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Recent Posts
- 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
- What’s New for the 10th of November: a grab bag of books from our favorite authors; Richard Thompson and Stephane Grappelli on film; music from all over; and comfort food
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Brandy (A Letter to Tessa)
- What’s New for the 27th of October: The Byrds Live, Trader Joe’s Organic Hot Cocoa Mix, Some Excellent Music Reviews, Folkmanis Puppets of an Autumnal Nature, The Mouse Guard begins…
- A Kinrowan Estate story: All The World’s A Stage
- What’s New for the 13th of October: Elizabeth Bear tends a pot of turkey stock, Groot and Rocket Raccoon, A Video and Fiction set in India, Tasty music reviews, and music from Irish trad band Clannad
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Autumn is Here (A Letter to Anna)
- What’s New for the 29th of September: Louisiana’s Lost Bayou Ramblers, live music by Kathryn Tickell, Ottawa based urban fantasies by Charles de Lint, Norwegian saxophonist Karl Seglem, Gus on the Estate Kitchen garden and other Autumnal matters
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Tag Archives: Balkan music
Makam’s Almanach
Makám has been putting its own stamp on Hungarian folk music for more than 20 years now. Or rather, Zoltán Krulik’s stamp. Almanach is the first album by this group I have heard, but they’ve been making recordings since 1984. … Continue reading
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Tagged Balkan music, folk-rock, Jazz music, world music
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Balkanarama’s Balkanarama Live
Seattle band Balkanarama plays mostly Rom or Gypsy music, largely dance music of the type you’d hear at wedding celebrations in Bulgaria, Macedonia, Bosnia, Serbia, Albania and Greece. In addition to traditional instruments like violin (Matty Noble), saxophone (Ferko Saxmanov) … Continue reading
Ion Petre Stoican’s Sounds From A Bygone Age, Vol. 1
This record has quite a back-story. Ion Petre Stoican was a relatively unknown musician in the lively Bucharest scene of the 1970s. He had played professionally, particularly for weddings and such, in a port town for some 15 years, but … Continue reading
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Tagged Balkan music, music
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Zabe i Babe’s Drumovi
Zabe i Babe (pronounced something like ZHA-bay ee BAH-bay) is a bi-national folk-pop ensemble. The Bosnian-American group is a side project for members of the American folk-punk group Cordelia’s Dad, whose frontman, Tim Eriksen, sings and plays on this disc, … Continue reading
Stian Carstensen’s Backwards Into the Backwoods
Stian Carstensen is a Norwegian multi-instrumentalist, the cracked genius behind the group Farmer’s Market, which combines Scandinavian folk, Balkan dance music and wild post-bop jazz into a heady and infectious brew. On Backwards Into the Backwoods, his latest project freed … Continue reading
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Tagged Americana music, Balkan music, contemporary music, Jazz music, Nordic music
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The Baksheesh Boys’ The Baksheesh Boys
Judith Gennett wrote this review. At my college, the typical folkdancer was a nerdy professor’s daughter wearing a homemade polyester peasant blouse who danced with a buck-toothed smile to crackly Monitor LPs. Hence, I long ago missed the boat on … Continue reading
Sviraj’s Balkan Jam I
Balkan Jam I is the first recording put out by the Pennsylvania-based trio Sviraj (pronounced Svee-rye with a rolled “r). On the heels of the critical success of its 2000 release, Ciganine the group has re-released its back-catalog. Balkan Jam … Continue reading
Cosmic Voices of Bulgaria’s Mechmetio
A women’s Bulgarian choral group was one of the major phenomena of world music in the 1990s. Cosmic Voices of Bulgaria is a similar group, with a fresh recording of lively and varied choral music as it’s only made in … Continue reading
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Tagged Balkan music, world music
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Beyond the Pale’s Routes
Beyond the Pale, formed in 1998 in Toronto, is a young quintet making lively klezmer-based music. The fact that they’ve played more than 200 gigs in their three years together has paid off in a top-notch debut recording. Routes is … Continue reading
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Tagged Balkan music, folk music, Klezmer music, world music
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Sviraj’s Ciganine
This review was written by Naomi DeBruyn. Sviraj (pronounced Svee-rye — with the “r” rolled; and meaning “Play on!”) is a trio of three childhood friends from Pennsylvania, who have been playing their music for twelve years. Their music has … Continue reading