Blog: Tikun Olam: World Music

John Martyn, Sweet Little Mysteries cover art (credit: Dave Exton's Web Site ) From Folk & Blues: An Encyclopedia, Lyndon & Irwin Stambler, St. Martin's Press, 2001 JOHN MARTYN Singer; songwriter; guitarist. Born Glasgow, Scotland, June 28,1948. [...]

Lucinda Williams (credit: Gibson Guitar ) From Folk & Blues: An Encyclopedia, Lyndon & Irwin Stambler, St. Martin's Press, 2001 LUCINDA WILLIAMS [...]

Kate & Anna McGarrigle (credit: Bergen News ) from Folk & Blues: An Encyclopedia, St. Martin's Press, 2001 KATE AND ANNA McGARRIGLE [...]

I recently wrote a post praising iTunes for coming up with an inexpensive, easy to use music interface for the web. My one gripe about iTunes was that it is proprietary about the tunes you download and does not permit others to listen to, or copy them. Several readers took me to task for advocating violation of copyright and infringing on musicians' means of making a living. Here's a sampling of their sentiment: "I don't understand why people have a problem paying for music. I too, once used napster and other piracy software [...]

Bruce Springsteen has written an eloquent statement, Chords for Change , in the New York Times explaining why he has abandoned his former stance against partisan electioneering to join scores of other rock musicians for a Swing State concert tour in the weeks leading up to the presidential election. In the past, I can remember the Reagan campaign appropriating Born in the USA and distorting the song's meaning by turning it into a flag-waving patriotic anthem (read the lyrics or listen to Bruce's acoustic version on his last album and you'll find [...]

All of you Mac and iTunes users out there are going to roll your eyeballs in disgust at what I'm about to say...but I've been hearing the hype about iTunes since it first rolled out. I credited the good reports I was hearing about the services success. But I never was moved to try it or even look at it until yesterday. I participate in Bearshare (please don't tell the RIAA!) but my slightly obscure musical tastes (world & traditional music) aren't easily satisfied on the Bearshare network. In fact, I'd tried Bearshare searches [...]

I just heard a great cover of Gillian Welch 's Everything is Free on KBCS-FM . The performer enunciated the lyrics more clearly than Gillian and I could hear them clearly for the first time. As I listened, I realized that the song is a perfect rejoinder to the music industry's assault on music file sharing: Everything is free now, That's what they say. Everything I ever done, Gotta give it away. Someone hit the big score. They figured it out, That we're gonna do it [...]

What can one say about the great Ray Charles that a thousand music critics and bloggers haven't already said? That's one of the reasons I haven't blogged about his death yesterday. But then I thought about issues which most commentators haven't addressed: race, handicap and his enormous courage and inventiveness in the face of adversity. Having myself been the victim of child abuse and knowing the impact trauma can have on one's life, I thought perhaps I could add something to the discussion. Charles' personal story is an amazing one [...]

Vasen: Josefins Dopvals (hear it) (Josephine's Baptismal waltz): Spirit [3:49] I'm trying to use Ecto's Media Insertion feature for the first time. I don't have a clue how it works or what it will do after uploading it to my blog. I hope it will allow you to listen either to the song or at least to a part of it. Let's see. Ecto didn't perform quite as I expected. Yes, it uploaded the song data to the post. But it didn't [...]

Hesperion XXI at Berkeley concert during previous U.S. tour (credit: funfolks.com ) Yesterday night, I had the great privilege of hearing Jordi and Ariana Savall and Pedro Estevan, performing as Hesperion XXI (they are only a part of the regular ensemble but were still billed as "Hesperion XXI") at Seattle's Town Hall sponsored by the Early Music Guild . The concert was called La Lira D'Esperia 1100-1300 and featured Savall performing brilliantly on many bowed medieval instruments including the rebec, five-string soprano fiddle and five-string tenor fiddle. [...]

Barcelona Haggadah (14th century), Jews departing synagogue (credit: modia.org ) Historical Background: In this current age of venomous Arab-Jewish relations, it is easy to forget that there once was another age in which Jews and Arabs lived together in cultural, political & social harmony. During medieval Spain's Golden Age, Jews played prominent roles in politics, art, commerce and all major areas of social discourse side by side with their Muslim brothers and sisters. Jews and Muslims did not hate each other’s religion [...]

