Tag Archives: blues

Vieux Farka Touré

Posted on 23rd March 2017 by Robert

There were, in the middle of the last century, over 1,000 languages spoken in Africa, grouped into four large families, not counting creoles and pidgins (estimates have actually ranged as high as 3,000 altogether). This does actually have something to … Continue reading →

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Buckwheat Zydeco’s Lay Your Burden Down

Posted on 24th September 2016 by Gary Whitehouse

I thought I had given up on zydeco. I first heard it in the late 1980s in the person of Clifton Chenier, the King of Zydeco. Also at about that time, I was fortunate to see in concert some superb … Continue reading →

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Red Clay Ramblers’ It Ain’t Right

Posted on 29th July 2016 by Gary Whitehouse

The Red Clay Ramblers have been playing what’s now known as “new old-time” music since the early 1970s, and it’s entirely possible that they invented the genre, or at least played a part in its birth. They’ve put out more … Continue reading →

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Cats Laughing’s Bootleg Issue and Another Way to Travel 

Posted on 8th May 2016 by Mia

The Estate Library may be the only place where you can go to read William Shakespeare’s The Trapping of the Mouse or Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Worm of Midnight” while listening to the music of Gossamer Axe or Snori Snoriscousin and His Brass Idiots. The … Continue reading →

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Allen Lowe’s American Pop from Minstrel to Mojo: On Record 1893 to 1957

Posted on 29th April 2016 by Diverse Voices

Brendan Foreman penned this review. Reading Allen Lowe’s book American Pop from Minstrel to Mojo: On Record 1893 to 1957, I found myself agreeing with the late Tupac Shakur’s vision of the afterlife. Heaven would simply be a large night club filled … Continue reading →

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Welsh Music: Ar Log’s Goreuon Ar Log, Meic Stevens’s Icarws and Steve Eaves’ Moelyci 

Posted on 8th April 2016 by Robert

The more I am exposed to the various traditions of the world’s art and music, the more I credit Joseph W. Campbell’s observations, from The Flight of the Wild Gander, on the processes of folklore: in spite of the urge to … Continue reading →

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Christos Govetas: Pasatempo: Rebetika with Christos Govetas

Posted on 8th April 2016 by Robert

“Greek blues.” Yes, and no. While several commentators have typified rebetika that way, I don’t think that really gives a clear idea of what this music is like. Rebetika (sometimes known as “rembetika“) is a style of music that came … Continue reading →

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Taj Mahal’s Taj Mahal: Autobiography of a Bluesman

Posted on 6th April 2016 by David Kidney

Born in New York, Henry Saint Clair Fredericks has been known as Taj Mahal for most of his sixty years. The original Taj Mahal is an icon of beauty and remembrance representing love and amazing craftsmanship which stands outside of … Continue reading →

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Down From The Mountain / Grateful Dawg

Posted on 9th January 2016 by David Kidney

When I received a DVD player for my 50th birthday last August, my two sons had visions of using it to watch crystal clear wide-screen versions of Jackie Chan and Jean-Claude van Damme movies. Not when I’m around! Well, once … Continue reading →

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