Tag Archives: folk music

Bill Miller’s Ghostdance

Patrick O’Donnell wrote this review. Bill Miller has an amazing ability to tell a story, write music, sing a song, inspire a listener and express emotions. He can rock and rail about adversity in one breath, and in the next … Continue reading

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Ramblin’ Jack Elliott’s The Ballad of Ramblin’ Jack – Original Soundtrack from the Motion Picture

Ramblin’ Jack Elliott is a living treasure, a walking and talking (and talking and talking) encyclopedia of American folk music. Although he has been singing for more than 50 years, his recorded output is woefully slim. Until somebody produces a … Continue reading

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Cordelia’s Dad’s Spine

Cordelia’s Dad started as a punk band in the late 1980s, but within a few years was approaching older American songs and tunes with a punk-informed verve, energy and wit. The music they play, and their attitude toward it, places … Continue reading

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Ed Cray’s The Erotic Muse: American Bawdy Songs

Brendan Foreman wrote this review. Anyone who remembers anything of their childhood will recall how important those dirty words and dirty jokes were to their very existence. Without the ability to transgress society’s boundaries simply by uttering a phrase like … Continue reading

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Various artists’ Traditional Fiddle Music of the Ozarks: Volume One, Along the Eastern Crescent

Fiddle music was once endemic to nearly every region of North America, including Mexico and certainly Canada. Most regions developed their own peculiar styles — the best known include southern Louisiana (Cajun), Texas, Appalachia, New England, and Cape Breton Island … Continue reading

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Kelly Joe Phelps, Aladdin Theater, Portland, Oregon – October 23, 1999

Singer-guitarist Kelly Joe Phelps held a crowd of perhaps 500 spellbound for two hours, with his unique blend of folk, blues, gospel and jazz. Himself a capable writer of elliptical ballads, Phelps’ main strengths are his offbeat interpretations of folk … Continue reading

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Kelly Joe Phelps’s Shine Eyed Mister Zen

Kelly Joe Phelps is firmly located in folk and country blues, but he is one of those musicians who are impossible to pigeon-hole. It’s tempting to describe him by comparison with his myriad musical influences, but that would miss by … Continue reading

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Sandy Bull’s Inventions, E Pluribus Unum, Jukebox School of Music, Vehicles, Steel Tears

Sandy Bull is a legend — if not with the general public, then surely among his fellow musicians. And like most legendary figures, he is both larger than life and has feet of clay. Of his early work in the … Continue reading

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Sandy Bull’s Re-Inventions: Best of the Vanguard Years

I wasn’t familiar with Sandy Bull’s name when I got this CD, and as the very informative booklet accompanying the CD said, I am apparently in fairly good company. Sandy started recording for Vanguard Records in 1962, and spent 10 … Continue reading

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