2026 August Music: Rebekka Bakken, Crow and Gazelle, Ike Reilly, Effie Zilch,

Andrew Duncan, Stephen Dayvid McKellar

 

 

Rebekka Bakken is a Norwegian singer with a voice that is reputed to stretch three octaves. Some have called her a jazz singer, but she gets miffed when she’s placed in a box. Her new album Nord explains why she’s resistant to labels. “Mitt Hjerte Alltid Vanker” (“My Heart Always Wanders”) features a frenzied percussive instrumentation topped by haunting, slower vocals that evoke something spooky and ancient. “So Ro” (“So Calm”) similarly suggests something from the mists of time. Especially as dressed up with clarinet, pounding drums, and a splash of didgeridoo. Bakken can also enchant in English, as you can hear in “My Choicest Hours” As you might surmise from these three songs, Bakken might get called a “jazz” singer because her music is simply so different that no one has a better label. To me, though, her powerful voice has been forged in the dramatic Scandinavian past that has spilled into the present. That’s Syrian vocalist Saleh Mahfoud adding Arabic passion in “My Choicest Hours.”

 

 

Crow and Gazelle is the musical and life partnership of Mike McClure and Chrislyn Lawrence. They are about 180 degrees from Rebekka Bakken in that their arrangements are sparse and their vocals built upon close harmonies. Their new album Truth Be Told celebrates connections found, lost, and rebuilt. “The High Road” speculates that maybe life doesn’t move in a straight line, as good an explanation as any for how solid connections sometimes have to come around for a second act. A start, stop, go lick on guitar underscores that sentiment. “Sky is on Fire” is an ominous warning poem set to appropriate music, with vaguely Native American background textures. McClure and Lawrence like to mix poetry with music, but this one could be the soundtrack for the Apocalypse.  Luckily Crow and Gazelle bookend their album with the joyous “Down the Road.” You might wish to check out “Belly of theBeast” as well; as the PR material puts it, it’s where reflection gives way to confrontation.” A lot of folks are wondering where that tipping point is located. McClure expresses the sentiments that a “spiritual war” is gathering steam in which “love, not domination” will triumph. We can only hope that he’s right. Lawrence’s vocals set a gloomy picture of deep-seated divisions, the likes of which some activists think require a more confrontational approach.

 

 

The new LP Blind and Surrounded is something of an Ike Reilly family affair in that his son Shane is now part of the band. That said, Ike doesn’t go in for a lot of roses and rainbows. It’s more like hard luck, gravel-and-spit vocals, and gritty guitar. “Life and Death in East Moline” sounds a bit like an amped up John Prine offering without a wry smile. The lead guitar on “We Better Get Packed” cranks out danger in the form of getting out the door before whatever’s chasing you catches up. The song titles alone tell a story: “Bad Bad Man,” “Who’s Been Hurtin’,” “Gone For Forever….” Even the brighter tune of “New Bad News” has doubt in its DNA. But Ike’s best trick is putting pain and bad times in musical wrappers that make you want to rip up the dance floor before heading down the road.

 

  

San Francisco-based Effie Zilch is the duo of vocalist/guitarist Evanne Barcena and guitarist/producer Steve Wyreman.  As a producer, Wyreman has worked with heavyweights such as Mary J. Blige, Lauryn Hill, and Rihanna, but if you think they have big voices, wait until you hear Barcena. As long as it has a groove– blues, funk, gospel, Motown, rock–Barcenas can sing it, and with gusto. Higher Calling  is the duo’s fifth LP and if it doesn’t get you moving, schedule a hip replacement. “On the Loose” sees Barcenas belting, I’m going to change the game/I’m going to break the rules, and we believe her. She goes for a big gospel sound on the title track, sounding a bit like Mavis Staples, and for funk on “Lover Boy,” though you guess is as good as mine about what the giant duck in her video is trying to convey beyond the assertion, I get what I want. (PS: The name Effie Zilch doesn’t signify anything; it was an invention of journalist Herb Caen.)

