Trying to recall St. Patricks' Days past is always a hazardous endeavor. If you can't remember one for some, ah, reason ... then you can't remember any! For the past seven years or so St. Paddy's Day shenanigans have gotten a little mixed up for me. That's because it always falls in the middle of SXSW madness - the beer always flowed, except it was for other reasons. Well this year I'm taking some Irish music with me ... not that there won't be some playing around Austin during the festivities. Irish music is a lot like the [...]
We've started the budget process over at the school committee table, and the outlook is bleak: State budgets are getting tighter, health insurance takes a bigger bite out of our state-determined minimum funding level every year, and here in Massachusetts, the only way to raise local taxes is to appeal directly to the voters - a tactic we lost by a factor of 5 to 2 just three years ago when we tried to get enough to reopen the middle school library. It's all part of a larger trend, of course. Since 2002, our school [...]
Like so many of our Covered in Folk feature subjects, I discovered country-folk singer-songwriter John Prine via coverage - through both his own "original" version of Roly Salley composition Killing the Blues , which Shawn Colvin attributed to Prine himself on her mid-nineties cover album Cover Girl , and Bonnie Raitt's ubiquitous version of Angel From Montgomery , a sentimental bluesfolk number familiar to anyone who has ever flipped the radio dial to a Contemporary station in the last few decades. It wasn't until much later, during a week in attendance at [...]
It's that time of year again! Following are my Top 15 Albums of 2009. As usual, I tried to balance the order of the list between what I personally perceive as artistic merit (quality of songwriting, vocals, and instrumentation) and basic listenability (how many times I played the album throughout the year). I've included some new commentary and brief quotes from the original reviews. Click on the album titles to read the full reviews, purchase the albums, and in some cases download mp3s... Muruch's Top 15 Albums of 2009 [...]
This lovely song is from her 1988 album Just In Time. MP3 File yousendit
Maura O'Connell's unparalleled vocal power is beautifully displayed in her impressive new album. Naked With Friends is the Irish singer's humorous way of describing this very serious and poignant work of vocal art. Determined to show that "just a singer" can possess as much talent as any musician, O'Connell recorded this collection of a cappella performances with the help of singers Kate Rusby, Dolly Parton, The Settlers Connection, Jerry Douglas, Crooked Still's Aoife O'Donovan, Sarah Dugas of The Duhks, Altan's Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, Clannad's Moya Brennan, Mary Black, Alison Krauss, Tim O'Brien, Darrell Scott, Paul Brady, Liam Bradley, [...]
This is from the first A Woman's Heart album. It was released in 1993. MP3 File yousendit
There's so much parental advice offered up out there: wear a jacket when it's chilly, don't pull the dog's tail, broccoli is good for you, never run with a lollipop in your mouth, you need fresh air and exercise, better not cross your eyes or they'll freeze like that, color inside the lines, eating food dropped on the floor is a big no-no – thank goodness there are songs like the lovely and eloquent Scott Miller's (which Nelson posted ) to take us to the crux of the matter. We want our children to be good people... [...]
New collaborative blog Star Maker Machine is only a few weeks old -- previously, it was a well-written solo-author music blog -- but thanks to host Six and a growing team of familiar trustworthies of diverse taste and tight writing, the site has already found its voice, and it's a powerful one. I couldn't hold back any longer; as of today, I've joined the fray. So head on over for a rarity from Patty Griffin's unreleased third album Silver Bell , plus a growing collection of songs on this [...]
I've strayed from the folkfold a bit over the past weeks, testing the limits of folk subgenres and hybridization, trying to feel out just how far one can throw the modern conceit in which everything is a slash-folk hyphenate. I make no apologies for this -- folk is a big tent, with many murky corners worthy of exploration. It is also, by definition, tied to the listening culture in intimate, cyclical ways which make it natural for folk to be in a state of constant interaction and integration with...well, everything. Including other forms of music. [...]
30 Days Out
Cover Lay Down
A Town Full of Losers
Muruch
Keep the Coffee Coming
Star Maker Machine
A-Trak - "Round of Applause" / "Where My Money At" (MP3 Download)
Diplo - "Climax" (MP3 Stream)
Skrillex Uses Satanic and Homosexual Influence to Win Grammys
Check Out: Usher – “Climax” (prod. by Diplo)
Out This Week 2/14
