Tag Archives: folk music

Joan Baez’s Whistle Down The Wind

It’s just great to know that Joan Baez is still out there falling in love with good songs, singing them to her fans, and putting them on record. She’s been doing that since the year I started kindergarten in 1960, … Continue reading

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Sunny War’s With the Sun

Blues music, Appalachian music with roots in the British Isles, punk rock and more go into the potent music made by Sunny War. A young African-American woman who grew up in Nashville and Los Angeles and is now based in … Continue reading

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Eric Brace’s Cartes Postales

I’ve been reviewing the music of Eric Brace for perhaps 15 years now, and I didn’t think he could surprise me much. I’ve enjoyed him solo and in various permutations – with his band Last Train Home, with Peter Cooper … Continue reading

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Saz’iso’s At Least Wave Your Handkerchief At Me

This is a momentous collection of folk music. Not least because it’s the first project produced by the renowned Joe Boyd in 17 years (and also apparently resulted in his getting married to one of the participants). This album of … Continue reading

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TRADarrr’s Cautionary Tales; Further Tales of Love! Death! And Treachery!

Let me sum it up: TRADarrr’s debut album is one of the best first albums I have ever heard from anyone. But is it really a debut album? Three of the five members on that album (PJ Wright on guitars, … Continue reading

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Jack Cooper’s Sandgrown

Jack Cooper’s two-man band Ultimate Painting has made three albums and is working on a fourth, but in the meantime he has released his first solo album. Sandgrown is a song cycle that paints a sonic picture of his hometown, … Continue reading

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Anna Tivel’s Small Believer

Anna Tivel, whose Heroes Waking Up rose to the top of my best-of list in 2016, has a new record out already this year, and Small Believers lives up to the high mark set by that record. Portland’s Anna Tivel … Continue reading

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Alan Jabbour, James Reed, and Bertram Levy’s A Henry Reed Reunion

Due to the demands of my life as a music reviewer, I have created a new category in my musical library: despite my reputation in some quarters as a highbrow with a taste for the esoteric, I am developing a … Continue reading

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Rhiannon Giddens’ Freedom Highway

Rhiannon Giddens’ Freedom Highway is one of those rare recordings that grabs your attention right from the first note and won’t let go. Giddens was one of the founders of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, a seminal folk group that brought … Continue reading

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Suzzy and Maggie Roche’s Zero Church

No’am Newman penned this review. The Roche sisters have a long track record of off-beat acoustic releases, and this item falls squarely into their canon. The title comes from the address where many of the rehearsals were held for the material … Continue reading

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