Category Archives: Music

Kyle MacNeil, Liz Carroll, Tove de Fries, North River Centre for the Performing Arts, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia – Oct. 13, 2002

I wish I could show you video and play you a recording of this magical night, dubbed Fiddle Heaven in the Celtic Colours International Festival program. It would make anyone a fan of fiddle music, to hear this auditory ambrosia; … Continue reading

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Kelly Willis’s Easy

Kelly Willis‘s Easy is easily one of the most beautiful country records made in the past year. Willis has been making records since the early 1990s, after she was “discovered” in an Austin, Texas, nightclub by Nanci Griffith. After spending … Continue reading

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Bert Williams’ The Middle years, 1910-1918 and His Final Releases, 1919-1922

I know about Fanny Brice. Her portrayal of Brice in “Funny Girl” was the breakthrough that made Barbra Striesand a star. I know about W. C. Fields, and can recite many of his best-known lines in an approximation of his … Continue reading

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Vassar Clements’ Full Circle

Vassar Clements was the first fiddle player whose playing I fell in love with. I’ve always just naturally gravitated to the guitar, but Vassar’s playing on the legendary Will the Circle Be Unbroken album made me sit up and pay … Continue reading

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Langley Ukulele Ensemble’s Our Hawaiian Heart, The Enchanted Ukulele, Ukulele Family Album: 20th Anniversary Edition and Ukulele: the legend continues; James Hill, Playing it Like it Isn’t

Arthur Godfrey and George Formby are not names that come up as major inspirations to musicians anymore. People hardly remember them at all. But George Harrison was a big fan. It is said that George Harrison had a ukulele in … Continue reading

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Various artists’ 1912: Waitin’ on the Levee and 1913: Come and See the Big Parade

The American company Archeophone has released several more chapters in its “Phonographic Yearbook” series, including these two from watershed years early in the previous century. As with all of its releases, Archeophone has included a wealth of historic background in … Continue reading

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Keympa’s Reviralo and Cucanandy’s Contented Minds

Celtic music can be found in some surprising places. Spain, for instance, and North Carolina. Spain’s Galicia region is home to some curiously dislocated vestiges of Celtic culture and music. From Llan de Cubel, which hews pretty closely to the … Continue reading

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An omnibus review of midwinter holiday music

Ensemble Galilei’s A Winter’s Night: Christmas in the Great Hall; St. Agnes Fountain’s Acoustic Carols for Christmas, and Comfort & Joy; Various artists’ Oh Christmas Tree: A Bluegrass Collection for the Holidays And how do you approach your midwinter holiday? It … Continue reading

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Various artists’ Dressed in Black: A Tribute to Johnny Cash

It’s always nice to see a deserving person being recognized for a lifetime of achievement while still alive. And in American popular music, few living artists are as deserving of accolades as John R. “Johnny” Cash. Cash has written and … Continue reading

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Joan Baez’s 5 and Farewell, Angelina

These two albums present a snapshot of the American folk music scene during the pivotal years in which the 1960s became The Sixties. The popular young American President John F. Kennedy had just been assassinated, The Beatles began the British … Continue reading

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