response 1 of 22:

Mar 14 19:23 UTC 2001

I guess it's about time I thawed this item and starting my blabbing about
music.

My latest musical obsession began earlier this Winter, when I heard two
different Early Music ensembles perform "Ladino Love Songs," or what is known
as Sephardic music. I was immediately drawn to the poetry of the lyrics, which
I could recognise as a dialect of Spanish. This contradiction of the language
with the music reminiscent of Arabic and Jewish music kept me fascinated and
eager to hear more. I've done several Internet searches, and finally bought
the boxed set entitled "The Sephardic Experience," produced by an Australian
group called The Renaissance Players. Next on my list is a 1999 release by
an Israeli named Etty Ben-Zaken called "Ladino Love Songs" (Ladino being the
language these Spanish Jews spoke before their expulsion, and still do today
in Morocco, Syria and other places.). I'd be interested in hearing other
suggestions.

response 3 of 22:

Mar 16 22:35 UTC 2001

It does if your target demographic is people who were in high school ten years
ago.

response 5 of 22:

Jun 3 04:32 UTC 2001

My current musical obsession seems to have shifted again since the last time
I posted here. I still listen to the odd Sephardic love song, and I did
finally obtain Etty Ben-Zaken's CD. I still like the mediaeval instrumentation
of which The Renaissance Player make use a little more than Ms. Ben-Zaken's
somewhat more contemporary arrangements, but her version of "La Novia
Destrenza El Pelo" ("The Bride unfastens her braids," which goes on to state,
"And the Knight faints") sings to the soul.

response 7 of 22:

Aug 5 21:04 UTC 2001

What a fun song. I don't remember hearing it much when it was first released,
only (I think) once at the Western Washington state fair. 1991 was the year
I was living in a dorm with a bunch of *old* hippies, and consequently, it's
also the year I "discovered" a lot of jam bands, and psychedelic rock. 

A few months ago I indulged in yet another Spanish music online purchasing
adventure. I think that might have been mentioned over the Celtic item, when
I bought the NACIONES CELTAS compilations. I just can't seem to get enough
of this Ibero-Celtic type of music now. These are groups like Milladoiro and
Llan de Cubel, from the regions of Galicia & Asturias in the Northwest of
Spain. On the 9-disc compilation, there are many groups that are seldom seen
in stores locally, like (to list some of the stand-outs for me): the amazing
female vocalist Uxia, and a group called Chouteira on which she sings and
plays tamborine, the asturian piper Xuacu Amieva (who played on The
Chieftains' SANTIAGO CD), and also the incomparable voice of Marta Arbas, who
contributes vocals for Xuacu Amieva, the group Xareu Folk, and Ubin(~)a, among
others. So, there's a rich source of music that appeals to me, and I've
recently found a few dollars to spend, and have been trying to locate some
of the Spanish groups found on these compilations. I've found a fairly decent
selection at the online music department of the El Cortes Ingles website
< http://musica.elcorteingles.es > with prices that seem like a bargain,
until the shipping to North America is calculated at the very end. After
finalising, I ended up paying an average of $14.70 per CD, including shipping.
Many of the discs have short RealAudio samples of each song. 

response 9 of 22:

Feb 8 04:22 UTC 2002

Western Washington state fair?  Where are you from, Mickey, or rather, 
where have you lived?

response 11 of 22:

Feb 8 16:27 UTC 2002

"Pull Y'all Up"?

response 13 of 22:

Feb 8 19:33 UTC 2002

I usually heard it said "pew-AL-up" and that's how I say it. Neat place, great
fair.

response 15 of 22:

Mar 14 08:23 UTC 2002

South by Southwest 2002 kicked off today in Austin. This year is the first
time that I'll be going to see some of the official SxSW shows, and I must
say I'm excited about it, especially after attending the 20th annual Austin
Music Awards earlier. It was an entertaining night of Austin music, to say
the very least. A sketchy synopsis: First band intro'd promptly at 8pm ---
The Snobs. They were 14-year olds, screaming and pounding on their
instruments. At first I had to wonder, but they turned out to be a fun start.
After some awards (which I didn't bother to make notes of, unfortunately.
There on the web somewhere, I suspect), next up was the ever-changeable Super
Girls. These women were a highlight of the evening for me, featuring Gretchen
Phillips, who I hadn't seen since Two Nice Girls. I am strange, though ---
"Austin" music has to include lesbian rockers, IMO. They brought out go-go
dancers, then dancers in drag, then Patrice Pike (ex-Sister Seven and playing
really nice roots-rock with a group called The Black Box Rebellion) and then
an amazing woman from Nashville who's name I didn't catch but who sang a neat
song about Austin. There were several other antics with Super Girl, but I'll
skim over those. More awards (everything from country to conjunto, hip-hop
to strings) and then a neat band about which I want to find out more, called
Spoon. There were a strange sort of pop, sounding very British with a Hammond
organ, guitar bass and drums. Theirs was a very short set, and I think the
crowd wanted more from Spoon. Sixpence None the Richer played next, and I
wanted to like them more, but I just couldn't ignore the crappy sound. I hope
to see their show later in the weekend.  Yet more awards, and Texas Music Hall
of Fame inductees, including a special one with the late "Mambo" John
Traynor's mother accepting on his behalf. Then, another heartwarming tribute
to Champ Hood, was passed on last November. His fiddle playin' son is in a
combo calling themselves South Austin Jug Band, and they brought out Toni
Price to help 'em with some of Champ's songs, and then the big names started
to appear when Lyle Lovett came out with them to pay his tribute to Champ
Hood. Final awards (yay!) and then Ray Benson and Asleep at the Wheel came
out for an all-star jam with Lyle, Jimmie Vaughan, and ... oh! That old-time
fiddler from the Texas Playboys who lives in Dipping Springs now. I can't
remember his name now, but he was damn good. Johnny Gimble, that's it. All
in all, a great start to the experience. I was pleased that my companions,
one of which has never been to Austin and is a musician, enjoyed the evening
and were amazed at the support for the "scene." It really grows on ya, I've
found. :)

response 17 of 22:

