Four days into my discovery of BBC Radio's Real Audio programming,
and I'm just bouncing off the walls with excitement.
The BBC runs a sizable number of channels. The three which
I draw on are:
-- BBC Radio Scotland, which offers two folk music shows during
the week, and more on weekends
-- BBC Radio 3, the "classical / fine arts" station.
The treasure here is the LATE JUNCTION show
-- BBC Radio 2, which offers the venerable program FOLK ON 2
So far I've listened to about six hours of LATE JUNCTION and
four hours of the midweek folk shows. And I'm so dazzled I
can't sleep.
I have not felt this much excitement about music since WEN.com went
out of business in January 2001. WEN offered canned "radio shows"
selected by folk & world music experts such as Ian Anderson (not the
Jethro Tull one) and Charlie Gillett. The BBC shows aren't
producing quite as much concentrated rapture as WEN did -- there was
one WEN one-hour show which led me to buy 8 of the 13 CDs sampled
-- but on the other hand, the BBC is likely to stay in business,
and they are producing about 16-20 hours per WEEK of stuff I want
to listen to.
154 responses total.
If your eyes glaze over when Mickey, Twila and I start rattling on about folk music, then you can skip everything I write about the midweek folk shows. But I think many of the readers of this conference will be interested in trying the LATE JUNCTION show. It airs at 22:15-midnight UK time, which is 5:15 - 7 pm USA eastern time. LATE JUNCTION is a delightful blend of musical styles; it's very reminiscent of the early days of CBC's program BRAVE NEW WAVES from back in 1984, but JUNCTION screens out the punk rock and poetry readings which were staples on WAVES because it is a somewhat mellower program. Things I want to remember from Monday's playlist: mostly a track from the Shetland Islands band Fiddler's Bid, a mostly-fiddle folk band. Other interesting stuff which was part of that hour: some kora music, some American blues, four more UK folk tracks, and a section from John Adams' SHAKER LOOPS. Tuesday's show opened with a catchy song from Eileen Rose, who I found described on Amazon as a cross between Janis Joplin and Tori Amos. Definitely must buy her CD when it comes out in two weeks in the US. Next was a "Toccata for Harp" by Nina Rota, followed by a fascinating African lute piece set against a Cuban percussion backing. I still have more of Tuesday's show to cover, but looking at the website I see the show goes on to include early keyboard music composed by William Byrd; the new Eliza Carthy album, marking her flight back to traditional music; Steve Reich, Brian Eno and Charles Ives. Note for Mike McNally: on Wednesday, the show aired a Yo La Tengo song, can't remember precisely which one now.
Damn, but this is ma,king me wish I had a worthwhile net connection....
For the newbies around here, can give you us an idea of how to get to the BBC?
(I'm not totally hopeless; I am listening to WEMU's offering right now.)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio is a page indexing lots of the BBC radio channels.
For 17 years I've been reading about the shows by renowned radio host Andy Kershaw, and so when I finally got to hear one on Friday evening it was a bit of a disappointment. I may just not have been in the right mood. However, the two songs which did make my ears perk up were by Richard Thompson and Linda Thompson. They have separate contributions on a new Cajun music project called EVANGELINE MADE. (Sniffing around elsewhere on web: the album was put together by noted Cajun traditional musician Ann Savoy, and other participants in the project include John Fogerty, Maria McKee and Nick Lowe.) I think this is the first new Linda Thompson recording I've heard since '85.
Looks like iTunes won't cut it. I'll have to try this later.
On the Internet, the BBC is sending Real Audio. I don't know what you need to do to get Real to cooperate with your net browser, since you are a Mac user. The BBC launched a new station today. Radio 6 appears to be some sort of "serious rock" station, covering stuff from "classic rock" up through PJ Harvey and The Strokes. I've only had a chance to listen for a few minutes. The new station is only being broadcast on UK digital and satellite radio, and on the net. (The UK is substantially ahead of the US in digital radio broadcasting. UK classical music magazines have been carrying ads and reviews for digital radio receivers for some time.)
Today's Celtic Connections show on Radio Scotland has been just delightful. More from Martyn Bennett's new "Glen Lyon" album, and also the Peatbog Faeries (from an album I owned which was stolen, grrr); Natalie MacMaster (with singing!). Despite my allergy to singer-songwriters, I was very pleased by the duo from Chris While and Julie Matthews, from an album which seems to be a Carole King tribute. Also: the new La Bottine Souriante, and finally a chance to hear the Taj Mahal & Toumani Diabate album -- nothing more celtic than that, I tell you!
Add in Alyth McCormack, yet another Scottish artist setting traditional material to contemporary dance sounds.
Oooooh.,
Radio 6 was being fun this afternoon; of particular note was The Mighty Lemon Drops (I think, and the track title got lost) and Beth Orton's song "Best Bit." Argh, I have a Beth Orton CD somewhere but the house ate it before I ever played it. There was also an interview with Billy Bragg and I caught just the last track from his new album, which sounded a little too preachy for my taste.
Mickey pointed out that Radio 6's Real Audio stream is 64K, which sounds much better than the 44K maximum available on the other channels. Presumably this is because the net is a primary medium for Radio 6, which has no analog over-the-air broadcast. I've read that an Ogg Vorbis stream is available for Radio 1; I haven't pursued this because Radio 1's sound -- probably described as "urban contemporary" -- doesn't appeal to me. But someone might find it interesting to play with. (Ogg Vorbis is the open source version of MP3, which was created when the holders of Mp3 patents started seeking royalties.)
re #12: I recommend Orton's "Best Bit" EP for the two songs she performs with Chicago jazz musician Terry Callier, both of which are excellent tracks. Of her full-length albums, I like a lot of "Central Reservation" but never much cared for "Trailer Park"..
Ken wrote, "Add in Alyth McCormack, yet another Scottish artist setting traditional material to contemporary dance sounds." What counts as "contemporary dance sounds" these days? Rap beat?
Techno, probably. I'm not up on the terminology. She's a gorgeous singer; when I have a moment I'll dig up her CD company website address. (Her album also has a USA release on Compass Records.) Eeek! I almost forgot to "tune in" for the Travelling Folk show on Radio Scotland. Today it's a tribute/memorial to the late Hamish Henderson.
And the second hour of Travelling Folk was a concert by The Dubliners, who are old-fashioned but kind of fun. All the folk shows (in both the US and UK) are doing their St. Patrick's Day specials; the Mike Harding show on Wednesday was all Irish folks, and I already owned more than half the discs from which they played songs. But it was good to hear something from the new Christy Moore, which I don't have, and the new Chieftains (yuck!), and there was an interview with Cathy Jordan of Dervish. I've run into problems with the Late Junction show. Last week the show was hosted by Verity Sharp and I loved most of it; this week's host is Fiona Tarkington and I haven't liked it much at all. There was one track I did like today, which came right before the big Messaien piano piece; I'll have to wait until the playlist goes up in a day or so to find out what it is. The Late Junction folks do seem to like their Messaien.
Got it. I'm listening to the first half of the show, and they played another track from that wonderful album. It's NAVIGATORE by Renaud Garcia-Fons. The artist is a bass player who seems to be straddling jazz, classical and Mediterranean folk music. It's got that wonderful Mediterranean texture that Mickey and I like in a lot of music from Spain and Italy and France. And I can't find anyone who's got the disc in stock online. It's a 2000 or 2001 Enja label release. Daggone it, Enja did not used to be difficult label to find. Amazon.co.uk says they could get it in a week, maybe.
Andy Kershaw's show today is supposed to include a concert session with the Be Good Tanyas. Radio 3 at 5:15 pm USA Eastern Time, if I remember correctly.
The Messiaen which "Late Junction" was playing turns out to be two-piano pieces called "Visions de l'Amen." Interesting stuff. The recording they've been playing is a Wergo label issue from 1993, with Begona Uriarte and Karl-Hermann Mrongovius playing. (Who?) In catalogs I found a Martha Argerich recording.
Ah, nothing wonderful lasts forever. The Guardian ran an article about plans for the Times (UK) news operations to start charging for access to their sites. Buried at the bottom was this: Regarding registered users of the Times Online services: > Anyone registered from overseas will now have to pay > a subscription to access any part of the site. > However, Mr Hayes insisted that the 10 content "channels" > culled from the daily paper will remain free to UK users. > In a move that could have implications for the BBC's desire > to charge overseas visitors to access its sites, Mr Hayes > insisted the site will employ technology that can identify a > user's home country with over 90% accuracy. (I'll start a general "end of free content" item in Agora, so don't follow that drift here, OK?) I'm going to write the BBC and ask what their thoughts are. I'd actually be willing to pay to be able to continue to stream these programs, depending on what the costs are.
Late Junction has had a number of interesting performers
featured over the last two nights. Usually they have
played a couple of tracks from each CD. Just namedropping:
Philip Glass & Foday Muso Suso
Kimmo Pohjonen, from the album KIELO. Finnish accordion player,
Steve Andre liked his pieces a lot.
