Category Archives: Music

Various artists’ The Acoustic Folk Box

Big Earl Sellar wrote this review. I’ve always had the view that compilations come in two shades: the first are uniform releases that stand as a cohesive whole; the second are generalist overviews, with listenable and skippable tracks. This four … Continue reading

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Robin Bullock, Al Petteway and Amy White’s A Midnight Clear

For an album subtitled ‘A Celtic Christmas’ it’s ironic that I am writing this review at Summer Solstice, 21st June. I don’t think I had realised before researching this album how different Christmas is on the two sides of the … Continue reading

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Pyewackett’s The Man in the Moon Drinks Claret

Pyewackett were one of those groups that defied categorization: experimenting with English traditional material, early music from France and Italy, and electronic music. While playing as a dance band with a caller, they also played in concerts in the UK, … Continue reading

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Warsaw Village Band’s Uprooting

Warsaw Village Band burst onto the world music scene when their album People’s Spring was released internationally in early 2004. This young Polish group set out to combine a deep respect for the fiddle traditions of their homeland with a … Continue reading

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Warsaw Village Band’s People’s Spring

As could probably be guessed by the band’s name, the Warsaw Village Band hails from Poland’s capital city, but plays the folk music that developed in its homeland’s villages. What might surprise people, though, is how this group of six … Continue reading

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The Waterboys’ A Rock In The Weary Land

No’am Newman wrote this review. Oh No’am, I know you’re disappointed with this disc; I know that you were expecting The Waterboys of Whole Of The Moon and Fisherman’s Blues and instead you got something else. But it’s not my … Continue reading

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Mike Scott’s The Waterboys: An omnibus review, 1983-2000

The Waterboys’ The Waterboys (Ensign, 1983) The Waterboys’ A Pagan Place (Ensign, 1984) The Waterboys’ This Is The Sea (Ensign, 1985) The Waterboys’ Fisherman’s Blues (Ensign, 1988) The Waterboys’ Room To Roam (Ensign, 1990) The Waterboys’ Dream Harder (Geffen, 1993) … Continue reading

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Kelly Joe Phelps’s Brother Sinner And The Whale

Kelly Joe Phelps has gone back to the well and emerged with a deeply satisfying album of deeply spiritual songs. Brother Sinner And The Whale is Phelps’s 10th album since his 1994 debut Lead Me On on Portland, Oregon’s independent … Continue reading

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Cowboy Junkies’ In the Time Before Llamas

John D. Benninghouse wrote this review. Some eleven years ago I had a college roommate who was seemingly in love with all things relating to cowboys, however loosely. I recall his nose planted in the Lonesome Dove series when he … Continue reading

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Arlo Guthrie’s Live in Sydney

Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be. Who said that? Smart guy! [David: It was Peter De Vries, in his 1959 novel The Tents of Wickedness. – ed.] I remember when Arlo Guthrie was The Young Turk. His father’s son, … Continue reading

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