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Recent Posts
- 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
- What’s New for the 1st of February: Kage Baker retrospective; new Americana, Buddhist chants and Finnish songs, new and reissued jazz, and more
Category Archives: Music
James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown
A lot has been said and written about A Complete Unknown, pretty much all of it of it good. There are so many ways for a movie like this to go wrong, and director James Mangold seems to have avoided … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Music
Tagged Americana music, folk music, rock and roll
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Stein Urheim’s Speilstillevariasjoner
Norwegian guitarist and composer Stein Urheim has an extensive back catalog on the Hubro label going back a dozen years, and also has contributed to the music of several other Hubro artists (and favorites of mine), including Frode Haltli’s Avant … Continue reading
Ry Cooder 1972-1995: An omnibus review
Ry Cooder (Reprise, 1970) Into The Purple Valley (Reprise, 1972) Boomer’s Story (Reprise, 1972) Paradise & Lunch (Reprise, 1974) Chicken Skin Music (Reprise, 1976) Showtime (Warner Bros., 1977) Jazz (Warner Bros., 1978) Bop Til You Drop (Warner Bros., 1979) Borderline … Continue reading
Posted in Music
Tagged Americana music, Ry Cooder
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Charles O’Connor’s Angel on the Mantlepiece: The Resolution Suite, and Ray Randall’s Polly Swallow
Chuck Lipsig wrote this review. Whitby is a small English port on the North Sea with a long history, dating back to the seventh century. Its famous sons include explorer James Cook and 19th century photographer Frank Meadows Sutcliffe. It … Continue reading
Posted in Music
Tagged folk music, folk-rock
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John Stewart’s Havana
John Stewart was an early member of the Kingston Trio, replacing Dave Guard in 1961. He wrote one of the Monkees’ greatest hits (“Daydream Believer”). He inspired Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac to play guitar. Buckingham paid him back for … Continue reading
Various artists’ Expresso Bongo, Original London Cast Recording
Liz Milner wrote this review. Why did I spend an inordinate amount of time tracking down this forgotten London musical from 1958? To quote our Music Editor’s response to my query, “Sir Thomas More singing to a Latin jazz beat? … Continue reading
Posted in Music
Tagged music, musical theater, rock and roll, soundtrack, trad jazz
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The Barn Owl Band’s Barn Owls Live
Tim Hoke wrote this review. I’m often disappointed with recordings done by dance bands. Outstanding dance bands generally can’t reproduce that energy in a studio, and the end result is lackluster, even boring. By recording in a live setting, The … Continue reading
Posted in Music
Tagged Contradance music, folk music
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The Baltic Sisters’ Värav • Vārti • Vartai
The Baltic Sisters’ single “Soka Saule Rītiedama” was one of my favorite songs on the Folk Galore label’s Folk and World Music Galore Vol. 3 compilation that dropped in late 2024, and I’m delighted to share the news that the … Continue reading
Posted in Music
Tagged Baltic folk music, polyphony, world music
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numün’s Opening
Driving a lonely road late at night. Reading dreamy space opera. Or just settling in to regain your equilibrium after too much time on social media. Those are the kinds of setting where I turn to the ambient soundscapes of … Continue reading
The Bridge Ceili Band’s Sparks On Flags
Judith Gennett wrote this review. Most popular in the 1950s, before the Chieftains and others transformed Irish music into performance art, ceili bands are traditional Irish dance bands. According to the liner notes of Sparks On Flags, the original nine … Continue reading
Posted in Music
Tagged Celtic music, Irish music
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