Tag Archives: folk music

Päivi Hirvonen’s Kallio

Kallio is the second solo album from Päivi Hirvonen, a Finnish folk singer and fiddler, but it scans like the work of a mature artist who knows where she’s going and what she’s doing. To be fair, Hirvonen has been … Continue reading

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Christy Moore’s Whatever Tickles Your Fancy and Christy Moore

John Benninghouse wrote this review. Christy Moore is an icon of Irish folk music. Growing up in the 1950s, he was surrounded by the music of his homeland, including such legends as the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. After moving … Continue reading

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Christy Moore’s This Is the Day

There are some singers who stay in your heart forever. To me Christy Moore is one of these chosen few. He was there in the legendary Planxty, he was the voice on the first Moving Hearts album, one of the … Continue reading

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Christy Moore’s Live in Dublin 2006 (double CD and DVD)

I write this as Europe prepares for two nights of the Eurovision Song Contest, in which each country submits a song, often performed by a starry-eyed youngster, who does his or her best to cover his or her roots, singing … Continue reading

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Kevin Courrier’s Trout Mask Replica, and Sean Nelson’s Court and Spark

We have reviewed other books in the fascinating series called 33 1/3. It’s an incredible conceit. Give an author carte blanche to write about a favourite album, in any way they want. Recall Allan Moore’s didactic treatise on Jethro Tull’s … Continue reading

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Various artists’ Folk and World Music Galore Vol 1

Over the past couple of years I’ve greatly enjoyed reviewing a number of offerings from the German family of labels Nordic Notes and CPL-Music. Their releases cover a much greater variety than I am capable of covering (or even aware … Continue reading

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The Flash Girls’ Play Each Morning Wild Queen

They talk about the Islands and they have been called Wild Queens. I wonder if they are not really Anne Bonney and Mary Read, those piratical dames, those buccaneer broads, those sword-and-knife wielding beauties of the Bounding Main. After all, … Continue reading

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Tom Lewis’s 360 Degrees: All Points of the Compass

Tom Lewis is a former sailor, a submariner, who came ashore to play his own brand of folk music a few years ago. As he sings in “Port of Call,” “No sixty year old sailor is wanted on the sea … Continue reading

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José Medeles’s Railroad Cadences & Melancholic Anthems

It’s great to know that there’s still so much great music coming out of Portland, Oregon. This one is as eclectic and as Portland as they come, matching up three excellent and quite different Portland guitarists with a Portland drummer … Continue reading

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Bruce Springsteen’s We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions

“In 1997 I recorded ‘We Shall Overcome’ for Where Have All the Flowers Gone: The Songs of Pete Seeger. Growing up a rock’n’roll kid I didn’t know a lot about Pete’s music or the depth of his influence. So I … Continue reading

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