Bjork's more recent album VESPERTINE
Kerekes Egyuttes, a Hungarian folk band
Susana Baca, her new cd ESPIRITUVIVO, sounded very fine
Pat Metheny, pleasant but not compelling
Much of the programs have been taken up with contemporary Passion
oratorios, which they have been playing in chunks: by Sofia Gubaidulina
and John Caldwell.
Tuesday's "Celtic Connections" show on Radio Scotland opened with a
great unreleased track from the new band Sunhoney. This was a set
of fiddle tunes, but I believe the band is reported to have Alyth
McCormack as a member so presumably there will be singing too.
The web page for World Music on BBC Radio 3 contains about 90 minutes
of music recorded at a charity benefit for Afghanistan. I have not
played it yet; the only performer I recognize was Cheb Khaled.
have Bjork and Philip Glass ever recorded together? that would be interesting.
Phillip Glass has done a couple of collaborations with pop musicians, but AFAIK they were all pre-Bjork -- or at least, back when she was still a Sugarcube. Then again, I try not to pay too close attention to what Glass has been up to. He just has this nasty habit of collaborating with people I like (David Bowie and Paul Simon, to name two).
I think I'm hitting total satiation on BBC radio shows and I may need
to take a week or so off. Today's Archie Fisher show ("Travelling
Folk," BBC Radio Scotland, 2pm-4pm Eastern) included five or six
live-in-studio tracks with a fun bagpipe band called Daimh (pronounced
"dive"). They also featured some old Stan Rogers songs.
If nothing else, I'm getting into some listening fatigue from
too many hours of 44K Real Audio streams.
Mickey, get in here and talk about the Iain Anderson show, OK?
(This is neither the Jethro Tull guy nor the Folk Roots magazine
editor; there are *3* Ia(i)n Andersons in the British music scene...)
Oh, okay. :) Iain Anderson's show is broadcast Monday through Friday, from
14:05 to 16:00, GMT (That's 9:05am-11am Eastern), live from Aberdeen,
Scotland. He plays an eclectic mix of Celtic music interspersed with
contemporary pop music, news, interviews & previews. I find that it's perfect
for my early morning listening tastes. Most days I don't even bother with
local radio. Some highlights from this morning's programme, which was one of
the better ones:
I tuned in right at the end of a song sung by Faith Hill. Yipe.
Next up was ASTRID, "Strange Weather Lately" ... Glasgow-based group
sounding Beatle-ish but nice. I remember that they were voted "Best New
Discovery" or something at SxSW 2000.
The Proclaimers have been Iain's "artists of the week" and he played
a great song "Sweet Little Girls" from their album PERSEVERE (2001).
Another great track off of Christy Moore's newest, THIS IS THE DAY
Croft No.5 - another great Scottish group combining traditional
melodies with dance and funk grooves. I've loved everthing I've heard (Iain
plays them a lot) off their debut, ATTENTION ALL PERSONNEL.
Sounded awesome going into Alyth McCormack's HI HORO (see ken's notes
above)
Then there was Lyle Lovett, Sheryl Crow (gasp!), Cowboy Junkies,
finally ending with some great Celtic tunes from Colcannon, John McCusker and
Runrig.
That should give a decent look into the type of music that gets played on
Iain's show. It's a lot of fun.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radioscotland
Oh, yeah -- thought I'd mention that Iain answers e-mail, often live on the
air. iainanderson@bbc.co.uk
I've had to throw in the towel on Late Junction for a couple of weeks. I just don't have 8 hours a week for it. I seem to have settled on CELTIC CONNECTIONS on Tuesday, Mike Harding's folk show on Wednesday, Archie Fishers' TRAVELLING FOLK on Thursday, and Andy Kershaw on Friday. That's six hours a week which is about all I can manage right now.
Just looked at the playlist for Late Junction on Monday, the show I deliberately skipped, and sighed; almost all folk/world music. Verity Sharp is hosting this week, and maybe she does the shows I like. Of course it was largely performers I was already familiar with, so ... Late Junction has two presenters, Verity Sharp and Fiona Talkington, and I don't know what their duty cycles are. Unrelated note for Mickey: next Tuesday's Celtic Connections show is to include a live set from the Spanish band Alboka, recorded earlier at the Celtic Connections festival.
A couple of notes: on 31 March, The U.K. switched to Summer Time (GMT+1). So, remember that when searching for scheduled programmes originating in the UK or Europe. Radio Scotland did some rearranging of the schedule, and Iain Anderson has been removed from his Mon-Fri 2-hour afternoon (local) gig, and placed into a 21:00-22:00 time slot. I don't know if this is an April Fool's prank or what; I am not amused. His new show is said to concentrate on "the marvellous world of the singer-songwriter." His replacement in the 14:05-16:00 slot is Tom Morton, a crofter from the Shetland Islands. :)
Not only has Philip Glass collaborated with David Bowie and Paul Simon, he's also collaborated with Suzanne Vega and the Roches. If he hadn't already won my favor, that would have nailed it.
Some notes to myself on recent yummy things heard on my fragments
of Late Junction listening:
Thursday: The hurdy gurdy piece I did not get identified at broadcast
time was by Gilles Chabenat, "Le Jardin Aux Orties", from the album
"Mouvements Clos" on the Buda label. I have a feeling I have something
else on hurdy-gurdy by Chabenat in a box somewhere. Something
for the next order from alapage.com, I guess.
Two tracks after that was Jah Wobble with Natacha Atlas guesting,
from the album "Shout at the Devil." (Sure took the BBC folks long
enough to get that Thursday playlist posted on their web site.)
Monday: a Turkish setting of the Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows"
from an album "Beatles a la Turka" on the Muzikotek label.
*That* should be fun to hunt down.
Tuesday included a June Tabor song which Mickey said was from the
"Aleyn" album; what was the title, Mickey? I'd sort of stopped
paying a lot of attention to Tabor some years back, after I
wore out her grim acapella style.
Tuesday's "reception" was the worst I'd ever heard for the BBC on the
net. Steve Andre speculated that there were major transatlantic
connection problems. I stopped counting the signal breaks after
six or so. Amazingly, the one hour which counted most -- the one
which included the 40-minute live set by Basque/Celtic band Alboka
from Radio Scotland -- was the one time the signal came in without
a glitch.
That June Tabor song was her rendition of Johnny O'Bredislee/Glory Of The West, I believe. Thanks for mentioning it again. I really enjoyed "beatles a la turka." :)
This is mostly for Mickey. The Norwegian track we heard with female vocals on "Late Junction" tonight was by Agnes Buen Garnas and Jan Garbarek. If it's from the ROSENFOLE album, I have it in a box somewhere. Nothing like having an exotic British internet radio program to reintroduce me to stuff I already own. :/
Something I heard tonight on Iain Anderson's singer-songwriter show was "Caleb Meyer" by Gillian Welch, which is from the HELL AMONG THE YEARLINGS album, which I already have in a box somewhere. Sigh. Celtic Connections began at 19:15 UK time / 2:15 US Eastern time today. I don't know if the expansion of the 7 pm news report is a permanent change, or if it was a one-shot change due to the crisis in Scottish soccer. It wasn't a great show today; the only track which grabbed me was from Basque accordion player Kepa Junkera, and I already have that. I'm taking a break from most of the BBC shows this week. I am not setting up for "Late Junction" right now, no I am not...
"Caleb Meyer" is a decent song but I think "Hell Among the Yearlings" is Welch's weakest album. I strongly recommend her album from last year, though -- "Time (the Revelator)" It's got a a few minor flaws, but they're more than made up for by the strength of of the material. Definitely something I think Ken would enjoy, and probably a number of the other participants here, too..
I don't know why I keep pushing the "Time" album down in the buy queue. I'm most fond of Welch's first album. Nice track on Fiona's "Late Junction" tonight from Mari Boine; either the track or the song was titled "Eight Seasons." There was one interesting accordion track; the rest of the show just sort of washed over me.
Making notes for Mickey and myself: Two interesting tracks from Monday's "Late Junction" can now be identified, now that the tardy playlists are up. James Yorkston and the Athletes play "The Lang Toun," a quite long, guitar-heavy kinda folk rock thing sorta kinda. Unfortunately this song only seems to exist as a 10" vinyl single, and the amazon.co.uk blurb on Yorkston's coming album expresses disappointment that the song is not part of the album. On the label Domino Records. There was also a bagpipe/african percussion thing from Jimi McRae, alias Jimi the Piper, whose album is available from MusicScotland.com. ----- Today's "Travelling Folk" show (host Archie Fisher) was from the Shetland Folk Festival and contained a bounty of yummy stuff. Mickey tells me I missed some nice stuff by Karine Polwart before I could tune in. I heard yet another track I liked by Mary Gauthier; her promo stuff has really put me off, but I have now really liked two songs of hers which I have heard on the BBC. Dan Crary and Beppe Gambetta are doing some flatpicking wizardry; alas, I am not sure that the song I liked the best, "Nashville Blues," has been recorded by them. It's originally by the Delmore Brothers. There was a nice version of "The Silkie" by a new band, Fine Friday, whose album "Gone Dancin'" is due out imminently, and I heard yet another tasty track by Nancy Kerr & James Fagen, and I am just gonna run out and get that one. Tonight. Radio Scotland still hadn't fixed the channel balance problem, daggone it. Left channel was very weak on both of the shows we listened to this week. We sent them e-mail today.
