Category Archives: Music

David Ackles’ Five & Dime, Roger Chapman’s Mango Crazy, and Mail Order Magic, and Tommy Sands’ Man, Like WOW!

There is a huge market these days for obscure music. Once only available on vinyl, sometimes only on expensive import copies, now remastered and attractively compiled and packaged, this stuff is finding release by caring archival labels around the world. … Continue reading

Posted in Music | Tagged | Comments Off on David Ackles’ Five & Dime, Roger Chapman’s Mango Crazy, and Mail Order Magic, and Tommy Sands’ Man, Like WOW!

Joan Baez Gracias A La Vida

This album and I go back a long way. Coming up on 50 years, actually. It was introduced to me by my Spanish teacher in the spring of 1974 during my freshman year at university, and at the time I … Continue reading

Posted in Music | Tagged , | Comments Off on Joan Baez Gracias A La Vida

Jascha Heifetz’s Brahms and Tchaikovsky Violin Concertos

Johannes Brahms, Violin Concerto in D, Op. 77; Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Violin Concerto in D, Op. 35; Jascha Heifetz, violin; Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Fritz Reiner, cond. The 1879 premiere of Johannes Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D, Op. 77 elicited, as … Continue reading

Posted in Music | Tagged | Comments Off on Jascha Heifetz’s Brahms and Tchaikovsky Violin Concertos

Liz Carroll’s Lake Effect

Two years on from Lost in the Loop, here’s the latest from Chicago’s Queen of the Fiddle. While Carroll composes almost all the music here (with two traditional tunes slipped in), there’s plenty of variety in found in the various … Continue reading

Posted in Music | Tagged , | Comments Off on Liz Carroll’s Lake Effect

Ingrid Heldt’s Love Matters

Lenora Rose wrote this review. This is not modern folk music. It’s a lovely album in the style of pre-rock pop, influenced by some modern singers, but just as often influenced by jazz. Except for the electric nature of the … Continue reading

Posted in Music | Tagged | Comments Off on Ingrid Heldt’s Love Matters

Various artists’ From Hell To Gone And Back: Texas Blues

Big Earl Sellar wrote this review. And so here we are, past the effective 100 year anniversary of the blues idiom – if you reckon by W.C. Handy’s rise to prominence – and Vanguard Records’ 50th. To celebrate, Vanguard’s reissue … Continue reading

Posted in Music | Tagged | Comments Off on Various artists’ From Hell To Gone And Back: Texas Blues

TW Henderson & the Blues of Cain, The Wilderness Years

Jeff Skolnik wrote this review for Folk Tales. The brand new Bluetrack Records label, based in Oxford, U.K., purports to have as its goal the preservation of the works of lesser-known blues artists. They chose, for their first outing, to … Continue reading

Posted in Music | Tagged | Comments Off on TW Henderson & the Blues of Cain, The Wilderness Years

Dorris Henderson’s Here I Go Again

Mike Stiles contributed this review. Hmm, what have we got here? First track is “Wayfaring Stranger.” I haven’t heard an opening combo of guitar and piano like this in a long time – is the vocal going to be just … Continue reading

Posted in Music | Tagged , | Comments Off on Dorris Henderson’s Here I Go Again

Dick Hensold’s Big Music for Northumbrian Smallpipes

Christopher Conder wrote this review. Despite his being a respected musician throughout North America, this appears to be the first solo album from Minnesota-based Dick Hensold. The remit here is to explore and expand the role of Hensold’s main instrument, … Continue reading

Posted in Music | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Dick Hensold’s Big Music for Northumbrian Smallpipes

Pidgins’ Refrains of the Day, Vol. 1

Data driven. Content marketing. Regression analysis. Search optimization. And of course, This Simple Hack … If you’ve had any kind of job, or read anything online, or consumed any media at all in the past decade or so, you’ve been … Continue reading

Posted in Music | Tagged , | Comments Off on Pidgins’ Refrains of the Day, Vol. 1