 

Not the album cover of Mend

 Last year I was wasting time on the Internet. I ran across a young Scot named Andrew Duncan holding court in London’s Trafalgar Square with his acoustic guitar and in occasional duos and bands with other musicians. This May, I was in London and, lo and behold, there was Duncan still busking in Trafalgar Square. I picked up a copy of Andrew’s CD, Mend. It has eight tracks, so it’s something in between an EP and an LP. Duncan has an inviting voice that’s slightly on the sweet side of things, but he also casts youthful cool. Here he is in London laying down some grooves and loops to sing “Mend.” It takes serious power and more mental agility than I possess to create his one-man band effect. It’s the only complete song from the CD I can find online at present, but he also does amazing covers. Check out his take on “Use Somebody” (Kings of Leon) or with Atticus Blue singing Snow Patrol’s “Chasing Cars.” You’ll notice that the crowd is bigger when Duncan does covers (Adele, Bastille, Coldplay….) Consider that tons of singer songwriters began as buskers working for tips in all kinds of weather. (He and I chatted in the rain under an umbrella.) The lucky ones score a hit so those not paying attention can wonder, “Where did this guy come from?” The streets, my friends, the streets. If there’s any justice, Andrew Duncan will be one of those who break through. Nice guy. Good songs. Great with tech. Strong guitarist. Hard worker. That ought to mean something.

 

 

Steven Dayvid McKellar was born in South Africa and now lives in Los Angeles. He’s an artist in multiple senses of the word. In addition to be a big-voiced singer and a songwriter, he’s also a poet and a painter. His latest EP is Harbor, Volume 2.   “Me and the Trees” is a mix of gentleness and full-blast vocals. Don’t worry about decoding it; McKellar is taking stock of himself. “The Nag in Me” has an introspective late night jazz feel. “My Own Heart” is my personal favorite track. The dark piano and pain in McKellar’s voice accents the reoccurring question How can I have known? That encapsulates both his fears and his hopes. It has just enough ambiguity to make us uncertain that a happy ending will occur.

 

Coming Soon:  Jason Heath, Jordan Whitmore, Frank Viele, new releases from Grey DeLisle and Surrender Hill, and more. (Yeah, I know that sounds like those dumb TV commercials that promise “Up to 60 percent off and more.” (Up to and more being your definition of a basic contradiction!)

 

Rob Weir

Music for April and May 2025: Michael Rudd, Ron Pope, Grey DeLisle, Mary Bue, Mar Grimalt

Mary Bue

 

Faithful readers will notice that my posts have been delayed lately. It’s called “being on a book deadline.” Here’s a music column as I didn’t get one written in April. That’s okay, though, as things usually get a little slower in the spring.

 

 

One of the better projects I heard was from Michael Rudd. His path has been a bit twisty. He became a teacher and has been in New Mexico, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and back to New Mexico, where he’s now a principal at Acoma Pueblo, an indigenous adobe settlement atop a dusty high mesa. At some point he began to hear songs and tunes in his sleep. His second solo album, Going to the Mountain contains some of the results from his trip to the liminal side of things. The title track is a Western song that bespeaks his twisting path to full humanity. It opens with the words I know where I’m going/’Cause I know where I’ve been but if that sounds pretty tranquil, hang on. It’s also about a guy always searching for something. It’s a very western song; note I didn’t qualify it as “country.” It’s big and open like his gravelly voice and is as honest as a lot “country” is overly processed. “Before the Demon Comes” is in the same vein. He rocks out on The Far Side.” The thing about dream songs is that they take you to unexpected places, so be prepared to travel.

 

 

Ron Pope has been around a bit too. He comes to us from Nashville via Georgia with a stop at NYU. He and his wife (Blair Clark) founded Brooklyn Basement Records and, if Pope’s name sounds familiar, he scored big time in 2007 with his platinum hit “A Drop in the Ocean.” He hasn’t slowed down a bit. Pope has released two dozen LPs and EPs, has toured, and he and Blair are raising a daughter. Depending on who is telling the story, his music is either Americana, country, or folk. Pope’s most recent LP is titled American Man, American Music, which is as good a label as any as he’s never quite what you anticipate. “Klonopin Zombies”  suggests social commentary on drug abuse, but it’s actually a personal song about how he was not in a good place after his grandmother passed away just eight days after her husband died. As you can see from the live performance, he’s a hard-working musician who’s unafraid to delve into topics mystical, painful, or sublime. Re: the sublime, Pope gives us “In the Morning with the Coffee On,” a love song centered on joyful small things. In a duet with Taylor Bickett, “I’m Not the Devil” he reminds us that he’s a good guy. Yet he also sings about veering from the straight and narrow on “Mama Drove a Mustang” whose blancmange  of rock, bluegrass, and country is atypical for someone with a voice as robust as his. Good stuff.

