Tag Archives: music

The Richard Thompson Band’s Ducknapped! and Richard Thompson’s 1000 Years of Popular Music

To counter widespread bootlegging of his music, Richard Thompson decided to from time to time issue “unofficial” live recordings. With the birth of his official website “Beesweb” and a label of the same name, the number of these releases has … Continue reading

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Calexico’s Feast of Wire

In Feast of Wire the Tucson, Arizona-based Calexico has made the most overtly political statement in its brief but prolific history. Their fourth full-length CD offers a cohesive vision of the collision of cultures in the desert borderland between the … Continue reading

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Sweet Honey in the Rock’s The Women Gather

Sweet Honey in the Rock celebrates its 30th anniversary with this disc, a dozen-and-a-half songs in their trademark style. Sweet Honey is a women’s vocal ensemble that draws from the full range of African-American music — rhythmic chants, field chants … Continue reading

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Frank Zappa’s Zappa Picks by Jon Fishman of Phish

Frank Zappa was an iconoclastic American musician. He surfaced in the ’60s but was decidedly non-hippie and anti-drug, and his music drew more on jazz, classical and cabaret than the folk and acid-rock of that decade. If I had to … Continue reading

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Bert Williams’ The Middle years, 1910-1918 and His Final Releases, 1919-1922

I know about Fanny Brice. Her portrayal of Brice in “Funny Girl” was the breakthrough that made Barbra Striesand a star. I know about W. C. Fields, and can recite many of his best-known lines in an approximation of his … Continue reading

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Various artists’ 1912: Waitin’ on the Levee and 1913: Come and See the Big Parade

The American company Archeophone has released several more chapters in its “Phonographic Yearbook” series, including these two from watershed years early in the previous century. As with all of its releases, Archeophone has included a wealth of historic background in … Continue reading

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The String Cheese Incident’s Outside Inside

I’m not sure why this band of former Colorado ski bums came up with its name, but it seems apt to me. String cheese is a bland snack with a little protein, a little fat, very little taste, in a … Continue reading

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Texas Gladden’s Ballad Legacy

This addition to Rounder’s “Alan Lomax Collection” Portraits series is a short course on Appalachian ballads, courtesy of Lomax and this Virginia singer named Texas Gladden. Most of these recordings were made by Lomax at Gladden’s home in the 1940s, … Continue reading

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Red Mountain White Trash’s Chickens Don’t Roost Too High

Red Mountain White Trash is a traditional band with a decidedly untraditional name. But don’t let the moniker put you off. This outfit plays old-time fiddle-based dance music with roots deep in the rich Southern soil. The Birmingham septet produces … Continue reading

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Rednex’ Sex and Violins (Cotton Eye Joe)

2020 update: I received a good-natured letter from someone associated with this record, taking me to task for such a mean review. It was all in fun, etc. And I have to admit that since I wrote this review, I’ve … Continue reading

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