Israel holds a deep place in the Jewish psyche. But few non-Israeli songwriters seem to write about Israel (gospel and spirituals are a different story of course). But here are two profound songs written within the last decade by two of the great American songwriters: Jerusalem by Steve Earle and The Western Wall by Rosanne Cash. Jerusalem takes on the current stalemate in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict ( That I believe that one fine day all the children of Abraham/ Will lay down their swords forever in Jerusalem ) while Western [...]

'Ninna Nanna' cover art Ninna Nanna: Lullabies by Montserrat Figueras (Alia Vox AV 9826) From the moment a baby is born, lullabies are a mother's indispensable ally in soothing her child for whom everything in the big, wide world in new and frightening. The baby recognizes in the song his mother's voice, her presence and her expression. The intimacy of the moment creates a space rich in ancestral symbols, in which words and music create a bond of pure emotion and truth. It is in this [...]

Why would I have any interest in this old war horse of a song? The lyrics (such as they are) are depasse and sexist. They depict a quaint, almost innocent era entirely unlike our own. The Palmach boys were beautiful, young and pure. . But truth be told, everyone knows this song and loves it. It's melody has great spirit and energy, just like the newly established State of Israel itself in 1948. And it is a joy to perform both because of the spirited audience response and because it's such a [...]

One of the most wonderful Hanukah recordings to come along in ages is Fesitval of Light , a compilation of traditional and modern holiday songs as interpreted by Marc Cohn, Klezmatics, Don Byron, Jane Siberry, John McCutcheon and others. It blends folk, jazz, cantorial and hip hop/dance beat into a lovely simmering musical broth. For me, the most memorable song in the collection is Marc Cohn's earthy, soaring English-language version of Maoz Tsur ( Listen Here-"Rock of Ages"). Michel Alpert also contributes the Hebrew lyrics as well to this rendition. [...]

One of the most fun things I've ever done in my life was to perform during my Berkeley graduate school days (1982) in a Jewish folk ensemble called Yasmine with my brother Todd. Shira Kammen and Devorah Shaw accompanied us. Shira went on to great fame and acclaim as a member of Ensemble PAN (Project Ars Nova), an early music ensemble. We played Jewish music festivals, Old Age homes, Jewish community centers, you name it. I've always loved music, but performing was an exciting, challenging and deeply rewarding experience. Ever since, I've never [...]

I was driving and listening to my favorite local radio station, KBCS when this odd song came on the air. It sounded like a traditional country song, maybe a little bluegrass or just back country. At first, I made the lyrics out to say "Life is hardest when you're down." But on second thought, those lyrics didn't make much sense: saying life is hardest when you're down is a truism and there'd be nothing original in that. But then I realized, the vocalist really was saying the preposterous: "Life is hardest when you're DUMB." Then [...]

Blind Alfred Reed was an old time country performer in the 1920s who wrote a wonderful song covered by Ry Cooder in the 1970s, How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live? (LIsten to it here). This song was recorded by Blind Alfred Reed in New York, NY, 4 Dec 1929 and released as RCA VICTOR Vi V-40236 according to Manfred Helfert's History in Song website. I can't think of many song lyrics which comment more incisively on how hard life is for so many: There once was [...]

PBS broadcast the extraordinary fourth episode of The Blues documentary series The Soul of a Man . It was directed by Wim Wenders with astonishing creative ambition and flair. The episode features musical biographies of three of the Blues greats: Blind Willie Johnson, Skip James and James Lenoir. The Soul of a Man (soundtrack) I have been familiar with the blues as an important American musical idiom since I was a young adult. I first heard old blues around 1969 when my best [...]

The University of Washington's Meany Hall hosts a wonderful world music series. On October 11, 2003, Emil Zrihan, a Moroccan-born cantor from Ashkelon (Israel) will perform. For ticket info, check out the Meany Hall's Emil Zrihan concert listing . Zrihan's last record was Ashkelon. Piranha Records , his record label, has this to say about him: Emil Zrihan, cantor of the synagogue in Ashkelon, kept the Judeo-Andalusian and folk traditions of his mother country Morocco alive in his heart. Following the immense success on stage [...]