz music; Fishing Blues
- A Kinrowan Estate Story: Recursive Loops
- What’s New for June 21: Jennifer Stevenson’s ‘Solstice’
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Turkish Coffee
- What’s New for the 7th of June: Foxes in literature, live Balkan music, comforting jazz, Americana jazz, and wonderfully weird fusion jazz; and John Fogerty live
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Bloodied Kings
- What’s New for the 24th of May: Gary’s Review of Elizabeth Bear’s White Space novels, iain’s review of the Lonely Signal Burns novellas by her, she reading her own story, ‘The Chains That You Refuse’, and I see Gary has some tasty music reviews fir us as well
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Our Greensward
- What’s New for the 10th of May: books reviewed by Jennifer Stevenson, music by Teddy Thompson, Americana music from all over, and some live music from John Fogerty
- A Kinrowan Estate story: A Walk
- What’s New for the 26th of April: the nature of Stories; some new and newish SF, plus new world, jazz, folk and Americana music
- A Kinrowan Estate story: A Spring Day
- What’s New for the 12th of April: Some new and recent SF; new Americana, Norwegian folk rock and jazz; and thoughts on War For The Oaks
- A Kinrowan Estate story: A Unified Theory of Libraries (A Letter to Anna)
- What’s New for the 29th of March: Beer and spirits, in song and text, some new Scandinavian fiddle music and jazz flute music, and more
- A Kinrowan Estate story: A Ghostly Librarian
- What’s New for the 15th of March: some DeLint stories for early spring; lots of polskas, Serbian folk rock, progressive jazz, and Nordic music from the archives
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Hedge Witches
- What’s New for the 1st of March: Emma Bull’s War for The Oaks, Rosanne Cash’s ‘Runaway Train’, Johnny Cash at San Quentin, plus new Americana and jazz music
- A Kinrorwan Estate story: Cranachanh
- What’s New for the 15th of February: Some Seanan McGuire fantasy, Alison Bechdel’s latest, Pamela Dean’s Tam Lin; Nordic sounds, old time, Americana and Tex-Mex music
Category Archives: Music
Väsen’s Väsen Street, and Mikael Marin and Mia Gustafsson’s Mot Hagsätra
Over the past fifteen years, no band has epitomized new Swedish folk music more than Väsen. A superior live act with an unsurpassed sense of instrumental interplay, Olav Johansson (nyckelharpa), Mikael Marin (viola), and Roger Tallroth (guitar) have built up … Continue reading
Posted in Music
Tagged Nordic music
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The Strangelings’ Season of the Witch
The electric sitar: Not just for George Harrison tunes. Okay, I’m in love. Electric sitar! Bliss! No, seriously. Not hyperbole: it’s love. I’m replaying one of my happiest discoveries in a season of catch-as-catch-can, the Strangelings CD Season of the … Continue reading
The Decemberists’ The Hazards of Love
For their fifth full-length recording, Portland, Oregon’s The Decemberists have made a sprawling epic of a record, a grand concept album the likes of which hasn’t been seen much in 30 years or more: The Hazards of Love. Frontman, lead … Continue reading
Posted in Music
Tagged Americana music, English folk rock, music
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Blind Pilot’s 3 Rounds and a Sound
For some reason Blind Pilot stayed below my radar in 2008; otherwise, their debut album 3 Rounds and a Sound would have been near the top of my Best-Of list. Don’t you make the mistake. Listen to Blind Pilot now … Continue reading
Posted in Music
Tagged Americana music, indie folk
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Celilo’s Bending Mirrors
On Bending Mirrors Portland band Celilo incorporate the mythology, imagery and characters of this city of rain, rivers and bridges into their music, a noir-ish blend of psychedelia, alt-country and indie rock. It comes through most explicitly on “Wy-Am,” a … Continue reading
Eric Brace & Peter Cooper’s You Don’t Have to Like Them Both
Eric Brace and Peter Cooper are a couple of the people who make music from the other side of Nashville. The part of Nashville that’s populated by the likes of Kris Kristofferson and Emmylou Harris and Todd Snider, folks like … Continue reading
Posted in Music
Tagged Americana music
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Isaac Hayes’s Black Moses and Juicy Fruit (Disco Freak)
Isaac Hayes passed away August 10, 2008. Many people only know him as the composer of the “Theme From Shaft” or as the guy on South Park, but to some of us he was a lot more. In the Shaft … Continue reading
Posted in Music
Tagged soul music
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Anatolia’s Folk Songs and Dance Music of Turkey and the Arab World, and Chicago Classical Oriental Ensemble’s Soul of a People: The Songs of Sheikh Sayyed Darweesh
These two CDs have been sitting in my “to review” pile for quite a few weeks. They made it to the top this time because the characters in Birds of Amber, which I just reviewed, refer to Darweesh’s music with … Continue reading
Posted in Music
Tagged world music
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Charlie Louvin’s Sings Murder Ballads and Disaster Songs
I waited a long time for this album. Not as long as Charlie Louvin did, though. The liner notes tell us that he’s been “singing about murder and disaster all his life.” And that’s 81 years. With his brother Ira, … Continue reading
Posted in Music
Tagged Americana music
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Ljova and the Kontraband’s Mnemosyne
The violist Ljova first came to my attention when he joined the superb Brooklyn-based gypsy band Romashka a few years ago. Although I know him from folk circles, Ljova’s musical background is extremely diverse; the list of performers he’s worked … Continue reading