-
Meta
Editorial Staff
Cat Eldridge
Gary WhitehouseSearch
-
Recent Posts
- What’s New for the 22nd of June: books about baseball, air travel most unusual, some music about baseball (and some not)
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Handfasting (A Letter to Katrina)
- What’s New for the 8th of June: kibbles and bits — lots of fairy tales, steamy anime, a Cairo comic, new jazz, an archival grab bag, and a Kitchen tale
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Our Cats
- What’s New for the 25th of May: new and notable SFF books; Murderbot on TV, and some Star Wars prequel movies; new jazz music and some tasty archival selections; food & steelworker strikes; and a novel Tarot deck
- What’s New for the 11th of May: Special Jack Zipes edition on fairy tales; an obsure Tam Lin film treatment; songs that tell stories; new jazz, Danish fiddle tunes, Norwegian women’s vocal music; Russian and Eastern European food and cooking, and more
- What’s New for the 27th of April: Tim Pratt & Heather Shaw’s fiction and Flytrap zine; Tea with Jane Austen; a fine French fairy tale film; some new jazz and archival francophone music reviews; and the Stones!
- A Kinrowan Estate story: A Most Beguiling Cookbook
- What’s New for the 13th of April: Anthony Bourdain in print and video; Calexico, Giant Sand and related music; new recordings of ragas, Nordic songs, and vocal jazz, ‘The Night They Drive Old Dixie Down’ performed by The Band
- A Kinrowan Story: We Lost The Cheshire Cat
- What’s New for the 30th of March: Space Opera by Niven & Pournell, Arkady Martine, C. J. Cherryh, Elizabeth Bear, Simon Jimenez and more; Kage reads for us ‘The Empress of Mars’, a novella she wrote; a grab bag of music including new Buryat folk music; The Ukrainians; live music from the Scottish band Iron Horse; Gail Simone graphic novels; Farscape; and of course chocolate
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Our Rooms
- What’s New of 16th of March: A variety of mysteries; some new Scottish music by an old band, new jazz, and splendid archival reviews; ballads in graphic novel form; and chocolate in Paris
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Pub Ghoulies
- What’s New of 2nd of March: Kibbles and Bits including ghostly stories, the Hotel California, music picked by Gary of course
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Quotes that aren’t
- What’s New for the 16th of February: Books by and about Bob Dylan, and music by Dylan and others; plus some new world music and jazz
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Unreliable Narrators
- What’s New for the 2nd of February: All about the Oz books, green man lore, and gargoyles; Baltic polyphony, East-West ambient psychedelia, and a grab bag of other music
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Knit One, Purl Two
- What’s New for the 19th of January: Go Ahead, Be Pleasantly Surprised At What’s Here
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Ancients and Venerables of Guild of St. Nicholas
- What’s New for the 5th of January: A look back at books Gary reviewed in 2024; some seasonally appropriate Nordic music and a little new jazz
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Biscuits
- What’s New for the 22nd of December: A Solstice Story, Crow Girls, Scrooge, Marley, Elizabeth I, Revels and more festive holiday reading; The Lion in Winter on stage and screen; Jethro Tull, Steeleye Span, Christine Lavin, swinging jazz and more holiday sounds
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Fireplaces
- What’s New for the 8th of December: Elizabeth Bear fiction; some holiday related offerings including new music from The Unthanks, Americana tinged jazz, Polar Express, and more
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Eggnog
- What’s New for the 24th of November: Norwegian winter holiday music, archival jazz, new roots music from around Europe, and more; books and what not about things fictional & medæival
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Pudding
-
Start your VIP journey at JokaRoom VIP today! Enjoy top games & jackpots in Australia's premier online casino.
Tag Archives: Balkan music
Divanhana’s Zavrzlama
Divanhana is a Bosnian sevdah band founded in 2009 by a group of students from the Sarajevo Music Academy. Fronted by powerful and supple singer Šejla Grgić, they play folk and “urban traditional” music from Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well … Continue reading
Elina Duni and Rob Luft’s Lost Ships
I was utterly beguiled by Elina Duni the first time I heard her sing, which was on the ECM debut of her longtime quartet, 2012’s Matanë Malit. On that first album and the follow-up Dallëndyshe with Colin Vallon, Patrice Moret … Continue reading
Posted in Music
Tagged Balkan music, Jazz music, music, world music
Comments Off on Elina Duni and Rob Luft’s Lost Ships
Emmi Kujanpää’s Nani
Finnish folk singer, composer, teacher and researcher Emmi Kujanpää continues her ongoing exploration of the intersection of Finnish and Balkan music with her first “solo” recording Nani. I put solo in quotes because this album includes the contributions of the … Continue reading
Blato Zlato’s In The Wake
I went to a good number of musical events in 2019, and one of the most enjoyable was a performance and dance put on by the New Orleans-based Balkan band Blato Zlato. They’re a superb folk ensemble playing mostly Bulgarian-style … Continue reading
Blato Zlato at Podkrepa Hall, Portland Oregon, 9 June 2019
Whenever I hear live Balkan music, I find myself wondering, “Why do I ever listen to anything else?” The wild rhythms, the hair-raising harmonies, the tunes that leap in an instant from the depths of despair to the tallest mountaintop … Continue reading
Posted in Music
Tagged Balkan music
Comments Off on Blato Zlato at Podkrepa Hall, Portland Oregon, 9 June 2019
Elina Duni’s Partir
“We’re all leaving. Bound to be torn away, one day or another, from what we love.” With those words Elina Duni welcomes her audience in to her latest project, a cycle of songs from around the world about love, loss … Continue reading
Posted in Music
Tagged Balkan music, Jazz music, traditional music
Comments Off on Elina Duni’s Partir
Eva Salina and Peter Stan’s Sudbina
This review is different from nearly every one I’ve ever written, in that it draws more from the album’s publicity and background than my opinions about the recording itself. The publicity material is uncommonly well-written and presents quotes from the … Continue reading
Damir Imamovič’s Sevdah Takht’s Dvojka
This album was actually released in 2016 but only recently came to my attention. My ear has wandered away from Balkan music for a while, and Damir Imamovič turns out to be a great attention-getter. Imamovič is the scion of … Continue reading
Amira Medunjanin’s Damar
I haven’t listened to a lot of sevdah, but I am familiar with Mostar Sevdah Reunion, probably the best-known sevdah group outside of Bosnia & Herzegovina. Amira Medunjanin sang on their 2003 album A Secret Gate before going on to … Continue reading
Boiled in Lead’s 17 March 2001
Boiled in Lead are, without any doubt, one of the best live Celtic/punk/balkan fusion bands on the planet bar none. Confused yet? Well, let’s have Chuck Lipsig in his essential Boiled In Lead omnibus give a go at explaining them: ‘The problem … Continue reading
Posted in Music
Tagged AMert=ricana music, Balkan music, boiled in Lead, Celtic music
Comments Off on Boiled in Lead’s 17 March 2001