Our tour of Turkey would not have been complete without my diving in and out of music stores with a few CDs in a triumphant clutch. But our days in that country were so packed that I was a little worried that I might have little of note to show for it. While our decision…
Tag: DyingNote
A Strange Playlist
I knocked at the gates of reason, seeking answers The door opened I was knocking from inside Thus spake Jelaluddin Rumi, 13th century mystic and philosopher. These are lines that I’m rather fond of. There usually is a common thread – however tenuous – that runs through the music set that I listen to at…
Burning Some Midnight Oil
I’m rather pleased with myself, which doesn’t happen very often. I managed to keep this blog going with its weekly post for the last 2 weeks despite the temptation of the various delights Turkey has to offer. Cell phone turned off, staying off the internet (except for updating this blog)…aaah! bliss. But now I’m back….
Some Fine Folk
About the time that I wrote Her Name Is Shelagh, I was listening – not surprisingly – to a lot of British folk music. My introduction to that form was through a compilation CD released by Island Records. I was fascinated by much of what I heard, enough for me to build a music collection…
A World Of Music
Our need to categorize, slot everything into a hole, has given rise – among many things – to the blandly named genre of ‘World’ music to fit all music falling outside the realms of modern English music (as if this latter is other-worldly). I don’t care much for that name, but I use it for…
Her Name Is Shelagh
For three decades and a half more, she was as much a creature of myth as she was a creator of music sublime – Shelagh McDonald was. She illuminated the London folk music scene with two brilliant albums, the simply titled debut ‘Album’ and the stellar ‘Stargazer’. And just a few months after the release…
Take It Down A Notch
This was not intended to be the Yin to the Yang of my earlier Out Loud post. Rather, this was ‘inspired’ by my listening to samples of Norah Jones’s upcoming album, ‘Little Broken Hearts’ due for release on May 1st. Her cool, calm voice never fails to send me to a pensive state a la Gandalf…
Father and Son
When one hears the term ‘Flamenco guitar’, what pops up in imagination is fierce virtuoso playing. But that’s not all there is to it. There’s a stateliness in its gentler phrasing, an expression of dignified emotion in its silences interspersed with single, clear notes. And when the Flamenco guitar in that mood combines with the…
Shades of White
Pale skin, raccoon eyes – does Jack White ever sleep? One of rock’s hardest working musicians and most fascinating personalities (among other things, John Gillis did take Meg White’s – his ex-wife and the other half of the White Stripes – surname), the seemingly insatiable Jack White creates multiple projects as vehicles for his prodigious…
Of The Returning Troubadour
While I was writing the post on Tanita Tikaram (A Long-lost Voice), I started thinking about musicians that had not been heard of for a while – many for the good of the world at large and some, like Ms. Tikaram, that I for one would love to hear more of. And in that respect,…
DyingNote 