 

 

 

Grey DeLisle is a comedian, songwriter, and voice actress (Scooby-Doo! DC Comics, video games, etc.) As a singer she once did a tribute project to June Carter Cash, so it won’t surprise you to hear that her new project The Grey Album is a country album or, that as Los Angeles-based artist, she’s unabashed of having been married and divorced three times. DeLisle tells us rockabilly style, “I Can’t Be Kind.” She also sings “Hello, I’m Lonesome,” “Daddy Can You Fix a Broken  Heart,” “The Last Last Time,” and “I’m a Wreck.” In other words, DeLisle is from the old-fashioned heartache tradition of country music. As you will also hear, her vocal styles are insouciant, saucy, and an independent spirit. Credit her with the verve and nerve that gives us the term moxie. 

 

 

 

Mary Bue is another woman of many talents. She is a yoga devotee, has studied psychology, was hailed in 2020 as the best songwriter in Minneapolis, and has made her own Beatles-like pilgrimage to India. Her recent album The Wildness of Living and Dying is like a musical mind meld of her interests. It has themes of what she calls “world-sorrow” plus eco-awareness, expanded consciousness, and a potpourri of styles ranging from “piano poems” to electric instrumentation. The title track is heavy on dark keys and steady drumming, which make a fine contrast to her lovely voice. “Bedding Down with the Deer” has elements of Joni Mitchell in her younger, earthier days, though Bue takes full advantage of today’s mixing capabilities to backfill it with atmosphere. Be sure to check out “The Bones and the Marrow” video to capture Bue in a whirlwind of kinetic energy. She spends most of the video running and imploring us to stand tall amidst the tall pines within an electric arrangement spotted with sing-song mini raps. Mary Bue has (literal) down-to-earth values but she’s no head-in-the-sand blind optimist who is sure things will self-repair. This is her 9^th album and watching the video helps me understand where all her energy comes from.

 

 

Mar Grimalt is a vibrant singer from Mallorca, one of Spain’s Balearic islands. Her album Espurnes I coralls translates “Sparks and Corals,” and that song alone shows us that when you have vocal talent to spare you can create magic with nothing more than a melody and a frame drum. Call her voice the spark and the malleted drum its hard coral contrast. She can also pick up a guitar and pick out “Cançò Final,” a cançò being a folk song in a style linked to 13^th century troubadours. Grimalt sings as a woman sews in the background. Mar Grimlat won’t floor you with power or flashy technology. She has been quoted as saying that we often fail to appreciate what we have because it “weighs us down like tons and tons of concrete.” She should know; her family operates a concrete factory. She’s so retro that that “Reculls des versos” is again voice and frame drum and all the echoes and synth you hear were added in post-production.

 

 

Rob Weir

Le Vent du Nord a Mighty Force

 

 

 

Le Vent du Nord

Têtu

Borealis 236

 

There may not be a more joyful music anywhere in the world than that from Québec, even if you don’t understand a word of French. Le Vent du Nord translates as The North Wind, but I’ve felt it should Puissant Vent du Nord (Mighty North Wind*). I’ve seen Le Vent du Nord numerous times and I can attest that they leave it all on the stage. Têtu translates as stubborn, but in the case of this album it means something to the effect of defiant or persevering. Most of the 15 tracks on the album deal with precarious, tragic, or sad situations that might make non-Francophones glad they don’t know the words.  

 

The album opens with one such tragic song, “Noce tragique,” a sad tale of a newly married couple facing death. This live clip was filmed in Glasgow; Le Vent du Nord is actually a male ensemble and the woman playing penny whistle and singing is Scotland’s Julie Fowlis, ana amazing Gaelic vocalist. The male singer/bouzouki player is Simon Beaudry and if you don’t recognize the cranked instrument played by Nicholas Boulerice, it’s a hurdy-gurdy.

 

If you know that “Loup-garou” is a werewolf (seeking revenge on the Catholic Church), you can imagine it isn’t exactly a stroll in the park either. You will also no doubt notice that there is a lot of call-and-response singing in Quebecois music and that fiddles fly rather than sticking around for polite applause.  You’ll also hear percussive sounds from a type of clogging that developed in Quebec. You can see bits of it in the promo video for “La Marche des Iroquois.”

 

The other songs on Têtu deal with everything from a French take on Canadian Confederation, an orphan lad recalling his mother, and a man awaiting execution to  political events and a song about Louis-Joseph Papineau, an inspirational 19^th century defender of French heritage during the Patriots War against British domination thirty years before Canadian Confederation (1867). But surely the most unusual song is “Chaise ardente” in which a curious man decides to go to hell to check on his lover!

