Category Archives: Music

Clandestine’s The Ale Is Dear

Clandestine, amazingly, is a three-piece contemporary Celtic band sporting guitar, fiddle and bagpipes that predates the Riverdance mania. And it’s based in Houston, too, not a city one would expect to be a hotbed of Celtic music. Unlikely roots, to … Continue reading

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Lado’s Preveliku Radost Navišćujem Vama (Christmas Songs and Carols of Dalmatia)

This album combines one type of music that I love, Balkan folk, with one type of music I’m not so crazy about, Christmas carols. The Balkan folk music wins this battle of the genres. Lado, the Folk Dance Ensemble of … Continue reading

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Ryohei Terada’s Kyzyl Tokyo

Japanese musician Ryohei Terada has released his first solo album Kyzyl Tokyo. The release is interesting because the musician himself is a Khoomei —Tuvan throat-singing — performer. The musician has been engaged in the traditional music of the Republic of … Continue reading

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A late 2023 jazz omnibus review: Ahmad Jamal’s Emerald City Nights, Cal Tjader’s Catch The Groove, Chet Baker’s Blue Room, Lafayette Gilchrist’s Undaunted, and Espen Berg’s Water Fabric

The end of every year brings a flurry of music releases that’s hard to keep up with. To the usual year-end releases designed to appeal to holiday gift buyers has now been added the new tradition of archival sets being … Continue reading

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Trond Kallevåg’s Amerikabåten

Norwegian guitarist and composer Trond Kallevåg’s Amerikabåten is one of my favorite albums of 2023 – and of this still young though momentous decade. It’s his third as a leader on Hubro, following his acclaimed 2019 debut Bedehus & Hawaii, … Continue reading

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Benet McLean’s Green Park

Way back in the ’90s I started listening to Django Reinhardt because Richard Thompson named him as an influence. The more I listened to Django the more enamored I became of the playing of Stephane Grappelli, his fiddling compatriot in … Continue reading

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Kristen Grainger & True North’s Fear of Falling Stars

Kristen Grainger & True North continue their enviable run of top quality acoustic Americana with Fear of Falling Stars. This time out the theme is love of the family kind, including more than one personal missive of devition between Grainger … Continue reading

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Geoff Muldaur’s Blues Boy

Geoff Muldaur’s recent comeback albums (Secret Handshake and Password) have sparked his old label to release this 12-track compilation of tunes from the early years. Long out of print, the albums Muldaur made for Flying Fish Records were recorded in … Continue reading

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Various artists, The Wings Of Butterflies

This CD is unlikely to appeal to conservatives, whether of the “neo” or plain old-fashioned varieties. It is a highly political and often angry recording, aiming its barbs at a range of targets in the past, present and near future … Continue reading

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Russell Smith’s Sunday Best: The Cream of the Solo Albums

Russell Smith and I go way back. I first heard of Russell Smith on a 1974 Jesse Winchester album, when Winchester covered Smith’s hilarious and poignant “Third Rate Romance.” Later Smith’s own band, The Amazing Rhythm Aces, had a hit … Continue reading

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