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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
Jeff Black’s Tin Lily
Jeff Black‘s fourth CD begins with a sort of retro-folk song, acoustic guitar and harmonica with Black’s rough-hewn vocals singing, “take it easy on me, take it easy on me now.” You might get the idea that he’s aiming for … Continue reading
Jeff Black’s B-sides and Confessions Volume One
I am reliably told that Jeff Black is one of the finest Nashville songwriters working today. My friend Wayne Marshall (record producer and songwriter) saw Black play in a little club near Music Row, and was held spellbound. On this, … Continue reading
Posted in Music
Tagged Americana music, folk music
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Dick Gaughan’s Lucky For Some
Dick Gaughan comes with a huge reputation and following as a traditional singer and songwriter, so I was quite excited and expected to hear something good. Unfortunately, I can’t say this album set my pants on fire. Quite the opposite … Continue reading
Slavyanochka Ensemble’s Molodoi Tud Wedding, and Vereya’s Soitua Maa
Here are two recent recordings by women’s vocal ensembles from different regions of Russia. In these reviews I compare them to other Eastern European women’s vocal groups. I offer the comparisons only as an aid for Western listeners. The comparisons … Continue reading
Posted in Music
Tagged Finno-Russian music, folk music, folk-rock, russian folk music, world music
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Gangar’s Brobakken
The Norwegian folk (hard-) rock band Gangar, one of my current favorites, has a new single out, to keep their worldwide fans happy while they’re touring Australia. “Brobakken” is an instrumental reinlender (what the Norwegians call a schottisch) after the fiddling … Continue reading
Sheila Stewart’s …and time goes on…
Naomi de Bruyn wrote this review. According to the cover notes, the Stewarts of Blair — Sheila, with her mother Belle, father Alec, and sister Cathie — were discovered in 1954. Sheila, whose family were Scottish Travellers, was exposed to … Continue reading
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Tagged Scottish music, storytelling
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Ben Walker’s Polar Bear, and Another World Away
Ben Walker comes from Stockport, near Manchester, England. Amazingly, he has only been involved playing the Uilleann pipes, guitar and traditional Irish music since about 1995. Previously, he gained at lot of experience playing music for many years, mostly jazz … Continue reading
Posted in Music
Tagged English folk music
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Various artists’ Deep River of Song: Virginia and the Piedmont
Big Earl Sellar wrote this review. Another disc in the Alan Lomax series Deep River of Song, Virginia and the Piedmont has the fitting subtitle of “Minstrelsy, Work Songs, and Blues.” These great archival recordings are just the thing for … Continue reading
Posted in Music
Tagged Americana music, blues music, folk music
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Various artists’ Deep River of Song: Black Appalachia
Brendan Foreman wrote this for Folk Tales. In 1978 Alan Lomax, looking back at a decades-long career of field-recording, began to review the huge library of music that he and his father, John Lomax, had compiled in the 1930s and … Continue reading
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Tagged Americana music, blues music, folk music
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Various artists’ Deep River of Song: Big Brazos: Texas Prison Recordings, 1933 and 1934
Big Earl Sellar wrote this review. Another set of field recordings made by the Lomaxes, Big Brazos focuses on the songs of the black work gangs in the early 1930s. It’s an interesting disc, another one of those brief moments … Continue reading
Posted in Music
Tagged Americana music, blues music, folk music
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