 

The greatest joy of all comes when the band decides to let loose on their instruments. The stage becomes a springboard for all manner of musical mayhem. Here’s a short clip of the band live with quality sound, and another from Glasgow of “Cardeuse-Riopel” (Leave it run and you’ll hear “Confédération.”) The man with the accordion is Réjean Brunet. His brother André, a fiddler, has recently rejoined to make Le Vent du Nord a quintet and trade licks with the fiery strings of Olivier Demers. My friends from Milton and the Champlain Islands might remember a small Québec town just across the border from Alburg, Vermont, called Lacolle. The Brunet brothers are from there and yours truly once interviewed them when they were starting out as a duo. Likewise, a music co-op to which I belonged used to book them at the Welcome Table in Burlington. If you can believe it, Réjean used to be a squirt!

 

Rob Weir

 

 

* For grammarians, puissant is one of many French adjectives that goes before the noun.

February 2025 Music: West of Rome, Yahtzee Brown, Chris Walz ,Trendafilka, Jason Carter, Deborah Holland, MahaMaya, Ethel/Moving Sound

 

Is rock and roll making a comeback? West of Rome gets labeled an “indie-rock/alt-country band,” but other than being from Texas, the “alt-country” side isn’t much in evidence on Keep It Fly in the Negative Zone. (The band’s name comes from a record from the late Vic Chestnut.) “Movement in Your Picture” is filled with gritty and grungy swagger. On “Keep it Fly,” vocalist Kevin Higginbotham channels a touch of Robert Plant as lead guitarist Charlie Roadman lets his solos fuzz and burn. The monster in “Face the Beast” is American violence and Old Nick himself is in the front seat of the nightmare hallucination “Take a Ride with the Evil One.” You don’t hear much music like this in Nashville.

 

 

 

 

Yahtzee Brown has a different vibe. He’s just 20 and Take it Back is his debut album. His father was a rock drummer and young Noah Siegel, his non-stage name, grew up hearing 60s and 70s rock and later took in a lot of indie rock. The title track lies in a in-between groove. His vocals and production are smooth, but Michael Lockwood’s bass is so solid it’s like a lead guitar. Echo effects push this song about relationships and troublemakers into a spacey psychedelia space. “I Guess I’m Sorry” shows he also picked up some outlaw country from his Waylon-Willie-Townes-loving parents. He brings buzz and noise to “Watching Over You” and some high-note electric and cacophony to counter his light tenor on “Halloween.” Brown’s split between classic and indie rock will challenge marketers to label him.   

 

---If you want a break from electric guitar, here are some radical changes of pace. 

 

 

 Bluegrass has gotten slick, but Chris Walz turns back the clock on All I Got and Gone, a throwback more in line with the bluegrass and old time songs of the early Folk Revival. Walz teaches at the Old School of Folk Music where he is considered folk music royalty. Listen to his clawhammer banjo on “Going Across the Sea,” playing resonator blues, doing his take on the traditional “Delia,” and grabbing a National steel guitar for a Mississippi John Hurt picking treatment to “See See Rider.” (It starts at 4:44.) To invoke Neil Young, this is a journey to the past (without the thorns).

 

 

 

Much of the music of Trendafilka comes from Georgia, the one whose capital is Tbilisi not Atlanta. Their new album For the Olives also features songs from the Balkans, Greece, Macedonia, and the Russian Steppes. That said, you’re not too far off if you thought Atlanta; the polyphonic singing of this 11-woman a cappella assemblage is based in New Orleans! The polyphonic vocals are Balkans style, meaning they feature 3, 4, and 5-part discrete melodies that blend into something as unfettered as the wild rose that is their namesake. Listen for strategic uses of dissonance, yips, yodels, complexity, and (were in Latin) songs that would be at home in a Romanesque cathedral. It’s a spectacular recording. Try any track from For the Olives and you’ll be hooked on Trendafilka. Start with “Mome Stojie Ju Livadi,” “Oi Na Dubori,” and a live clip of  “Mori Aida.”

 

 

Jason Carter once preferred classical music and nylon strings. On In and Out of Time Carter plays a Space Age-looking harp guitar and experimented with live looping techniques that might have made Bach barf. Carter has been something of a nomad who has visited over 100 countries and has recently lived in Finland, Singapore, and France. Not that he’s home all that often, what with his touring schedule and video projects. In and Out of Time has an international flair. “Finlandia” pays homage to living there, “One” was recorded in Singapore, “I Believe” In Kuwait, others with the Novosibirsk orchestra in Siberia, and so on. The harp guitar on the CD cover has 12 strings and he has apparently just gotten one with 23. That’s at least 17 more than I need!

