FolkBlog

I often get offered music for review, and most of the time, giving airplay is sufficient.  However, every once in a while I get something special.  At the request of Festivalink.net, I downloaded the live set from the Levon Helm Band from Merle Fest, and it’s barely left my CD player at work since.  Helm is [...]

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My wife and I got back late Sunday from attending the Philadelphia Folk Festival, as well as spending some quality time with my wife’s aunt, who lives in Philly and attended with us on Saturday.  Among the highlights:

Attending a workshop session where Pete Kennedy and Jake Shimabukuro went at the ukelele.  I’ve heard Pete Kennedy many times, [...]

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We’ve entered Lent, one of the most important periods in the annual Christian calendar. During Lent, I like to pull out my albums of hymns, and I thought I would share some of my favorites.

Innocence Mission: Christ is My Hope. This is one of my favorite albums of hymns, and I get it [...]

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I had never heard of Nathan, a folk/rock group from Winnipeg, before receiving their new release Key Principles in the mail last week. I don’t know how I missed them before, but I was so impressed with this disk that I went on emusic.com and downloaded their previous CD as well, the Juno-nominated Jimson Weed.
The [...]

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Added tracks from 3 new albums to the Online Folk Festival over the weekend:

The Possum Trot Orchestra - Harbor Road
Junction Pool - Junction Pool
The Wyrd Sisters - Wholly

I’m really making an effort to get through the black hole that has become my backlog of CDs to listen to.
I’m really impressed with the Junction Pool [...]

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Since it seems that everyone else does it, I do it too. The following are the albums that I just keep coming back to this year for my own personal listening enjoyment.
Here they are - the Top 10 albums of 2006 according to the woodsmeister:

Bruce Springsteen - The Seeger Sessions: Easily the most important folk [...]

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Every once in awhile, I get a disk in the mail from someone that I’ve never heard of that reminds me why I do this. I received two disks in the mail from Los Angeles-based world/folk/pop singer/songwriter Ashley Maher.
Ashley Maher’s most recent CD, Flying Over Bridges, combines singer/songwriter folk, African folk and pop, western pop, [...]

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My personal Top Ten for the first quarter of 2006. These are all albums I have received in the first quarter of 2006, though I don’t think all have reached their general release date.
1) Railroad Earth: Elko - These guys may be the best currently working live band from New Jersey (yes - they may [...]

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I found out last week that Paul Kelly put out an album in 2005 and somehow I completely missed it. Media Play, a music/DVD/books selling superstore-type chain is closing down and liquidating, and my girlfriend and I visited one of the locations on our way somewhere else, and lo and behold, there was [...]

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It seems to be that time of year when everyone puts together their Top Ten lists, and since I recently saw High Fidelity on cable, I guess I’m ready. All releases 2005.
1) Kate Campbell - Blues and Lamentations2) Over the Rhine - Drunkard’s Prayer3) Donal Hinely - Giants4) James McMurtry - Childish Things5) Van Morrison [...]

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