Category Archives: Music

Jake Blount’s Spider Tales

Jake Blount‘s Spider Tales exists on a couple of different planes simultaneously. On one level, the level of the music itself, it’s as simple and straightforward as all the best stringband music. A few simple instruments, old songs, played and … Continue reading

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Doc Watson and Gaither Carlton’s Doc Watson and Gaither Carlton

“Sui generis” is one of those terms that gets tossed around when discussing certain musicians. The Latin term means something like “of its own kind,” a fancy way of saying “unique.” But if it applies to anyone in American music … Continue reading

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What’s New for the 17th of May: Béla Bartók’s Hungarian folk tunes, Oysterband live, a bacon cookbook, Golden Age sf from Poul Anderson, Cropredy reviewed, Darjeeling tea, space opera and much more!

There’s nothing for your comfort in the place where I was born Someone’s got the roses ’cause my people got the thorns; My people are the poor ones, their country made of stones  Their wealth is in persistence, in stories and in bones … Continue reading

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What’s New for the 19th of April: Psychedelic Turkish music And Cuban Jazz, E.B. White biography, Tricksters, Music of a Heavenly Nature, On Tap in Our Pub, and other cool matters

For every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; A time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; … Continue reading

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Jean-Louis Matinier and Kevin Seddiki’s Rivages

This may be too personal a way to start a review, but I was listening to this album when I got word that John Prine had died. In particular, the haunting, elegiac cover of French film composer Philippe Sarde’s “Chanson … Continue reading

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Morgonrode’s Du milde verden

The Norwegian alt-trad band Morgonrode has released its second album Du milde verden as a follow-up to their critically acclaimed self titled debut album from 2019. I haven’t heard that first one yet, but it received a nomination for best … Continue reading

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Tamikrest’s Tamotaït

“Tamotaït means hope for a positive change,” says Ousmane Ag Mossa, the singer, guitarist and songwriter for the Tuareg (or Kel Tamasheq as they prefer) rockers Tamikrest. They, like their fellow makers of what’s come to be called “desert blues” … Continue reading

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Nap Eyes’ Snapshot of a Beginner

Nigel Chapman gives himself a good talking to on Snapshot of a Beginner, the new album by Nap Eyes. And what he tells himself is something that we all might learn from too. This is the fourth album in eight … Continue reading

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James Elkington’s Ever-Roving Eye

There’s no way James Elkington could have known about the trauma that we’d all be feeling in the midst of a pandemic when he tracked the 11 songs on his sophomore “solo” release Ever-Roving Eye. But somehow he put out … Continue reading

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What’s New for the 22nd of March: Classical Music edition

I’m listening to Estampie, an early music ensemble perform ‘Bluomenrot’. If you recognize them from Terri Windling’s The Wood Wife, it’ll surprise you to learn that they actually exist and indeed are quite excellent even Terri didn’t know they existed. … Continue reading

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