I listened to TRAVELLING FOLK again, twice --- once on the Saturday rebroadcast (still balance issues) and once as I was editing the recording I'd made. It was a super show, I thought. One thing Ken might not have heard was an a capella number by Bill Jones, and an instrumental guitar piece by Tony McManus --- both on the schedule for the Orkney Folk Festival, which Archie was flogging since he's also performing. :) 23-26 May 2002 The Karine Polwart song was with Malinky, but was a song of her own composition, "The Dreadful End of Marianna for Sorcery" ... rather beautiful, in that haunting Scottish way. I think I need to hear more from Malinky. The Dan Crary / Gambetta number that I liked best was the second song played in the first hour, "Thunderation." ... also "Mozart in Hell" was a crackin little number (as they say ... lol). Who were the Delmore Bros.? Crary & Gambetta had a really funny conversation with Archie Fisher, in the second hour, that had me crackin up when I listened on headphones and could pay attention to the accents. The live guests in the first hour were the new Shetland trio Milladen. They played a couple of good sets of tunes. The guitarist (name escaping me) is evidently an auld acquaintance of Archie's, having played with the group Hom Bru for some 25 years. I didn't get pulled in much by Mary Gauthier, I guess. However, the artist in the line-up right after her was *amazing* ... Tony Reidy, a poet from County Mayo, recently turned songwriter, sang an original song called "Draiodoir Dubh" --- this was simple, but with a lot of depth. The refrain, "I was a boy, but I was growing / Lost the magic in the knowing..." still echoes in my mind. It's growing on me, and I'm gonna have to find his self-produced album, THE COLDEST DAY IN WINTER. So what are your impressions of the Nancy Kerr & James Fagan CD, Ken? I really loved that version of "Dance To Your Daddy" mixed with something called "The Flaming Drones" ... I would enjoy hearing your impressions of the rest of the disc, whenever you get around to it. :) I will be ordering the Fine Friday disc, myself. That version of "The Selkie" was wonderful, and seeing as I'm becoming a collector of that song, I must own it. The first verse is sung unlike any other recorded version I've heard. I do think it's one of the alternate versions written in the _Children of the Sea_ book, though. So ... the guy in Fine Friday is Chris Drever, who is Ivan Drever's (of Wolfstone) son, I guess? A solo track by Ivan Drever preceded "The Selkie," one off his THE ORKNEY YEARS CD. Great show, indeed.
Unfortunately when I think of the Orkneys and music, what pops up in my mind is Sir Peter Maxwell Davies.
I'll have to look that up, since I have no idea who you're talking about. :) One thing that kept me wondering, when listening to Archie Fisher talking about musicians from Orkney, was the word "Orkadian." To my ears, this sounded like "Arcadian" and it took me several listens to figure out what was meant by this word. :-)
Sir Max, as he's known for short, is perhaps the leading living British composer of what we may, for lack of a better term, call classical music. I attended the US premiere of his Eighth Symphony a couple months ago. He's lived in the Orkneys for many years, and incorporates Orkneyan and Scottish references into his music: one of his best-known works is "An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise", with a solo part for highland bagpipe.
I blew off the "Travelling Folk" show on Radio Scotland today in favor of a leisurely lunch with Steve Andre at a new Thai restaurant. I'm feeling overwhelmed with music right now anyway, and Radio Scotland still hasn't fixed the channel balance problem. I did listen in to the last 45 minutes, where they previewed and mostly panned the upcoming Blue Murder album. Poo, I liked all the tracks they played from it. (The first Travelling Folk show of the month is the Album Review show.) Blue Murder has been an occasional British folk project for years, but no albums have ever been released until now. It's a folk acapella supergroup: originally it was The Watersons + Swan Arcade, but mortality and retirements have changed it somewhat so it is now most of the Watersons family -- Martin Carthy, Norma Waterson, Eliza Carthy, and Norma's brother Mike Waterson -- plus Coope Boyes & Simpson (Jim Boyes was in Swan Arcade). Radio 3's "Late Junction" show was delayed almost an hour tonight by a feature documentary, so I went cruising around and found the legendary John Peel show on Radio 1. Actually had some rock music I found interesting; one band was Samurai Seven, and another, all instrumental, was Difficult Proof of UFOs (I think). Peel's show conflicts pretty directly with Late Junction -- Peel is on Radio 1 Tues-Wed-Thurs 2200-0000 UK time. Argh.
Andy Kershaw's Friday show contained a couple of delights, two of which are sending me rushing an order out to Amazon if I can't find the CDs downtown this weekend. The show opened with a pounding track from Rachid Taha's recent live album. I've heard a bit of Algerian Rai before and liked it, but I hadn't heard much recently, except for some Khaled on another BBC show which piqued my interest. This track was great; chanting call and response, thundering drumming, an electric guitar, and it all goes on for about ten minutes. I've played my recording of this about nine times in the last seven hours. Wow. Second wonderful track was by Cornershop, a very 70's-rock sounding track called "Lessons Learned From Rocky I to Rocky III." Cornershop has been a problem band for me; I loved the single "Brimful of Asha" but didn't like anything else I heard from that previous album. (Cornershop are scheduled to be live-in-studio on Kershaw's show next week, 5:15 Eastern time on http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3 ) And there was yet another track from Mary Gauthier's album, New Orleans folkie who, from her press material, I had expected to intensely dislike. This is the third time I've liked a Gauthier track on a BBC show. Filling out the rest of the show: a couple of blues songs; an Irish accordion instrumental from Sharon Shannon; a Joni Mitchell song from The Band's "The Last Waltz"; 10,000 Maniacs. The touted centerpiece of the show, a 30 minute set recorded in concert by Oliver Mtuzudki, left me cold, possibly because of the sub-par recording quality. I vaguely remember liking Mtuzudki's previous CD.
Speaking of "The Last Waltz" -- I'm guessing that there's some sort of anniversary re-release thing going on, as a theater in Seattle's U District was showing it last week and it looked like probably a new print. Definitely worth catching.
Yup, rerelease of the film; the soundtrack album recompiled into a 4-CD set adding 24 songs from the original 3-LP release; and I think the DVD comes out this week, or thereabouts.
Right now, Mike Harding (BBC Radio 2 folk show) is hosting a guest
appearance by Tim Eriksen, of the American band Cordelia's Dad.
("There aren't many people who have worked with Kurt Cobain and Doc
Watson," said Harding, though I think he has Cobain confused with
Steve Albini, who produced the most recent Cordelia's Dad album.)
Tim says there will be a rock Cordelia's Dad album out in the spring;
guess I need to go look at the website. I've written at length
about Cordelia's Dad before; they have veered wildly between
punk-influenced rock and militantly trad folk over the last 15 years.
And with the "O Brother" mini-craze in American roots music,
Cordelia's Dad picks *now* to come out with a rock album.
Timing, guys, timing... :/
Yesterday's Celtic Connections show was pretty good, though Radio
Scotland has *still* not fixed the channel balance problem, grrrr.
The live session was by the Finlay MacDonald Band; MacDonald is a
bagpiper who plays with a guitarist and a drummer; some of the
tracks were very rock-sounding while others stuck more closely to
the Scottish military pipe band tradition.
Mary Ann Kennedy, the host, also played a track from the new
Baka Beyond CD; the song is sung in Gaelic and Mary Ann had an
entertaining rant about how bad the Gaelic pronounciation was.
(She did say you should get the CD anyway if you aren't a native
speaker.) Also played was a new track from the flute-based band
Flook.
And Flook is getting the BBC hype treatment, because they were on today's "Travelling Folk" show with a concert set, maybe five-six songs? Next week's show promises a concert set by The Poozies, which is tremendously exciting for me: this is the first sighting of the Poozies since band member Patsy Seddon's husband died last year (Davy Steele, of a brain tumor), and the first chance I've had to hear the band since Elidh Shaw replaced Kate Rusby.
Cool news about The Poozies! I wish I could've caught the show today with Flook, too. (I heard three songs by them on the Live Sessions page of the Celtic Roots section of the BBC Scotland website and really enjoyed all of it) http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/musicscotland/celticroots/
The BBC reported to me that they found a busted sound card in the PC which encodes the Radio Scotland feed for Real Audio. They replaced it, and the channel balance problem is now fixed. Yay!
(for a moment, before I read the entire paragraph, I thought BBC had found a defective sound card in Ken's PC!)
