Category Archives: Music

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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Jimmy Hutchinson’s Corachree and Gary Greene’s The Grand Imagineer

At one of my local folk clubs the other week, the compere said if he were asked to epitomise ‘traditional folk music’ he would have to choose one of the many singers like Jimmy Hutchinson. I think maybe he was … Continue reading →

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Sad Daddy’s Way Up in the Hills

Sad Daddy is a wonderfully diverse and versatile band. The music they make is broadly acoustic country music, loosely falling into the now so broad as to be nearly meaningless category of Americana. But all four members are top-notch songwriters, … Continue reading →

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Maya De Vitry’s Violet Light

Maya de Vitry‘s third solo album Violet Light is a superb collection of country-tinged folk music. Raised in Pennsylvania and now based in Tennessee, she’s been a part of the U.S. folk scene for 10 years now since starting out … Continue reading →

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M. Ward’s Post-War

M. Ward is on a roll. With Post-War, he has released his fifth full-length CD (third for Merge), and against all odds he keeps getting better. He’s still recognizably the same singer-songwriter he was on his first, Duets for Guitars … Continue reading →

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M. Ward’s Transistor Radio

Ever since his first album Duets For Guitar, No. 2 was released by Howe Gelb’s Ow Om label around the turn of the century (where it remains one of the label’s best sellers), Matt Ward has produced albums with a … Continue reading →

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Various artists’ I Am The Resurrection: A Tribute to John Fahey

John Fahey was an immensely influential musician. He collected old blues records and helped revive interest in the Delta masters in the early 1960s. He started his own record label on which he recorded his own unique take on Delta … Continue reading →

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M. Ward, September 30, 2006, Crystal Ballroom, Portland, Oregon, U.S.A.

One of the things that immediately attracted me to M. Ward was his muscular guitar playing. Sure, he was sometimes lumped in with the early ’00s crop of sensitive male singer-songwriters dubbed emo, for the way they often wore their … Continue reading →

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