Mar 28 22:13 UTC 2002

I hope to get the rest of the SXSW notes typed up soon, but I had to mention
this URL right now.
http://www.crtvg.es/cgi-bin/rtg/verultimosdirectos.asp?id=18

That should load an archive of live concerts produced by the Galician Radio/TV
company, featuring several local groups and/or singers. Each group gets to
play almost an entire concert --- 10-14 songs. Here's a list of who's archived
there:

Berroguetto / Susana Seivane / Maria do Ceo / Los Piratas / Mutenrohi / Alboka
/ Kepa Junkera  & a couple more that I don't recognise. 

Caveat: The streams are only available in .asx (windows media) format

response 19 of 22:

Apr 28 05:00 UTC 2002

Oh, yeah! Thanks for the reminder, Ken. I'm also supposed to be 
finishing the big SXSW recap. Yikes. 

I saw Michelle Shocked and Del McCoury (and Darden Smith, who played 
first) at the Old Settler's Music Festival (mentioned in resp:8 above) 
on opening night, Friday. It was a beautiful night for music, and a 
wonderful new venue for this festival, at the Salt Lick Pavilion in 
Driftwood, Texas ... right at 20 miles from my house. The Salt Lick BBQ 
joint built a wonderful outdoor venue next to the restaurant, which is 
just down the road from Camp Ben McCullough (which used to be the 
largest Confederate camp holding reunions until the last veterans died 
in 1946 ... now it's just splendid little hill country county park, 
nestled on Onion Creek --- the part of it that's not polluted yet). 

I can't do much for a full review of the music itself, but I would 
recommend each and every one of these performers, most heartily. It was 
the best five & a half hours of music I've heard since mid-March. :) 
All three acts put on a terrific performance on stage --- or so I 
noticed. I was transported by the music, right from the start. It had 
been a long week, and a horrible Friday at work, so I was ready to 
relax and be entertained, not to scribble notes about the songs or even 
really think about what I was hearing --- don't know if that'll make 
any sense, but there's my excuse. :)

Darden Smith has a new album out in the stores, by now. It's called 
SUNFLOWER, and it's a bit of a return to roots for him, I thought. He 
is definitely in the Texas singer-songwriter genre, a storyteller. All 
the songs seemed to capture a mood, and tell a story at the same time. 
The first single that I've been hearing on the radio "Satellite" is 
really good, and I loved hearing him sing the chorus live. It was a 
perfect warm-up to Del McCoury & the boys.

These guys are simply amazing, and so smooth on stage. Most of the 
material they're playing is from DEL AND THE BOYS, a CD that came out 
in 2001. I'm not familiar enough with their back catalog to say if the 
songs I didn't recognise were early or new ones. Whichever, they were 
obviously extremely comfortable with the material. I just can't get 
over their tight playing. It was a sight to hear and behold. They're 
doing a version of "1952 Vincent Black Lightning" that is incredible. 
It's like Del's voice was made for that song, or something. Please do 
try and remember to see their performance of some of this material 
on "Austin City Limits" ... it'll be repeated in 13 July on most PBS 
stations. There's some samples available at:
 http://www.delmccouryband.com/index.cfm


By this time, after the hill country refreshments :), I was completely 
blissed-out. This was the first time I'd be seeing Michelle Shocked 
since 1989, since she had cancelled on me during her Arkansas Traveller 
tour. She appeared to be "with us" and really entertained the crowd 
with lots of stories and banter. The horn section that she has 
supporting this new album DEEP NATURAL is incredible, though I don't 
even remember what name she was calling them. Just thinking back as I 
write this makes me need to hear this album ... I didn't get to pick up 
a copy from her merchandising people at the show --- way too big of a 
crowd, and I couldn't deal. I just love what's she's doing now --- it's 
yet another side of her, and really well thought out and put out there. 
Hey, I learned that her performance on KCRW's "Morning Becomes 
Eclectic" programme has been archived on their website. If it's 
anything like the hour sing sang for KGSR, locally, I recommend trying 
that. When she sang "Come A Long Way" with that horn arrangement, it 
was complete bliss for me. 

Next thing I knew, the "midnight march" had started to the campground, 
and I chided myself for not bringing the tent and floated over the 
aquifer back home.

response 21 of 22:

Nov 13 04:49 UTC 2003

I'm all geeked at the moment since my Roseanne Cash CD, RULES OF TRAVEL, came
in the mail today. I "won" it by being the one of the first 65 responses to
a broadcast e-mail from Austin City Limits. I think she's done a great job
on this one. There are duets with Sheryl Crow, Steve Earle, Teddy Thompson,
and Johnny Cash.

Oh, they also sent 3 round bumperstickers that read: "Austin City Limits -
Original American Music since 1975" and a neat gate-fold printed anthology
of their first 28 seasons.