Category Archives: Music

Donna the Buffalo’s Positive Friction

Chris Woods wrote this review. At last! The second album from Donna The Buffalo. I have been waiting for this since I heard the first one a couple of years ago. Why is it that second-rate bands can bring out … Continue reading

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Jim Lauderdale with Donna the Buffalo’s Wait ‘Til Spring

Jim Lauderdale is one of the most respected and sought-after songwriters in country music. And what’s most impressive is that he’s equally popular with the Nashville establishment and the alt-country crowd. He’s also a prolific recording artist, waxing numerous solo … Continue reading

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Coloma Bertran’s Principis

“Transcultural jazz” as the Microscopi label’s one-sheet says, is a pretty good description of Principis, the sophomore date from Barcelona-based fiddler Coloma Bertran. On this album the eclectic composer and musician touches a lot of bases on this trip around … Continue reading

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Club d’Elf’s You Never Know

So I guess now I’m a fan of dub? Or at least of some of its hybrids in world music, like the Turkish psychedelic dub of Baba Zula, the American Southwestern dub experiments of Calexico, and now this world-dub-jazz hybrid … Continue reading

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Freakons’ Freakons

“How much more is there left to lose?” That’s a good summary of the spirit of this eponymous album, born of the fortuitous conjoining of two of the greatest underground bands on the globe – alt-country outliers Freakwater and U.K. … Continue reading

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Almalé’s Hixa Mía

Pilar Almalé is a multi-faceted artist from Spain whose main focus is on early music, for which she plays the Renaissance instrument viola da gamba, a cello-sized instrument that has more strings and is played between the knees. But she … Continue reading

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Stefan Aeby Trio’s Fairy Circus

From the first bar of Fairy Circus‘s opening track “Marea Alta” you know this is the Stefan Aeby Trio, if you’ve ever listened to them before. The unique piano voicing and technique, the production and placement of bass and drums … Continue reading

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Buddy MacMaster’s Cape Breton Tradition

Pat Simmonds wrote this review. The Cape Breton Island fiddling tradition is getting quite the press coverage of late. Surely one of the last strongholds of traditional fiddling in North America, its popularity has been growing in leaps and bounds. … Continue reading

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Natalie MacMaster’s Yours Truly

Natalie MacMaster is well on the way to becoming the Alison Krauss of Cape Breton Island. By that I mean that she is taking the traditional music of her homeland and putting a slightly modern, NPR-friendly spin on it that … Continue reading

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Natalie MacMaster’s Fit As A Fiddle

Naomi de Bruyn wrote this review. Natalie is something of a well-known personage in Canada, being one of the most prominent fiddlers – perhaps the most famous woman fiddler – to ever come out of Cape Breton. Natalie grew up … Continue reading

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