"Late Junction" is featuring the music of Chris Wood this week. Wood is a fiddler who played in the earlier, folkier incarnations of the Oyster Band, and who these days plays mostly with Andy Cutting (Cutting of the bands 1651 and Fernhill). Tonight's best track was from a collaboration album with Martin Carthy, which was quite nice. I wonder how much of that album is instrumental? Also tonight was a great track from Shine, the new band from Scotland with Gaelic singer Alyth McCormack, harp player Mary MacMaster from the Poozies, and another harpist who I don't know. McCormack is everywhere, it seems, with two bands and solo work. Looks like the cd is actually out now.
I vaguely remember Chris Wood from the very short period in which I was paying attention to the Oyster Band. When you say "earlier, folkier incarnations," what periods are you distinguishing here? I ask because of the extremely confusing discussion of Clannad some time back, in which my general references to "early Clannad" were taken by others to mean later periods, because they were apparently completely unaware of the existence of the period I was referring to.
I'm sure that Chris Wood was a member of the Oyster Band for the album LIE BACK AND THINK OF ENGLAND (3rd album, 1983) and he was gone by LIBERTY HALL (5th album, 1985). If I wasn't so lazy I'd go punch up Jim Love's discography of the band to find out when he joined and when he left, but... Today's Celtic Connections set includes a concert set & chat with Karen Matheson, of Capercaille, who is now flogging a new solo album. The tracks the BBC has played from this new album have been among the most boring things I've heard on a BBC folk show. Bleah. At least the stream will be in properly balanced stereo today, so I can be bored in correct symmetry.
((... and the first hour of Celtic Connections was outstanding -- and Karen Matheson's set, in the second hour, is less boring than I was expecting, though I still wouldn't spend money on her stuff again.))
Well rats and damnation. One of the most important BBC shows for me was going to be the Poozies concert broadcast on Travelling Folk. But the source took some sort of hard failure in the middle of the session; attempts to restart Real Audio got a "URL not found" at the Radio Scotland address for about five minutes. Argh argh argh. The other listener in our #bbcradio channel had the same failure. They do repeat the show on Saturday night, but I don't have good bandwidth at home.
I should mention two more BBC Radio Scotland programs. Iain Anderson's new show comes on at 4 pm Eastern M-F (I think) and focuses on singer-songwriters. And, on Friday, there's a show called "Brand New Opry" with some fun country music.
I was going to ask whether this was the same Chris Wood who played in Traffic but then I realized that he's been dead since the early 80s..
Ken, in resp:37 we were gushing about the Dan Crary & Beppe Gambetta collaboration --- did you ever find the name of their album? Just curious.
The one album they've done so far is "Synergia!", which seems to be a repackaging of an album previously called "Live On Tour 2000". It includes most or all of the pieces they played in the Travelling Folk Shetland Festival session, including "Nashville Blues" and "Mozart In Hell." The concert banter goes on a bit too long, and it really grates on me when Crary calls Gambetta "Spaghetti Man," which he does at least twice. Gambetta has a show at the Ark in early June; dunno if I'll get to go, because the date will be in the crazed few days before we shove Leslie out the door for her summer music program.
Well, I missed the rebroadcast of Travelling Folk on Saturday --- I'm just no good at remembering the BBC on the weekends, I guess. Just thought I'd say a few words about Andy Kershaw's programme on 17 May, since I just finished playing the recording I made. This was the show featuring the session with Rachid Taha, and although I enjoyed that stuff, it really didn't strike me as essential. OTOH ... the second song was by another Algerian, and it's completely wonderful --- the playlist calls her Souad Massi, and her CD is on Island, called RAOUI... I gotta remember to look for this one, as it hits a sweet spot for me. When I heard her sing the first line, I was hooked. Another fun song was an old one by Henry "Ragtime" Thomas called "railroad song" which was nothing but the railroad timetable from Fort Worth, Texas to Chicago, Illinois ... all the stops in between were sung, with guitar and homemade pan pipe accompaniment. :) The last surprise I got was hearing Brian Eno's song "By This River" which I've loved since first hearing it, back in the '80's. Evidently, it appears on the soundtrack to *Y Tu Mama, Tambien*
Souad Massi has been getting a lot of press in Folk Roots magazine, though I don't think I've heard her yet. As I mentioned, I ended up skipping out on the Kershaw show Friday due to a date with my wife -- first Kershaw show I've missed in two months. Thanks for the report on what I missed!
The Late Junction show finally got its playlist up for last week. The Iva Bittova track I liked was "Prani" from an album "Cikori," or else the album is "Iva Bittova and Cikori," the name of the band she's playing with. Her web site is in Czech and thus impenetrable to me. It's her 2002 release, no USA distribution found so far. The Mark King track, a 18 minute prog-rock-jazz fantasia, is from the LP era: "The Essential," from the album "Influences," from 1984. This is a budget CD for about 8 pounds at amazon.co.uk. There's a substitute host on Late Junction this week and the program teasers did not appeal to me, so I'm taking the week off.
Iva Bittova what? Iva Bittova headache? Iva Bittova sweet tooth?
Eric can make me laugh so hard, sometimes! :) Scaring the cats, & everything. Seriously though, I'm really curious to hear what Iva Bittova sounds like, having read some interesting reviews of her work on the ecto mailing list. (Indeed, the ectoguide has a nice look at her work, though not the newest CD to which Ken is referring ... URL follows). http://www.smoe.org/ectoguide (the easiest way is just put "Bittova" in the "Quick Artist Search" field)
There are some MP3 sample snippets on Iva Bittova's Czech web site. You can't really tell what they are, but the MP3 symbol and the string "mp3" are international. I haven't checked them yet myself.
Eliza Carthy had a concert set (recorded in January) on Tuesday's CELTIC CONNECTIONS show. And alas, it eroded much of the good feeling created by Eliza's recent Ann Arbor appearance with her family band, Waterson:Carthy. Much of the problem with the radio broadcast was from Eliza's original songs: they are really weak, with lyrics which tend to make me cringe. There were a few tracks on Wednesday's Mike Harding show which I want to note. The opener was "La be cote" by the band La Vole'e d'Castors, which translates as A Flock of Beavers, from Quebec. Excellent driving instrumental set; that goes on the shopping list. And then there was another track from the new Flook CD. I wasn't gonna get that, but I may cave in under intense peer pressure. Flook is a British instrumental band with a lineup of two flutes, guitar and percussion. The closing track, "Ride the Peace Train," by Jack E McAuley, was a very nice folk-pop song, from his new album BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK. DJ Harding said he'd played some songs from that album before and they must have just washed in one ear and out the other, but this song was very catchy.
Andy Kershaw's programme from last Friday, 24 May 2002, was actually one of the better ones I've heard. It seemed to have several nice songs spread throughout the show. Started with a rap from SPEK, who hails from Montreal, called "Hey, Joni" ... I never did get if the song was addressed to Joni Mitchell, but Kershaw played "You Turn Me On (I'm a Radio)" immediately afterwards. Then there was a song from CORNERSHOP --- "Motion the Eleven" which really had me rockin' the office when I heard it. Then followed some South African and Trinidadian music, and then some tracks from new albums from Van Morrison, Yousou N'Dour, and Warren Zevon (with Hunter S. Thompson). Next was Mary Gauthier :) singing a wonderful song called "Sugar Cane" about that industry in So. Louisiana. Kershaw said she was doing a Neil Young impersonation, but I didn't get that so much. This is another song off of FILTH & FIRE, which I can't find locally, but did find for sale via the record label's website. I really liked the Congolese song sung by Lokua Kanza that followed, as well. That's about when Andy lost me, though. Next up were a small stack of 45rpm records some fans had brought him back from Nairobi, Kenya. The closer was a track off of Neil Young's newest ARE YOU PASSIONATE?
On Monday, June 3, BBC Radio 3 will be broadcasting a bunch of world music sessions from their Music Live festival. From the BBC Radio 3 schedule page, all times UK: At 1500, there will be a one-hour block including La Bottine Souriante. The evening block starts at 19:30, with a set from Altan. Mary Gauthier's set is in a block beginning at 22:15, also lots of Indian and New Zealand music: oh, just look up the schedule, Mickey. :) There will also be lots of stuff, almost all classical, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Friday's Andy Kershaw show is part of the festival, and after Kershaw there will be some live stuff from the Arabic jazz musician Rabih Abou-Khalil, whose work I have enjoyed in the past. ----- From Folk Roots: Kershaw's show will have Amadou & Mariam, "The Blind Couple from Mali," in a concert set on Fri. June 14. Amadou & Mariam's last album was a big favorite. I dunno if they'll be playing electric or acoustic on the show. In the electric band, they are have a big influence from the US Stax/Volt sound, I think.
Quick notes from today's "Travelling Folk" show on Radio Scotland. The Tom Paxton and Anne Hills live set was nice but it's probably not that different from the album. Great vocal harmonies, I do want to pick this up soon and I regret having to miss them at the Ark this month. /// Wolfstone have a new album out imminently; the track which was played sounded pretty good. I always liked Wolfstone's instrumentals, though the songs were hit-and-miss; maybe with Ivan Drever out of the band the writing will have improved? he said cattily. /// Need to find the name of the Quebecois band who ended the first hour. I couldn't parse Archie Fisher's Scottish-inflected pronounciation of a French band name; it didn't seem to be any of the bands I had heard before.
