Tag Archives: folk music

Various artists’ Folk Songs of the Uzbeks & Tatars of China

The Naxos World label is releasing a series of recordings documenting China’s rich and diverse folk music. They’ve scheduled 15 albums in all, with eight released so far, each covering a different region of modern China’s vast territory. Volume 9 … Continue reading

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Debra Cowan’s The Long Grey Line

Debra Cowan, a Massachusetts-based folksinger, sings a baker’s dozen Irish-influenced songs on this self-released CD. It’s tastefully played, well produced music, as good as most that you’ll find in the coffehouse and pub folk circuit, and better than some. Cowan … Continue reading

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Andy Gill & Kevin Odegard’s A Simple Twist of Fate: Bob Dylan and the making of Blood on the Tracks

Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks is a landmark album. It is listed on numerous “best-of” album lists, be they of “all time” or the Seventies, or of the rock era. It and its follow-up, Desire, are his two top-selling … Continue reading

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Abigail Lapell’s Getaway

Toronto-based singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Abigail Lapell follows up her Canadian Folk Music award-winning sophomore album Hide Nor Hair with Getaway. It is a remarkably mature record — both musically and emotionally — for a young musician cutting her third … 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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Various artists’ Folk & Great Tunes From Russia

You would have to think that a huge, ethnically diverse and culturally rich country such as the Russian Federation would be rich in folk art. And you’d be right. You’d also imagine that when it comes to folk music, there … 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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Machtelinckx/Badenhorst/Cools/Gouband’s Porous Structures

Porous structures was the third part of a 2019 triptych for Belgian multi-instrumentalist and avant garde composer Ruben Machtelinckx. First came the debut album of Poor Isa, his duo with his countryman Frederik Leroux, who also plays guitar, banjo and … Continue reading

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David Dondero’s The Filter Bubble Blues

The Cuyahoga River was the subject of scathing satire in the 1970s, when it was so polluted it actually caught fire where it passed through Cleveland, Ohio. That hasn’t happened again, yet. But David Dondero imagines it won’t be long … Continue reading

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Jens Carelius’s Opsi

Norwegian guitarist, singer and songwriter (and visual artist) Jens Carelius has turned a legendary figure in his ancestry into a unique album. Opsi is a song cycle based on the diaries of Carelius’s great-great-grandfather Fritz Doerries (known to his family … Continue reading

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