
Filed under: Around the World A big pig has been freshly butchered. The constituent parts are divvied up to the various specialists in and out of the newly constructed barnlike dance hall just outside the town of Eunice, in the heart of Louisiana Cajun country. Over here, someone's making backbone stew. Over there, meat is being ground and mixed with rice and seasonings to be turned into boudin sausage. Next to the stew, a pot of oil is being brought lovingly to a boil to make cracklins out of the fatty skin, as [...]

Someone's doing something right at the Berklee College of Music . As a gathering place for talented musicians steeped in a variety of traditions, it has long held a reputation both a natural source for emerging artists and a hotbed of hybridization. You may not have realized it, but the odds are excellent that at least some of your own favorite artists attended the prestigious school, from Patty Larkin, Gillian Welch, Bruce Cockburn and Susan Tedeschi to Melissa Etheridge, Bill Frisell, Donald Fagin, Juliana Hatfield, Aimee Mann and John Mayer. [...]

It's been quite a while since our last installment of our popular (Re)Covered series, in which we revisit previous posts through the new and noteworthy. But a growing collection of stunning apres -post reader submissions and a mailbox full of new upcoming works from previously-featured musicians cry out to be shared, and we're long overdue. Without further ado, here's some new covertracks and newly-found folk favorites worthy of your attention. We've celebrated Kristin Andreassen , Ruth Merenda , [...]

Thanks to an extraordinarily generous anonymous benefactor, yesterdays mail contained an Audio Bone - a sort of headphone which fits in front of the ear, and, through the magic of bone conduction, sends sound directly to your inner ear, thus circumventing what is, in my case, a severely messed-up eardrum. Once again, I am floored by the generosity of others. Thank you, whoever you are, for making this still-struggling tinnitus sufferer and audiophile a very happy man indeed. Even more amazing, the damn thing works. [...]