Category Archives: Music

Rough Guides’ 100 Essential CDs: Digby Fairweather and Brian Priestly’s Jazz, and Sue Steward’s Latin

What a great idea! What a fantastic job! Sit around the house, listen to music and choose the 100 CDs that define a style, and then write about it. Your choice becomes etched in stone, or at least on paper, … Continue reading

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Swill’s Doh, Ray, Me-Me-Me-Me-Me

I eagerly look forward to seeing what certain artists will do next. Swill, one of the founders of The Men They Couldn’t Hang, is one of those artists. Nothing Swill has done has ever been less than superb, and Doh, … Continue reading

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Preacher Jethro Brimstone & The Watermelon Kid’s Baby Fishlips

Did you know that the Pogues were originally going to be called The Men They Couldn’t Hang? (And their very weird movie Straight to Hell suggested their idea of what the American West was really like!) Well, history was slightly … Continue reading

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Karl Strømme’s Song Dust

“Nods to West Coast jazz and Nordic cool” is an excellent description of Song Dust, Norwegian trumpeter Karl Strømme’s debut date for the Naxos label NXN Recordings. It’s also Strømme’s first trio recording, and features the somewhat unusual trio lineup … Continue reading

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Various artists’ Three Score & Ten: A Voice to the People: 70 Years of the Oldest Independent Record Label in Great Britain

I worked in a record store in the early 70s – quite a progressive record store, actually. Although it was part of a local chain, our manager assigned each of her staff to focus on a style of music with … Continue reading

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Dr. John’s Creole Moon

Patrick O’Donnell wrote this review. A force known to move the critics since the early 1960s, Dr. John has been making his own brand of music for four decades. While he hasn’t had much chart-topping success, almost anyone who’s got … Continue reading

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A blues and gospel omnibus review: Michael Jerome Browne, Ruthie Foster, and various artists

Michael Jerome Browne’s Michael Jerome Browne Ruthie Foster’s Runaway Soul Various artists’ Shout, Sister, Shout!: A Tribute to Sister Rosetta Tharpe There are a lot of people out there just like Michael Jerome Browne. White guys with funk in their … Continue reading

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Various artists’ The Rough Guide to Chicago Blues

Maybe there is something in the city’s soul, or possibly it’s a simple question of money, but for whatever reason, for me, a naïve European, Chicago will always be the city of the second generation. When the USA began to … Continue reading

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Steven Bernstein’s Millennial Territory Orchestra’s Good Time Music (Community Music, Vol. 2)

This album, the second installment in the four album set called Community Music from Bernstein’s Millennial Territory Orchestra, has its roots all over America. From Levon Helms’ Midnight Rambles in Woodstock, N.Y., to the streets and clubs of New Orleans, … Continue reading

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Yggdrasil’s Two Suites by Kristian Blak: The Four Towers and Heygar og Dreygar

Kevin Lau wrote this review. I must confess that before I heard this disc, I had no idea what I was in for. Coming from a purely classical background, I have had a fascination with jazz but little real knowledge … Continue reading

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