 

 

 

American-Canadian Deborah Holland once fronted Animal Logic (which included Stewart Copeland of The Police) and has penned soundtracks for TV and movies. She also has an active solo career; I Made it This Far is her 7^th release. It has styling vaguely reminiscent of Carole King. This intriguing release includes “Wildfires,” a reference to ecological lowlights of 2023-24. They scorched over 13 million acres across Canada and turned skies yellow and sooty in the 48 provinces south of the border. (Sorry–couldn’t resist a poke at the wantwit in Washington DC.) In a serious vein, Holland’s dramatic piano, strong voice, accompanying video, and lyrics drive home the pathos of the “long black scars” left behind. The flip side of tragedy is her folky “Thankful,” which she wrote for Thanksgiving 2023, an enumeration of things she and sign-holding others count as blessings. These are the only two songs for which there are videos thus far as the LP drops on March 7. The rest of the album is mix of moving material (“A Long Time Ago”) the country-like (“Circling the Drain”), a celebration of beautiful days (“East Porpoise Bay”), nostalgia in a cheeky-yet-melancholy way (“50 Year Reunions”), and more. As Holland has aged, she has moved through several musical personae. I Made it This Far has more piano, a lush and dramatic counterpart to guitar-centric adult alternative music. She has also transitioned from American to Canadian, courtesy of a job at Langara College in Vancouver. Google her song “I Wanna Be a Canadian.”

 

 

 

My bad! At a very busy time I was sent A New Day  from the MahaMaya Band that got lost in the clutter. I’m really happy I found it. There is such much talk about “fusion” music, even if the final product has only a small burst of electric guitar or a hint of bluegrass. That’s not the case with the MahaMaya Band. At heart it’s a New Delhi-based duo of Mahalakshmi (keys, voice) and Emam (hand drums, guitar) but the “band” expands to wherever modern technology can connect musicians. A New Day spotlights help from other parts of India, Hungary, Poland, California, and New York to add bass, sitar, oud, sarod, and mandocello. The resultant music is ancient and modern, mystical and meditative. Try the title track and “Great Spirit.”

 

 

 

I’m afraid a joint project between the New York City string quartet Ethel and Taiwan’s A Moving Sound seems like a forced marriage because the vocals of Mia Hsieh in the later are too harsh for me. However, whether or not you’ll like it might depend on how much you like the wild lamentations, screams, and atonality of Yoko Ono’s sonic explorations. I realize that Ono is Japanese, not Taiwanese, so listen to “Dynasty Falls” and decide on your own. I love the instrumentals and admire Hsieu’s vocal dexterity and dramatic presentation skills, but I can’t relate to them. 

 

 

 

Coming in March: Mary Bue, Muriel Mwamba, Ron Pope, Michael Rudd, and ???

 

Rob Weir

Music: Caleb Klauder/Reeb Wiilms; Effie Zilch; Michael Des Barres; Les Arrivants; Kylie Fox

Once upon a time country music was a cross between cornpone and old-time hill music. Caleb Klauder and Reeb Willms take us back to those days on Gold in Your Pocket. “He’s Gone” is a flat-picked song with splashes of old time fiddle full of guitar breakouts and 1950s ambience. “Shame Shame Shame” is straight out the Wheeling Jamboree with walking bass and some rapid-fire mandolin. Klauder and Willms hail from Washington State and now live in Portland, Oregon, but songs like “Too FarGone” have a decided Appalachian vibe. Check out the pedal steel and the lyrics of “Gold in Your Pocket” and you’ll know right away that these artists draw more from the past than the stadium rock with a twang that is today’s country music. They do it well, but is this what country audiences want these days? I can say for sure, but Klauder and Willms are a nice change of pace.

 

 Effie Zilch is the name of a San Francisco-based collaboration between Evanne Barcenas and Grammy-winning songwriter/producer Steve Wreyman. On their seven-track EP Multitudes they evoke quite a few other acts, most notably Delaney and Bonnie and JJ Cale. Barcenas has a strong, smoky voice as you can hear on the blues-influenced “Prayin’ Amos.” “One Hundred Years” is quiet and folky, but she airs it out on “Only Fools” like a soul queen and Wryeman lets it rip on guitar. I don’t know their back catalogue, but I note they are often billed as a “rock” band. To my ear, though, Multitudes is more bluesy. Plus, their song “Carousel” would be at home in a honkytonk bar.

