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 →
DENNIS STROUGHMATT La Belle Blondine Swallow 6223 www.swallowrecords.com www.creolefiddle.com When you studied US history, you probably never learned about the French Creole settlers who founded the Illinois territory 300 years ago along the Mississippi and … Continue reading →
My chosen song this week has as its origins an English fairy tale about a girl who loses a nice toy and is punished for it. It is a tale that grew in at least two major branches. Along one … Continue reading →
DAVID FRANCEY Late Edition Laker 1009 www.davidfrancey.com After nine celebrated albums of carefully-crafted balladry, the novel fact that Scottish-Canadian songwriter David Francey released his first album in 1999 at age 45 has worn off, … Continue reading →