Ken, thanks for your comments, and even your catty opinions. ;) you mihgt have seenthis, since yesterday's "Travelling Folk" playlist is up, but the Quebecois band you heard is ENTOURLOUPE (New to me, as well) from a CD called " Les choux pis des melons" (Mickey tries to post before grex loses its 'Net connection, again)
Mickey and I are listening to the "World on the Waterfront" concert from London, as we type. This is part of BBC Radio 3's "Music Live" festival of concerts to celebrate the Queen's Jubilee. There was a fine live set from Irish band Altan, and right now it's a Indian wedding brass band -- similar to the one from the film Monsoon Wedding I guess -- of probably limited appeal. But the main thing I wanted to comment on is that, starting with last Friday, BBC Radio 3 has raised the maximum stream rate to 64Kbps, which produces a significant sound quality improvement from the old max of 44K. I don't know if this is a special extravagance for the Queen's Jubilee concerts, or if this is a permanent upgrade. The change is like going from AM stereo to a low-quality FM station, perhaps.
BBC Radio 2 has also upgraded to a maximum Real Audio stream of 64K. Now if we can convince Radio Scotland to do it... The second highlight of yesterday's "World on the Waterfront" concerts was the set by Mary Gauthier, a singer-songwriter who is so good she overcomes my bias against the style. I'm trying to make myself wait patiently for the US release of her new album, rather than rushing off an order to Europe where it is already out. There was also an interesting live hour by Cheikh Lo from Senegal, and some less interesting stuff from a Maori folk-rock band called Wai (marred by connection problems) and a Indian flute and tabla duo who came close to lulling me to sleep. (Their CD might actually be good to get for bedtime music.) This was all stuff for the Jubilee celebration. God save the Queen! (Heh, I'm not going to see another British Jubilee in my lifetime.)
I heard that the Diamond Jubilee is celebrated in the 60th year of the monarch's reign. So you might very well see another, ken. :)
Nice live set today by a classic-style Scottish folk rock band called Trudge Euphoria. Too bad I forgot to push the record button on the music machine. Also a nice track from the new Baka Beyond CD and a set of familiar Scandinavian artists. The new track from Finnish accordion player Kimmo Pohojonen sounds like something I might want to run down.
Today was the first time I listened to acoustic folk and classical music at the 64K speed which BBC Radio 2 and Radio 3 are now using. On Radio 3 I caught the tail end of Massenet's opera HERODIADE, and then on Late Junction there has been wonderful stuff by Spanish Galician band Berroguetto, piper Kathryn Tickell, and a Stravinsky violin concerto; now there is something by violinist Jordi Savall, I forget the composer. This is the first time I have felt the wonderful emotional reaction you get with decent sound reproduction; for the last three months it's been a bit of gritting my teeth over the sound quality because of the interest of the programming. There is just such a sense of detail in the music now. Yum. This is the most beautiful Real Audio broadcast I have ever heard.
(OK, it still overloads and gets some weird RA sound artifacts sometimes. :( )
Note to myself: I just found a web page http://support.bbc.co.uk which goes into technical details about their web operations. Will have to poke at it later.
The national BBC radio channels -- the ones which concern me are Radio 2 and Radio 3 -- now bring up a new "BBC Radio Player" on their "Listen now" links. The new player seems to be just a new skin for Real Audio. Selected shows on Radio 2 and Radio 3 are now available for playback for one week after broadcast. This includes all the shows I care about: Mike Harding on Radio 2, and Late Junction & Andy Kershaw on Radio 3. Also included is Saturday's World Routes show. The index of available shows is on the right hand side of the new player's window. The replayed shows seem to stream at a lower rate: roughly 44K for the replays, vs. 64K for the live stream. But, the convenience of catching a show one has missed is not to be underestimated. And, I can catch Lucy Duran's "World Routes" show without having to be up at 8 am Saturday. (The bit-rate speedometer is constantly showing small fluctuations on the new player.) The BBC says that they cannot offer fast-forward and rewind buttons because of copyright issues. There is a "skip 15 minutes" button. ----- Now playing on "Late Junction": a collaboration between Kate Rusby and Chumbawamba. Fiona says that the new Chumbawamba CD also includes a collaboration with acapella trio Coope Boyes & Simpson.
I've been taking a bit of a vacation from the Beeb because I've just been overwhelmed with Too Much Music, but I came back to Radio Scotland today for the Celtic Connections show, which had a great live concert set from the Galician singer Mercedes Peon. After that Mickey encouraged me to come back for Iain Anderson's singer-songwriter show because he wanted to know what I thought of the new Chuck Prophet single "Summertime Thing," and after that was a Tim Buckley song, which was either from the albums "Happy/Sad" or "Morning Glory;" the announcement and the posted playlist differed. And a bit later was a great stomping electric blues track from Mississippi Fred McDowell, "Dankin's Farm." Froots magazine editor (yet another) Ian Anderson has raved about McDowell as one of his formative influences, so I was delighted to get to hear it -- have to get that Arhoolie album.
On today's "Celtic Connections" broadcast: Good live set from the Scottish folk/whatever band Croft No. 5. The live concert was more appealing than the studio tracks I had heard from the band, but unfortunately the session was plagued with network dropouts for me. Croft No. 5 are sort of following the path set out by Shooglenifty in doing a folk/techno sort of thing, but there are some other things in their hybrid, so I'm really quite unsure how to characterize them. The first hour concluded with a GREAT song by Myshkin's Ruby Warblers.
BBC Radio Scotland has now made some programming available on demand. As with the Radio 2 and Radio 3 shows, Radio Scotland shows are kept available for one week after original air date. The fabulous "Celtic Connections" show and the pretty good "Travelling Folk" programmes, which Mickey and I have been following faithfully since March, are available. Also available are some weekend shows which I had not been able to get before, and some things from an Irish radio channel: "Culan: the best in traditional Irish music" "Folk Club: Traditional and contemporary folk music" "Pipes and Drums: Celtic sounds from home and beyond" "Take the Floor: Scottish Dance Music" Eek, probably another four hours a week to try to listen to. I'll hope to sample these after my trip to visit Leslie.
Today I had a chance to get back to some BBC programming after my three-week misadventure in Colorado. Mike Harding had a couple of interesting new tracks: each from new or upcoming albums, by Blazing Fiddles, the Threlfall sisters, and the Oyster Band. The Threlfalls do wonderful harmonizing on traditional songs, and the Oysters seem to be returning to trad material after a 20 year digression through original music... :)
Oh, yeah! NEW OYSTERS!!!!! Twila does a happy dance!!!!!
Ken, do you just web in, or do you also record when
you web-in?
Their is a product called Total Recorder (IIRC) that
gets the audio stream between, say, WinAmp and your common
sound board. Result, .wav files can be recorded without
the additional Windows noises.
Mostly I just connect a Minidisc recorder to the headphone jack if I'm going to record. The lazy man's approach.
That works.
BBC Radio 3 web pages have a pile of concert recordings from WOMAD online. I think these may only be available through August. Mickey, note the Souad Massi set! Others of possible interest include: Bob Brozman, Cara Dillon, Geoffrey Oryema, Lila Downs, Mariza, Rachid Taha, and the Bisserov Sisters. Whine, I'll never get them all. Radio 3's WORLD ROUTES program currently in the archive, through Friday, should be a show featuring Dick Gaughan and Souad Massi from the Edinburgh Festival.
Once again, thanks go to krj for finding more music I can't live without. :) I'm listening to the Souad Massi WOMAD performance right now, and it's quite good, as I expected. Souad is an Algerian protest singer, and gets compared to Tracy Chapman a lot. I've never heard anything quite like her. I don't recognise many of the others "of possible interest," but I notice that there are also performances by the wonderful Issa Bagayogo (Mali) who has been getting some mainstream attention in the USA lately. He plays a 6-stringed version of the kora. I'm also looking forward to playing Kanda Bongo Man's set. I really enjoy his ramped-up soukous, and am thrilled that he's still entertaining. The last thing I'll mention is Trilok Gurtu, for some incredible percussion from India.
Poot. The students have come back and available bandwidth in the afternoon, when the best shows are, has collapsed. I guess 40,000 students running P2P software will do that. :/ The live broadcasts of CELTIC CONNECTIONS yesterday and The Mike Harding Show today had loads of dropouts and downshifts into monaural. I can get Celtic Connections off the replay list for a week, and the Mike Harding show was expendable today, but sheesh. This was not a problem before the students left in the spring.
resp:84 - Tim, thank you SO much for mentioning Total Recorder! http://www.highcriteria.com This is *exactly* the software for which I've been searching for some time. This one actually works --- makes a crystal-clear digital copy of streaming audio, and will even encode direct to mp3, with an external codec. There are two versions --- "Standard" costs only $12 to register, and the $40 "professional" adds some scheduling and a few basic editing commands. Thanks again!