 

 

If you really want some rock n’ roll, check out the new record from English actor/musician Michael Des Barres. Its title might sound familiar: It’s Only Rock n’ Roll (But I Like It). It is, of course, the title of a 1974 hit from The Rolling Stones. Des Barres' new project is of 1970s cover songs. Baby Boomers have the new Bob Dylan film, so it’s only fair that Gen X gets its own nostalgia trip. Des Barres shreds some chords on “Search and Destroy” (The Stooges). You’ll also hear “Love is the Drug” (Roxy Music), though Des Barres’ voice bottoms out in a few places, and David Bowie’s “All the Young Dudes.” He’s better on Alice Cooper’s “I’m Eighteen.” Des Barres can still cut wood with his axe but, he’s 76, not 18 and not a young dude. He can shout it out and has a remarkable amount of power for doing so, but he resorts to spectacle and showmanship when he slips out of mid-range tones. That said, he’s probably better at singing 70s’ songs that aging Xers singing along to their car radios to the golden oldies.

 

 

The band Yarn formed in Brooklyn and is now based in North Carolina. It’s a collection of hardworking road warriors who play 170 gigs a year, have 11 albums, yet somehow are relatively unknown. On Born, Blessed, Grateful & Alive Yarn play country, rock out, and sometimes venture into folk music. Yarn’s lineup is both stable and fluid. It is the brainchild of vocalist/guitarist Blake Christiana and includes drummer Robert Bonhomme, and bassist Rick Bugel. Yet is also includes a rotation of electric guitarists, including Andy Falco (Infamous Stringdusters), Matteo Joseph Recchio (Heavy Peace), and Joel Timmons (Sol Driven Train). The album’s title is embedded in the song “These Words,” a sort of country-meets-rock song about being down and out–I lost everything when I lost my mind–and makes an appeal to heaven in the way country songs are prone to do. Christiana has a soothing voice, but the band can bring it. “Turn Off the News” is somewhat evocative of a chill Allman Brothers. It’s probably good that Yarn is now in North Carolina, as they currently have a Southern rock vibe. But they retain a bit of Brooklyn ‘tude.”Play Freebird” is a serious song, but one can’t help but think there’s a bit of satire aimed at the drunken idiots who yell out for a Lynyrd Skynyrd cover at concerts. There might be too much midrange music on this album, but Yarn is a band worth knowing.

 

 

Les Arrivants are a Montreal trio that play classical Arabic and Persian music plus Argentine tango. In keeping with Montreal’s vibrant world music and jazz scenes, the band–Abdul-Wahab Kayyali (oud), Amichai Ben Shalev (concertina-like bandoneon and Hamin Honari (percussion)–are more into precision than attempts at middlebrow arrangements. This is evident in the title track of Toward the Light. The same is true of tangos such as “Bagelissimo,” or on up-tempo compositions such as “City of Ashes.” If you’ve never heard an oud, listen to the last composition. The oud seems as if it was invented to render introspective and melancholy music. Search for some of the trio’s live performances to experience their focus and musicianship in context.

 

 

Kylie Fox draws Joni Mitchell analogies because she’s Canadian and has a jazz soul. She also gets compared to Kate Bush because she’s prone to being unorthodox. Mainly there’s a lot going on inside her musical canvas. As you can see in her official video of “Brandi Baby,” Fox is filled with youthful insouciance and, as you can hear, she has a serious set of pipes. If you’re not convinced, try her title track "Sequoia” It’s an odd hybrid that could be a paean to nature, a warning to preserve it, a backdoor love song, or all three, but there’s no question of Fox’s command of it. “Alberta” is another tree song and why not, young folks these days have a far healthier view of the environment than most of their elders. Besides, I kind of like a singer who can sing about Alberta and an “Armadillo” on the same record. Plus, there’s got to be some synchronicity going on; Joni Mitchell grew up in Saskatchewan and Neal Young in Manitoba. That’s all three prairie provinces folks. And, yep, it’s also a forced analogy! Watch for Kylie Fox; I have a feeling we will be hearing from her.   

