response 225 of 228:

Jul 10 03:39 UTC 2001

Cordelia's Dad and their "militantly traditional" stage: they were being
fanatical purists, as revivalists, in a way that musicians who grow
up in the tradition rarely are.  Remember that Cordelia's Dad started
out in a style which I describe as "The Ramones Play Folk Music," and 
from that beginning, they moved to a more and more acoustic and 
traditional presentation.    About the time the Steve Albini 
purist album was released, I saw them at a workshop stage at the
Philadelphia Folk Festival, and their attitude was, "this is REAL
folk music and you will LISTEN and APPRECIATE it, it's GOOD FOR YOU
and you could see the folk festival audience getting somewhat cranky...  i
maybe it was just the afternoon heat...
 
Mike: Michelle Shocked's limited-release album "Dub Natural"
is (reportedly) a remixed version of the basic instrumental tracks from 
her forthcoming mainstream album "Deep Natural," so this is, at least
conceptually, dub as you know it.  I got a copy at the show tonight
and will have more to say after I play it.

And I will have to write up something about the Michelle Shocked concert
-- probably it will just be a memory dump from my scribbled setlist notes
-- but this was one of the great, great concerts.  I was dazzled.

response 227 of 228:

Aug 9 16:08 UTC 2001

This weekend (Friday-Saturday-Sunday) the National Folk Festival will 
be held in downtown East Lansing.  It's free, though there will be 
plenty of opportunity to spend on food, drinks and cds.
Last year's festival was a lot of fun.  Schedule is at:  http://www.nff.net

The biggest names appearing are probably Doc Watson, the Mahotella 
Queens from South Africa, Barachois from Atlantic Canada, Cherish 
the Ladies, and the Hot Club of Cowtown.