Category Archives: Music

Susan McKeown and Lorin Sklamberg’s Saints & Tzadiks

Patrick O’Donnell wrote this review. The German-Jewish poet Berthold Auerbach said “Music is a universal language, and needs not be translated. With it soul speaks to soul.” Perhaps Susan McKeown and Lorin Sklamberg had that in mind when they recorded … Continue reading

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Susan McKeown’s Bushes & Briars

Meredith Tarr wrote this review. Susan McKeown has the pedigree to produce an album of traditional Irish songs. Reared in Dublin, the daughter of a musical mother, her own musical path took her briefly toward opera, veering off through jazz, … Continue reading

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An Interview with Cara Dillon

In common with her English contemporary Kate Rusby, Northern Irish singer Cara Dillon has been performing her own unique style of traditional music for a number of years now, but has only come to international prominence in relatively recent times. … Continue reading

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Tom Lewis’s 360 Degrees: All Points of the Compass

Tom Lewis is a former sailor, a submariner, who came ashore to play his own brand of folk music a few years ago. As he sings in “Port of Call,” “No sixty year old sailor is wanted on the sea … Continue reading

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Nick Davis’s Tales of a Summer Past

This CD was received directly from the recording artist himself, who thought that GMR might be interested in reviewing it. Noblesse oblige, as they say, and it would be churlish in the extreme to refuse, even though the music is, … Continue reading

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Cara Dillon’s After The Morning

What can you say about Cara Dillon that hasn’t already been said? She comes from an Irish background, from a family with established roots in traditional music. She sings like an angel with a sweet milky voice as smooth as … Continue reading

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Cara Dillon’s Cara Dillon

This is the debut album for Cara Dillon. Why we have had to wait so long to hear from her beats me. For the uninitiated who have never heard of Cara, she is 27 years old and a tasteful singer … Continue reading

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T.S. Monk’s Live: Two Continents – One Groove

After spending the ’70s and ’80s making soul and R&B music with various groups, drummer T.S. “Toot” Monk returned to his jazz roots in the early ’90s, and he’s been playing with one sextet and another pretty much continuously since … Continue reading

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The Everybodyfields’ Nothing Is Okay

This is one of the saddest albums I’ve heard in a long time. The Everybodyfields are mostly Sam Quinn and Jill Andrews, of Johnson City, Tennessee. They wrote the 12 songs on Nothing Is Okay, their third CD. And they’re … Continue reading

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Angel Olsen’s Big Time

Angel Olsen has been on quite the journey. Since before her 2012 full-length debut Half Way Home she’s been pouring her life experiences into obliquely confessional songs. In the ongoing process of finding her voice and growing as an artist, … Continue reading

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