 Rob Weir

 

 

August 2024 : Jayce Turley, Olcay Bayir, Little Falls Trophy, Los Ruphay, KJ Denhert, Biel Marti

 

 

 

Kentucky-bred Jayce Turley is just 19-years-old, but he and his band Cardinal Point impressed me greatly. The LP Broke Down is Americana in a broad sense: a bit of folk, a bit of country, some blues, some rock…. Turley’s high tenor is a pleasant and comforting contrast to the sizzle he and the band work themselves into. “Rust” is about being who you are, not a label slapped on you. You should note the ease with which Turley and the band play off each other and the maturity of Turley’s vocals. The video of “Misery” is solo acoustic, but you can detect some blues-rock styling. It’s a true-to-life murder ballad that happened in his hometown. “Broke Down” is about those moments in life when things are going well and then they don’t. In this case it’s a recounting of his van breaking down in Ohio that features some bluegrass(ish) fiddle. “Liquor Store” is country mixed with rockabilly. Turley has another song (not on the record) called “Getting Out of Kentucky.” I have a feeling this young man will soon be able to go wherever he wishes. 

 

 

To my chagrin, I’m terrible at languages. I wish I could tell you exactly what Olcay Bayir is singing on her glorious album Tu Gulî.  It’s not French, rather an Anatolian dialect and she is a Kurd who lives in London. The album title means “You Are a Rose,” but I would call the album a jewel. In addition to Setero Kurdish, Bayir sings in Turkish and other unfamiliar (to me) tongues. The best way to appreciate her is to listen. Try “Edle,” which opens with primal ululation. Its joyousness and steady hand percussion bespeak the fact that it’s a wedding dance. (It sure beats “Here Comes the Bride!”)  Both “Tal Tala” and “Nare Nare” are traditional songs, the first upbeat, the second emotive and slow. “Adana” is mournful, but for a reason. Bayir takes us to Armenia to sing about the medez yeghern, the “great crime” of the 1915 genocide of Armenians by Ottoman Turks. Call it the album’s sad song. It’s simply uplifting to listen to the gifted Bayir.

 

 

I’ve always maintained that genres are necessary for consumers but tricky in application. Both “folk” and “rock” are out of fashion these days (they appear as either country or Americana), but Little Falls Trophy is decidedly a rock band, albeit one that gravitates toward the softer end of the spectrum on Dutch Motel. Little Falls Trophy is the namesake for singer/guitarist Doug Albregts, and his songs are inspired more by The Beatles than the Rolling Stones or metal music. He's a Wisconsin native who moved to New Jersey and named his act and the studio musicians he assembled for an actual trophy shop in Jersey. Albregts retains a lot of rock n’ roll attitude. “Thursday is Friday” is a drinking song that advocates getting a liquid head start to the weekend. The guitar-forward “Irreverent” also packs ironic insouciance. “Universal” is more jangly and has smooth vocals but mixes noise with quiet interludes. “Jamie and Jimmy” is solid storytelling and “My LittleSunshine” has surf guitar riffs. In all, a very good record.

 

Short Cuts

 

 

 

In 1968, a group of Bolivians, especially Aymara Quechua Indians, formed Los Ruphay. “Ruphay” means ray of light in Quechua, and the group’s repertoire spotlights Andean music heavy on panpipes and charangos (a plucked guitar-like instrument). The Three Seasons of the Andes is a posthumous collection of music from former leader Mario Gutiérrez. Sample the haunting “Lupi pacha” and the more pastoral  “Thaya pacha.” Among other things pacha means land, soil, and place.

 

 

 

On her new album The Evening News, KJ Denhert offers jazz standards such as “Surrey with the Fringe on Top” and “The Street on WhichYou Live” with re-imagined pop songs the likes of “Postcard from Paris” and “Eleanor Rigby.” I must admit that soft jazz has always been background mood music for me, but Denhert, who is often categorized as an “urban jazz” singer,” is clearly talented performer and lives up to the hype. Now if I can only figure out how “rural jazz” differs from what city slickers sing….

 

 

Biel Marti is a Catalan folk artist based in Barcelona. His newest record Somnis per a tu i per a mi is a pleasing singer/songwriter album in any language.  The title song has a sweet melody that contrasts a slight vocal rasp, and “Primavera” (“Spring”) has a catchy chorus that invites you to learn enough Catalan to sing along. The album title translates “dreams for you and me,” and isn’t that one of the things folk music does best?

