Category Archives: Music

Patrick Street’s Live From Patrick Street

Patrick Street was something of an Irish supergroup when they first saw the light of day in 1986. Then as now they were a four piece group, all of them musicians with a sound reputation and an impressive history. Three … Continue reading

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Mozaik’s Live from the Powerhouse

In the late 1960s an aspiring young Irish folk musician named Andy Irvine traveled through the Balkans. He jammed with local folk musicians everywhere he went and absorbed the different traditions of the region. Irvine then brought these Balkan influences … Continue reading

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How the pedal steel guitar stole my heart

The pedal steel guitar has long been one of my favorite instruments. There’s just something about its sound that can go from quicksilver pure to rough and distorted in the blink of an eye that captured my heart at some … Continue reading

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Grassy Sound’s The Sounds of Grassy Sound

I’m going to cut to the chase here. You need this album, The Sounds of Grassy Sound, if for nothing else than its deeply, weirdly beautiful rendition of “Tumbling Tumbleweeds.” I’ll admit that I have some history with this song … Continue reading

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Medicine Singers’ Medicine Singers

The Medicine Singers’ self-titled debut release is yet another mind-blowing musical project out of Indian Country. This year of 2022 seems to be the year for them! Although this one includes some guest vocals from Joe Rainey, a Red Lake … Continue reading

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Jochen Ross and Jens-Uwe Popp’s The Ten Islands

I must confess I’ve had this CD on my shelf for over a year. I listen to it regularly when my brain is abuzz with distractions and plans. The music of The Ten Islands has a calming effect. It’s quite … Continue reading

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SUSS’s Heat Haze

Heat Haze picks up where the New York ambient country band SUSS left off with their previous offering, Night Suite left off. That five-song EP, you’ll recall, dropped unexpectedly in October 2021. It took the listener on a nighttime journey … Continue reading

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Noori & His Dorpa Band’s Beja Power!

The album begins with a guitar line reminiscent of the great Ali Farka Touré, and with its simple tabla-like percussion hints you could be listening to another Malian desert blues band. But then the horn kicks in, a saxophone blowing … Continue reading

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Various artists’ Folk and Great Tunes From Siberia and Far East

Folk and Great Tunes From Siberia and Far East is a double CD by various artists from many of the remote Russian republics in Siberia and the Far East. Each of the two discs contains well over an hour of … Continue reading

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Susan McKeown’s Lowlands

Patrick O’Donnell wrote this review. If there is magic in music, Susan McKeown surely is a mage, for how else can her enchanting vocals and entangling arrangements be explained? Her amber tones weave a spell when first they are heard, … Continue reading

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