Now you got the tool to record Dr. Demento from the KOZT web-cast. 11pm Texas time, 9pm KOZT time. They have the best stream, at 64-22-S.
At home, in crummy quality, I'm checking out a few of the other
on-demand shows the BBC offers in their "Folk & Country" catalog.
"Pipes and Drums," Radio Ulster -- Mostly celtic tune sets, with a generous
helping of bagpipes, but the pipes don't monopolize the show.
The show I'm listening to opens with Slainte Mhath, Sharon
Shannon, and the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band. The BBC
Radio Player says this is just a 30 minute show, so I'll probably
try to add it to my weekly listening. John Perry might also
check it out, since he likes bagpipes.
I can't find anything about this show on the Radio Ulster web site,
and the beginning and end of the program were clipped off.
"Culan," Radio Ulster -- Contemporary style yet fairly traditional
Irish folk music, from the three songs & tunes I got through
before I accidently stopped the player. Worth more investigation.
"Folk Club," Radio Ulster -- Unsure about this one, just seemed a little
dry for my tastes, though I didn't get far into it.
"The Reel Blend," Radio Scotland -- Very old-fashioned Scottish folk music,
presented in an old-fashioned way for old-fashioned people.
I liked the ceilidh tune sets, but when the host started talking
about a call-in quiz game with questions about Scottish culture,
I gave up.
I still need to check out Radio Scotland's program of traditional
dance music, "Take The Floor."
Campus network conditions have "improved" to the point that I can get a solid 11K real audio stream for the Mike Harding show. Bleah. Mickey will want to catch a replay for the tracks from live CDs from Christy Moore and Bill Jones. I'm not gonna run off and buy Bill's new CD, I have too many other things on the shopping list right now.
Network streams only AM quality today. I'm trying to get a listen in to last week's Celtic Connections show before it gets wiped in an hour, and I should just make it. There is some interesting stuff from Croft No. 5, Simon Shaheen and Nigel Eaton. (And lots of stuff from Orchestra Baobab, who bore my pants off.)
A couple of good finds from yesterday's Celtic Connections show. A very promising band of American urban folkies doing trad material is Ham, whose "Cuckoo Song" comes off their album Rabbit Song. The African track, I'm having trouble pinning down. Mickey and I *thought* it would be Lokua Kanza, but the sound samples for that album at amazon.com don't match what I think I heard on the radio. Otherwise maybe it's a new Late Junction release by Suuf, or else Papa Wemba. I'm gonna have to go over that show again and try to pin it down. Yargh.
resp:95 ... Ken, you might've seen this already, since the playlist is posted now for Celtic Connections. The African track *is* by Congolese musician Lokua Kanza, from the album : Toyebi Té ... the title of the song is a mouthful --- Ndagukunda Tshane.
(The band I cited in resp:95 should be spelled Hem, not "Ham." I picked up the CD in Chicago yesterday.) I found Radio Scotland's bagpipe show, "Pipeline." http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/radioscotland/programmes/other/pipeline.shtml It's available for on-demand listening. The currently archived show features pipe and drum bands who scored well on a recent world competition.
Radio Scotland's programme page for "Celtic Connections" mentions that the host, Mary Ann Kennedy, has a band with a new (second) CD out. The band is Cliar and their website is at http://www.cliar.com Looks like potentially interesting acoustic gaelic folk, with some participation from someone in the Blazin' Fiddles band.
Nice Andy Kershaw today, with a repeat of a Warren Zevon session from 2000, six or so songs in several clumps through the show. This will be available for replay for the next week. I also punched up some of yesterday's "Late Junction." Great Philip Glass track from "Akhnaten," which I know David Bratman has recommended to me before. Waaah, I miss that show. Bandwidth is still a problem for me.
Bandwidth is continuing to be a problem, and I don't know if it's going to be a solvable one. The bandwidth graphs indicate that there should be plenty of bandwidth left after our recent campus upgrade, but I am usually getting an 8K stream, the lowest possible quality for Real Audio, in the afternoon. In the evenings I can do somewhat better, but it's still way below the quality I had for the spring and summer. I can never get 64K on BBC Radio 2 and Radio 3 any more. Celtic Connections had a very fine show today with a live appearance from Myshkin's Ruby Warblers, from the USA.
The description of today's Andy Kershaw show, for Mike McNally --
I seem to remember he's a Robyn Hitchcock fan:
22:15 Andy Kershaw
Andy features an exclusive session from the Soft Boys, who,
never to be hurried, have burst back onto the scene with their
second album in 23 years.
The new album, Nextdoorland, boasts suitably surreal songs
from Robyn Hitchcock and the shimmering guitar of Kimberley
Rew.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/world/andykershaw.shtml
and click on "listen to the latest program" for a week after the
show airs.
I wouldn't really describe myself as a Robyn Hitchcock fan, though I have a couple of original Soft Boys albums and one or two of his solo discs. I've been mildly curious about the new Soft Boys album but "mildly curious" is no longer sufficient to motivate a disc purchase.. I don't know why, but I thought Kimberley Rew was dead..
Radio Scotland had some web page problems during the Celtic Connections broadcast yesterday; neither Mickey nor I could get the show to come up on the live broadcast. Tonight I came back to the replay, and it's a worthwhile listen. Highlights from the first hour include an instrumental band Elephant Talk, and a singer/flute player Eilis Kennedy. The second hour opens with an instrumental track from Eliza Carthy's new album. I'm getting a solid 33K Real Audio stream on the replay. I suspect what I'll have to do now, as much as possible, is move listening into the evenings. The replays are lower quality than the theoretical maximum bitrate of the live streams, but I can no longer get that theoretical maximum during the daytime -- I can rarely get better than a minimal 8K-11K stream in the afternoon I don't think the problem is within the campus network any more. I haven't got enough evening time to cover all of my shows, until I come up with a system for unattended recording.
You were probably a victim of increased latency as a cascading result of the coordinated DDoS attack on the 13 root DNS servers yesterday.
I'm not sure what problem you're addressing. The link problems yesterday were, I think, claims from the BBC servers that the Radio Scotland live Real Audio link did not exist, and that error wouldn't involve the DNS attack. I had no trouble getting text pages from the BBC site; I didn't try any of their other audio streams, though. The bandwidth problems have been ongoing for two months now; the campus here has throttled back some of the residence hall traffic and we should have available bandwidth, but something else between me and the BBC is choking in the afternoons. This has been an ongoing problem -- continuing even today -- and I don't see the DNS attack having any role in it at all.
Very nice Travelling Folk show yesterday, with Fiona Ritchie substituting for the regular host Archie Fisher. There was yet another great track from Irish singer Eilis Kennedy, who's had three tracks on various BBC folk shows in recent weeks, and whose CD seems to be somewhat scarce. Also a live track from bagpiper Susana Seivane and her band, offered as a teaser for a longer live set from a recent festival, to be played in next Tuesday's "Celtic Connections" show.
BBC Radio 3, the home of Lucy Duran and "Late Junction," is offering "World Music Day" on 1 January, with 12 hours of concerts originating around the globe. If we're really lucky, some of this will be available for later streaming, like the Womad sets. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/world/wmdhome2003.shtml ----- In non-programming news: The Guardian reports that private British publishers (including the Guardian itself) are complaining about the BBC's extensive online presence, which is subsidized with the license fee/tax money. The BBC is spending about 100 million pounds per year on its Internet operations, which are much bigger than the folk/world music stuff that Mickey and I soak up. "BBC Online face inquiry" is the headline. http://media.guardian.co.uk/newmedia/story/0,7496,858003,00.html
Bigger than the classical, too, I bet. If that great stuff in their archives goes away, I shall be very sorry. But not a bit surprised.
Here's something some of you classic rock fans might appreciate -- Radio 6 has a programme called "Dream Ticket" ... The premise is that the host assembles a fantasy festival line-up, using the BBC's extensive archive of live shows. http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/bbcsessions/dream_ticket.shtml
BBC Radio Scotland is gearing up for the 10th Celtic Connections Festival, beginning 15 Jan 2003 and running until 2 February. From the looks of this page - http://www.celticconnections.co.uk/whatson/broadcasts.htm there will be a motherlode of broadcasts from the festival (and, no doubt, many sessions recorded live for broadcast throughout 2003). It's the next best thing to being there, I suppose. One of these years....
Andy Kershaw (Radio 3) is presenting two shows from Mali. Today's show (available for a week in the "Listen Again" archive) is from a music festival in or near the Tuareg desert, near Timbuktu. Around 40 minutes into the show -- you can skip forward -- is a nifty cover of Led Zepplin's "Whole Lotta Love." More from Mali next week.