 

Music for February 2024 Smoking Bambino, Sully Bright, Galeet Dardashti, Bouzouki Classics, Jason Carter

 

 

Smoking Bambino is the stage handle for Catalan singer/songwriter Esteve Saguer Costa, whose newest record Lampigots Bufarandes is an intimate album churned out during three intense days in the studio. The first word means lightning but don’t rush to your Catalan dictionary for the second one; Costa made it up. “Nit” (Night) suggests the vibe at which he is aiming. His baritone voice has hints of gravel, but his tones are as understated as the shadows of a backlit video with a cigarette burning through. We can make out a wine glass, a woman’s laughter, and dancing but the rest is left to your imagination. “Animal de bosc” (Animal of the Forest) is café-like with its quiet keys and gentle melody/vocals. The keys and voice in “He escrit et teu nom” (I Wrote Your Name) feel as if Costa wandered into an empty room and sat down at an old upright. His voice goes to a smoky rasp that again invites us to write our own story. Even if you have not a word of Catalan, you might be able to surmise that Bukawsky and Keroauc are among his literary heroes and that Costa has spent time singing in small late-night New York City venues. This recording proves once again that there is poignancy is keeping things intimate and raw.

 

Sully Bright hails from the Blue Ridge of North Carolina and, as songs such as “Appalachia” and his faded Ektachrome slide-like videos reveal, he retains a bibbed overalls nostalgia for those days. Darling Wake Up is a bluegrass-influenced acoustic album. He accompanies his light tenor with banjo, piano, guitar, and mouth harp. According to his bio, he struggled emotionally for a time. “Dark” has hints of anxiety, but song such as “It’ll Be Alright” and the away-from home love song “Oh Honey” bring back the light. The record could use more energy and diversity, but is also exudes a sense of honesty in its bare feet.

 

 

To say Galeet Dardashti has musical cred is an understatement. She comes from a musical family, has fronted the band Divahn, holds a Ph.D. in anthropology, teaches at NYU, and is the granddaughter of famed Persian Jewish singer Younes Dardashti. That’s his image on the cover of Galeet’s new album Monajat and we hear his recorded voice on the album. That’s appropriate because Monajat is an album of Selichat prayers Galeet learned from him. Selichat are candlelight services for forgiveness sung the Saturday before Rosh Hashanah. “Adon Haselichot” (Master of Pardons)  is an amazing track featuring layered instrumentation of doumbek (drum), ney (flute), oud, fiddle, bass, and hammer dulcimer that creates a mix that’s almost psychedelic. Listen as Dardashti keens, ululates, implores, and powers her way through. “The Awakening” uses the ney to invoke a Middle Eastern call to prayer before oud and other instruments set the pace for demanding vocal tonal shifts. “El Norah Alilah” (God of Awe) is both hypnotic and energetic with background singers following Dardashti’s lead in response fashion. This is an impressive record no matter what your faith or lack thereof. If all that’s not enough, Dardashti also likes to weave multimedia art into her music. Poke around on YouTube and you’ll find examples.

 

 

In the Monty Python cheese shop sketch, a  bouzouki player inexplicably plays by the door. At one point a frustrated John Cleese screams to shut up the “bloody bouzouki player.” I doubt you’d feel that way about the playing of Dimitris Papageorgiou whose Greek Bouzouki Classics is far from an archival rendering of old songs. He is known in the U.S. for his TV and film scores and he brings that sensibility to old tunes that he updates. “Sundance” has the strong cadences that inspire people to dance, but it also moves crispy and has a modern flair. “Minore of Greece” has a quirky frame but Papageorgiou’s runs and precise picking incorporate classic elements and bouzouki virtuosity that would induce envy among the finest mandolin players. “Te Lemonadika” also pulls a switcheroo, its plinky almost childlike opening notes sliding easily into a sunny swaying tune that suggests an ouzo is in order rather than lemonade. Another tune is titled “Play in Athens” and that’s exactly what you’ll wish to do upon hearing it. Stay away from the cheese shop and snack on this album instead.

 

 

I had mixed feelings about Seeking the Divine,  a solo guitar project from Jason Carter. Like Peter Blanchette, Carter plays an arch guitar. As you can tell from “Guten Morgen Mein Engel,” Carter is very talented. Like this one, though, I found my attention drifting in segments that put me in mind of New Age music. I much preferred more lively tunes such as “So Small” with its stronger bass and melody lines. It both enthralled me and made me understand some of the potential of his instrument. I grant that six-minute explorations like “Letting Go” are introspective and mysterious, but I much prefer the pieces like “The Colour of Silence” that evoke images over the contemplation. By the way, “The Colour of Silence” was recorded  in Finland; Finnish is one of four non-English languages the British Carter speaks. And I’ll cut him a break, as part of the record was filmed in Sri Lanka where he played for the children at a tsunami-damaged orphanage.

  

Rob Weir