A Prairie Home Companion It's not my favorite program (in fact, whenever I hear it, I immediately turn the dial), but like him or not, Garrison Keillor does tend to get some decent musical guests on his long running public radio show. Here's what the announced musical guest lineup looks like for the upcoming A Prairie Home Companion tapings at The Town Hall in NYC: SPECIAL GUESTS : Nov 28 - [...]

Joni Mitchell 's early influence on her peers is part of the mythos of her era, and their support a major factor in her future success; it's telling that David Crosby, Fairport Convention, Tom Rush, Judy Collins, Buffy St. Marie, and Judy Collins all thought enough of Joni's songwriting to cover her work long before she won the Grammy for Best Folk Performance in 1970 - or indeed, in many cases, before she had a chance to record those songs herself. But though Joni Mitchell's emergence is often lumped in with the transformation of [...]

Karan Casey: Dunlavin Green [ purchase ] A traditional Irish song in the hands of a fine Celtic folk singer. Karan Casey's performance pulses quiet like the waters, a sweet voice floated over light piano and a subtle string arrangement. But underneath the stillness and surface beauty is the song itself, which tells the tale of The Massacre of Dunlavin Green , a public-square execution of 36 Irish prisoners of war and suspected rebels during the early days of the Irish Rebellion of [...]

I've fallen far behind on my new music listening; the stack of great music out there grows faster than I can get to them, sadly. While I winnow down the pile, I've spent most of the week listening to some wonderful, relatively new folk releases from Compass Records , and let me tell you, I'm impressed. The folks at indie roots label Compass, who became sales-parent to Celtic folk-oriented label Green Linnet just two years ago, are caretakers for a surprisingly large stable of true and traditional-leaning folk artists, but [...]