Radio 3's Late Junction had an excellent show Monday, with lots of recordings Fiona Talkington had brought back from the Kaustinen Folk Festival in Finland. I'll have to key in some names after the BBC gets the play list up; they were mostly artists unknown to me. Lots of good accordion work, and three songs from a group of women who were from the same village (in the Karelia area?) as Varttina. I have got to make some time in my life for Late Junction, even if I don't have 8 hours a week to be a completist about it. "Celtic Connections" today played something I liked; turned out it was a Sheila Chandra track from A BONE CRONE DRONE, compiled on her MOONSUNG album which I think I already have. Sigh.
Here's an article which quotes a top BBC executive appearing at a European music conference: http://musicdish.com/mag/?id=7375 The article discusses the BBC's "... renewed concentration on transforming radio from a one-way broadcasting to a two-way 100% interactive medium. And through online tools such as chatrooms and instant messaging, the BBC has high aspirations on building a vibrant community around BBC programming which will then, in turn, be completely influenced by the online community." You can see the early wisps of this happening now on the BBC web site, and when you hear the DJs respond to listeners around the world. Ah, around the world... the DJs seem thrilled at the foreign audience, but the BBC exec sees us as a cost problem: "... domestic BBC Radio is heavily financed by licensing fees paid by UK listeners as opposed to advertising revenue. Needless to say that Mr. Kimber ((BBC exec)) has not been very keen on the idea of non-UK BBC listeners taking advantage of the streaming audio without being a license payer while further augmenting the streaming cost to the BBC." I can see his point, and I do stand ready to offer the BBC some money for the radio programming when they demand it. On the other hand, if the Beeb did not want US listeners, they didn't have to put a major network node in New York, with ties to several major US backbone carriers, as described in the "support" section of BBC's web pages. (The BBC license fee is, I think, about USD $100. UK grexers in party tell me it is charged to television owners only; there is no attempt to bill radio owners, and BBC radio is funded from the pot of money generated by the TV licenses. The whole BBC structure comes up for reauthorization in 2006, again if I remember correctly.) (The BBC license fee is comparable to what I would pay to become a XM customer, and it's pretty clear that, for my tastes, the BBC on the net has pre-empted XM and Sirius.)
BBC Radio's coverage of Glasgow's Celtic Connections music festival (resp:110) has exceeded my expectations, and probably Mickey's as well. When it's done we'll probably have heard about 15 hours of music from the festival, spread across four of the shows we listen to. But today the BBC outdid itself -- today, at least for this folkie, might have been the best day of the entire 10 months of BBC listening. The second hour of Radio Scotland's "Travelling Folk" show was a concert divided among English harmony singers Coope Boyes & Simpson; singer-songwriter Maria Dunn (just OK); and Scottish instrumental band Diamh (pronounced "dive"). Just glorious. Then, Late Junction, the Radio 3 night time show, had live appearances from Mary MacMaster (harp player in Sileas, The Poozies, and Shine) and some live recordings from Altan, and they were winding up with a live appearance from Swedish/British fusion band Swap -- when the stream crashed and wouldn't come back. These shows should be available on the BBC Radio Player for a week and they are most highly recommended.
I thought I might mention this here before I cleared my paste buffer :) "Performance on 3," The BBC Radio 3 live classical music programme will be broadcasting performances of Beethoven's piano sonatas in March. Here are the details from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/classical/pizarro.shtml (NOTE: all times are GMT) Renowned Portugese pianist Artur Pizarro will shortly be commencing an epic 8-concert cycle of the 32 Beethoven sonatas, all performed at St John's Smith Square, London. Radio 3 will be broadcasting the cycle on 'Performance on 3' throughout 2003-4 (more details below). Details of the first four Performance on 3 broadcasts are: Tuesday 6 March, 7.30pm Sonata in F minor, Op. 2 No. 1 Sonata in C minor, Op.13 'Path tique' Sonata in G major, Op. 14 No. 2 Sonata in B flat major, Op. 22 Tuesday 13 March, 7.30pm Sonata in C major, Op. 14 No. 1 Sonata in E flat major, Op. 7 Sonata in F major, Op. 10 No. 2 Sonata in C major, Op. 2 No. 3 Monday 19 May, 7.30pm Sonata in D major, Op. 10 No. 3 Sonata in G major, Op. 31 No. 1 Sonata in E flat major, Op. 27 No. 1 Sonata in C sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 2 'Moonlight' Thursday 22 May, 7.30pm Sonata in G minor, Op. 49 No. 1 Sonata in G major, Op. 49 No. 2 Sonata in D major, Op. 28 'Pastoral' Sonata in C major, Op. 53 'Waldstein' Sonata in F major, Op. 54
I arrived home just in time to hear the last song played on Andy Kershaw's world music programme, and I'm so thankful I did. It was a new song from Algerian singer-songwriter Souad Massi, called "Deb" from a NEW CD that will be released in the U.K. at the end of March. Yay!
My recollection is that Souad's first album was fairly light instrumentation, and when we heard her live stuff on BBC this summer she was singing with a large band. Am I remembering correctly? If so, what's the style on the new track?
I think you are remembering correctly, Ken. Souad Massi's first album, RAOUI, was a very light sound --- some electric guitar, but mostly flamenco guitar, Arabic lute and other acoustic instruments. This new song, "Deb" is one that we heard her play live on BBC this past summer. The song begins with samples of birds singing & something that I think of as a jazz scat, except in Arabic. The sound is still mostly acoustic, but there seems to be more percussion than there is in most of the songs on RAOUI. It's a beautiful song, one that I remember missing when I finally got RAOUI ordered from the U.K. and discovered it wasn't on that CD.
Wow, that new Souad Massi track *is* really good. I don't remember feeling this enthusiastic about her first album, though I did like her live WOMAD appearance from the summer which we heard on the Beeb's festival coverage. I liked a lot of the rest of last week's Andy Kershaw programme too. (I just finished listening to it, it gets erased from the BBC's "Listen Again" archives in about five hours.) I was much more positive about this year's session by the Be Good Tanyas; maybe they've grown as musicians in the last year? And there was also a 1990-era guitar-based track from Kaba Mane, from Guinea-Bisseau, which wrapped up everything which originally drew me to African pop. Next week will be our one-year anniversary of listening to all these wonderful shows. Hooray for socialist radio! :)
Great world music selection on today's "Celtic Connections" show. Grab the replay from Radio Scotland if you are so inclined. Tomorrow, Wednesday March 19: BBC Radio 3 is scheduling a huge show, 19:30-00:00 UK time: "A Place Called England," an "examination of the state of English folk and traditional music." Live sets from the Oysterband, Jim Moray, Boka Halat, Spiers & Boden, Waterson:Carthy. Interview and chat segments with June Tabor, Tony Engle (Topic Records), Ian Anderson (FRoots magazine) and Shirley Collins. This conflicts with Mike Harding on Radio 2 but it sounds like it is not to be missed for me. The web page says the live music segments will be available for later listening.
What time is that here?
Those times are from 2:30pm Eastern (1:30pm Central) until 7:00pm Eastern. Might be good to check, though. I'm often wrong.
I don't know If I'll get to listen, but I'll try.
The "Place Called England" show was rather too massive to absorb in one go, all 4.5 hours of it; I'm going to have to replay the recordings at about one hour per shot. Highlight of the night for me was the introduction to a new band, Boka Halat, who play English trad folk songs with some African drummers. Most of the other live tracks were at least worthwhile, though I thought Waterson:Carthy were maybe a little dull. The live Oysterband set was fine. Host Fiona Talkington promised some followup English folk stuff on today's Late Junction show on Radio 3. Notes for Mickey, via the new issue of FRoots Magazine: Portugese singer Mariza is featured on this Saturday's "World Routes" show with host Lucy Duran. (March 22) And, in September, Andy Kershaw's world/rock/roots show is moving from Friday nights to Sundays. Question for Mickey: what do I have to remember about the UK change to Summer Time, vs. the USA change to Daylight Savings?
Thanks for the info about Mariza on World Routes, Ken. British Summer Time (BST) begins 30 March at 1:00am, one week before the United States begins observing Daylight Savings Time. So, the UK schedules will be an extra hour ahead of us for the first week of April.
Mickey and I found BBC radio streams to be unusable today. We abandoned our efforts to listen to Archie Fisher's show, and my later attempt to get Radio 3 also failed. My best guess is that the BBC websites are overwhelmed with people seeking war news.
Mike Harding just announced a special program for Wednesday, 23 April, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Sandy Denny's death. Interviews with her British folk-rock contemporaries, and music.
BBC Radio 3 has put up a new stack of live gig recordings of world music artists. Most of these shows seem to come from the London Jazz Festival last November. I'm unclear about the origins of the shows with a March date, though. Highlights for Mickey and I will be a 60 minute show by Mariza (Portuguese fado) at 44K, and a 100 minute show by Mari Boine (Sami singer) at the tasty 64K speed. Also included in this: Orchestra Baobab, Faudel, Oliver Mtukudzi, Bembeya Jazz and Ketil Bjornstad. I'm listening to the Mari Boine right now. Very nice. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/world/ljfgigs2002.shtml
(and, today, we're missing the Radio 3 World Music Awards concert, with Mariza, Samira Said, bunches of others. Ah well, lots of dropouts in the stream anyway. Hope they archive it for later.)
resp:128 - This is an interesting collection of recorded live sessions. Thanks for pointing it out. I'm looking forward to hearing Mari Boine singing live. I checked out the Mariza show, and believe it to be the very same recording that was featured on World Routes recently. resp:129 - There is video and two concert (real)audio linked from here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/world/awards2003/index.shtml
Coming next week: Late Junction (BBC Radio 3) presents "a week of specially made recordings" from a Scottish festival of Scandinavian music. Tuesday offers "tracks" from the movie soundtrack project by Kate Rusby and John McCusker. Wednesday features the Irish/English/Swedish band Swap.
