Bobby Darin I fear I’ve become a bit of a crank. My previous post likely creates the impression that I insist that somehow all songs that involve crime or murder must be serious, and that there’s no room for a … Continue reading →
LIZ FRAME and THE KICKERS Sooner Silly Fishy www.lizframeandthekickers.com Proof that live music lives: I first heard Liz Frame at a street festival. She blew me away then and her new CD still has me … Continue reading →
Louis Armstrong SatchmoIf there’s any one person to thank for bringing this bit of murderous, Marxist musical-theater satire to a large English-language audience, it’s none other than Louis Armstrong. He was not the first performer of an English version of … Continue reading →
MICHAEL LEWIS The Natural World: Lyric Driven Songs of the Borderlands Michael Lewis 001 www.michaellewismusic.net With his wife Denise Wilson, Lewis is one half of the singer-songwriter duo Traveler’s Dream. They’ve been on the road … Continue reading →
Rudolf Forster in G.W. Pabst’s 1931 “Die 3-Groschen-Oper “ One challenge of exploring how music allows people to respond to murder, tragedy, and other forms of violent hardship, is that it makes one attuned to, well, murder, tragedy, and other forms … Continue reading →
HARALD HAUGAARD Den Femste Søster Westpark 0511 www.westparkmusic.de Harald Haugaard might still be best remembered as half of Haugaard & Høirup, but for the last few years he’s been forging his own career. This … Continue reading →
ARNE ANDERDAL Godsruta: Tradisjonmusik frå Hallingdal og Hemsedal Etnisk Musikklubb 81 www.etniskmusikklubb.no Norwegian Arne Anderdal has played the Hardanger fiddle (like a normal fiddle but with four sympathetic drone strings) and investigated the music of … Continue reading →
In the last post on Led Zeppelin’s “Gallows Pole,” we looked at how a centuries-old English tale about a fair maiden who loses a golden ball evolved into two different stories – one with a fairy tale ending in which … Continue reading →
DAPPER’S DELIGHT Indoors Karnatic Lab 025 www.karnaticlab.com/ Dapper’s Delight, the Dutch-based duo of Anglo concertina and recorder (the recorders are specially made and based on 16th century models) specialize in music that sounds far … Continue reading →
SPIRO Kaleidophonica RealWorld 188 www.realworldrecords.com www.spiromusic.com Spiro is a quartet of highly imaginative musicians centered around the English town of Bristol. At first glance the combination of fiddle, piano accordion, mandolin and guitar would indicate … Continue reading →
