Category Archives: Music

John Hiatt’s The Tiki Bar is Open

John Hiatt has done it again. The Tiki Bar is Open is a rocking followup worthy of last year’s Grammy-nominated, folky Crossing Muddy Waters. In 1987, Hiatt made what was at the time the record of his career, the soulful … Continue reading

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Beyond the Pale’s Routes

Beyond the Pale, formed in 1998 in Toronto, is a young quintet making lively klezmer-based music. The fact that they’ve played more than 200 gigs in their three years together has paid off in a top-notch debut recording. Routes is … Continue reading

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Maria Kalaniemi & Sven Ahlbäck’s Ilmajousi / Luftstråk

Two musical innovators, Finnish accordionist Maria Kalaniemi and Swedish fiddler Sven Ahlbäck, have pooled their considerable talents to produce a recording of subtle delights. The 36-year-old Kalaniemi, who has top billing here, has rapidly risen to the top ranks of … Continue reading

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Ray Wylie Hubbard’s Eternal and Lowdown

Eternal and Lowdown is easily the match of any alternative country CD released in 2001. It’s packed with solid, passionate songwriting and intense singing and playing. Ray Wylie Hubbard, a 54-year-old Texan, has been writing and singing songs since the … Continue reading

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Five Furious Fish’s Hook, Line & Sphincter

Five Furious Fish are a five-piece English electric folk band, playing a unique and engaging blend of Cajun, zydeco, reggae and rhythm & blues. On this, their debut CD, they play mostly originals, penned by two band members, plus a … Continue reading

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Riders of the Purple Sage’s 27 Hits Performed Live and Drifting Clouds

Buck Page has been leading various incarnations of the Riders of the Purple Sage off and on since 1936. These two recent releases feature two different lineups, with only Page and Mike Ley in common. The stronger of the two … Continue reading

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Various artists’ Rough Guide to Samba and Rough Guide to Merengue & Bachata

I have yet to encounter a Rough Guide collection that is less than excellent in terms of selection, production and presentation, and these two new CDs maintain the series’ tradition of quality music. Rough Guide to Samba Samba is subtitled … Continue reading

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Tim Eriksen’s Tim Eriksen

Spine, by Cordelia’s Dad, was one of my favorite discs of 2000, and it remains among my frequently played CDs. Tim Eriksen, the frontman of Cordelia’s Dad, presents a heartfelt solo debut with roots deep in American traditional music. The … Continue reading

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Ardavan Kamkar’s Over the Wind

Ardavan Kamkar is a member of a large Iranian Kurdish musical family. In his early 30s, he has risen to prominence as a soloist on the santur, a Persian hammer dulcimer. Over the Wind, recorded in 1998 in Teheran, is … Continue reading

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Rosie Flores’s Speed of Sound

Rosie Flores rose to prominence as the rockabilly queen of the roots-rock and alternative country scene in Los Angeles in the mid-1980s, although she’s been playing in bands since the ’60s. The 50-year-old San Antonio native shows she can still … Continue reading

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