OK, I am very confused. First hour of today's Celtic Connection show was great, lots of bagpipe-y stuff. Second hour was a concert set from Vasen, from the same "Across the Sea" festival which Late Junction drew on last week; it might even have been the same Vasen set which LJ broadcast, I don't know. But 25 minutes into the second hour, the show faded, and a Radio Scotland announcer expressed apologies for the interruption and started playing sort of folky music. No idea what happened. Darn, it was a great concert set too.
OK, somebody remind me what I know about Jah Wobble. He's Andy Kershaw's studio guest today, but I sort of need the time to get through five-seven hours of London Jazz Festival recordings which Radio 3 has online for a limited time.
Bassist, former member of Public Image, Ltd., later went on to record a number of albums of world fusion music with his band "Invaders of the Heart" and some collaborations with other studio-experimentalist-leaning musicians (e.g. Brian Eno, with whom he recorded an album called "Spanner" (which is not very good, IMHO.)) If you've heard any of his post-PIL work, it was probably "Visions of You", a single with considerable radio play in the Detroit/Windsor market, at least if you were listening to "alternative" radio at the time. The most prominent feature of the single, apart from an infectious percussion line, was the guest vocal from Sinead O'Connor, so it's highly possible that though you may have heard the song it might not have registered whose work it was..
Tomorrow (Wednesday), Maddy Prior is supposed to be the featured guest
on the Mike Harding Show, BBC Radio 2, 3 pm US Eastern time / 7 pm UK time.
Probably there will be an interview, and several tracks from the new
"Lionheart" CD.
-----
And now, for something completely different! In BBC Radio 3's
collection of concerts from the London Jazz Festival, we found a gem.
Norwegian pianist Ketil Bjornstadt has a suite of settings of
poetry by John Donne. It's just exquisite. I'm not sure how to
characterize it: there might be some jazz elements to it, but it's
also kind of ambient, some classical art song in the underlying
concept. The singer is Anneli Drecker, who is/was the singer with
the Scandinavian art-rock band Bel Canto.
So far three friends have heard this and all three have gone, *wow*.
This gets my highest recommendation:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/jazzfest2002/index.shtml
(to access the 64K Real Audio stream)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/jazzfest2002/ketilbjornstad.shtml
(for biographical & program notes)
I'd love to hear that Ketil Bjornstadt program, but every time I click on the link, Real Player pops up and gives me an error message reading "The instruction at 0x62352039 referenced memory at 0x00000045. The memory could not be written." I don't have the slightest idea what this means or how to fix it. I've uninstalled and redownloaded Real Player, and I still get the same message. This is typical behavior for computers dealing with media downloads of any kind, and is a good explanation for why I rarely play media on my computer.
Note for Mickey, mostly: Young English singer Jim Moray, who someone billed as "techno-trad," will be the featured in-studio guest on Wednesday's Late Junction show on BBC Radio 3.
... and Jim Moray is also the guest on Wednesday's Mike Harding show. BBC Radio 3 now has about half of the shows from last weekend's Womad festival up on their web page. Shows are generally about an hour long, except for Lo'Jo, which seems to end rather abruptly at 15 minutes. (I asked about it in the discussion forum.) Bit rates are down to 44K this year, a mild bummer after the glorious 64K they used for the London Jazz Festival. This is Real Audio, as usual for the Beeb.
The first of the "Europe in Union" world music concerts is up on BBC Radio 3's web page. 44K real audio, and supposedly the concerts will be there for a year. The opening concert in the series is Modeste Hughes of Madagascar (45 minutes), and Eugenio Bennato & his band Taranta Power of Italy (1 hr. 15 min). The live Kristi Stassinopoulou show is Oct. 19, so presumably the web-archive of the concert will be up soon after that. Oh yeah, Eugenio Bennato is kind of neat. I have never heard Modeste Hughes.
Mickey will want to pick up a repeat of today's Celtic Connections show, though one might want to keep a finger ready on the fast-forward button. There are about four or five live-in-studio tracks with Scottish band Croft No. 5, but about half of them are collaborations with a rap group. Even more interesting are the two songs from Martyn Bennett's new album GRIT, finally out; I'll have to find a used or promo copy since it's on the arm of a major record company.
The bloom is off the romance. :) I'm about ready to drop Radio Scotland's "Celtic Connections," due to a decreasing supply of Celtic music and a surge in African rap and Latin American music. Mickey and I have actually dropped several of the recent shows in mid-broadcast; none of them have been better than mediocre. Radio Wales' "Celtic Heartbeat" looks promising, with some interesting Celtic and folk band featured in the last two weeks, including Rag Foundation (who have gone pretty pop in their new album), 3 Daft Monkeys and Celtish.
What are African rap and Latin American music doing in a show called "Celtic Connections" in the first place?
It's all about the connections, as far as I'm concerned. Oftentimes they're tenuous, but that is part of the charm of the show. Personally, I'd be bored stiff if Mary Ann played nothing but traditional music from the former Celtic lands. It's always been more of a world/roots music programme than a strictly Celtic one.
My carpooler often argues that the only apparent "Celtic" connection is that the musicians have DNA, as do the people in Celtic lands. I loved the mix in "Celtic Connections" when we started listening 20 months ago; it was my favorite of the BBC programs for a long time. Things change; the show will probably pick up later; I just need a vacation from it. The new hazard :) is BBC Radio 6, as my tastes swing back towards rock for the first time in many years.
Radio _6_? Clearly I haven't been keeping track. I think I lost count after 4.
Yes, they have been proliferating. :) Radio 5 is live news and sports coverage. Radio 6 (which the BBC markets as "6Music") I describe as "serious rock music from 1960-2004." Radio 6 started in the spring or summer of 2002 and it is only available on digital radio -- digital radio is much bigger in the UK than it is here -- and on the net. Bob Harris has a good show on Radio 6 -- was it Jeff who told me that Harris is famous from the show The Old Grey Whistle Test? Also Tom Robinson, who was a bit of a rock star back at the end of the 1970s.
Re: Bob Harris, probably; possibly, "among others", though (ball leaps to mind). <twenex rubs his head> Ouch.
I was afraid that Radio 6 would be 24 hours a day of cheerful band music from The Village. "Good morning, good morning, good morning. It's another beautiful day today!"
And, is it?
It's been just over two years since I started this item. The BBC has so woven itself into my life, it's hard to remember what it was like when I had to constantly scratch and dig to find interesting music. My consumption of American radio has dwindled to: news on WWJ-AM and NPR outlets; occasional classical music on WKAR-FM in East Lansing; even more occasional classic rock on the Howell station I pass on my commute. Late Junction on BBC Radio 3 had a number of excerpts from a concert by Bill Frisell & Djemilady Tounkara, both on acoustic guitar, with a number of supporting instrumentalists including a fine percussionist. This band appears to be touring the UK intensively right now but there are no recordings (yet); Frisell records a lot, though, so I hope that maybe the UK tour was to shake down the lineup, then the CD gets recorded, then they tour the USA and come to Ann Arbor. This was Monday's Late Junction show, available for replay until next week. Celtic Connections this week, on the other hand, was a show I fled from, a summary from the BBC Radio 3 World Music Awards. One would think that would appeal to me, but I just have not liked their awards shows, at all. The final straw was Senegalese rap group Daara J, who have become sort of an in-joke between Mickey and I. We really can't abide them any more, and the Beeb is plugging them heavily.
Most unsatisfactory.
Next up, a world cuisine award featuring the Dakar MacDonald's.
Heh, another whole year of listening gone by, and I didn't even make any comments on it. Surprisingly, I'm still listening to the same core shows that I started with three years ago: Celtic Connections, Travelling Folk (both on BBC Radio Scotland), Late Junction (BBC Radio 3) and Mike Harding (the folk show on Radio 2). This year I started picking up Radio Wales' Celtic Heartbeat on a semi-regular basis, it's another fairly old-fashioned folk music show. A few weeks ago, Radio Scotland seems to have upgraded their Internet equipment. *Finally*, their sound is as good as the national BBC channels such as Radio 3. Celtic Connections is playing too much rap music for my tastes. Bleah.
Yesterday: ten year anniversary of listening to the BBC, according to the original item text. And now BBC Radio Scotland's Global Gathering, the successor programme to Celtic Connections, is up for cancellation around the end of this month.
You have several choices: