The News Review:
- Music Review | Barb Jungr
- Reworked REPEAT SHW
- Griots And Guitarists
- The world of Kwame Kwei-Armah
- New spin: Jason Isbell and company mix past future during Granada…
Music Review | Barb Jungr
New York Times – Jan 19, 2008
Stripping it of its hubba-hubba and bump-and-grind beat with nary a “baby” to be heard she forces the song to stand on its own as a surreal minimalist blues-flavored lament whose last word “die” is hissed. Skip to next paragraph.
Reworked REPEAT SHW
cbc.ca – Jan 19, 2008
Longin picked up the Madagascar dance style called salegy. An introduction to Jimi Hendrix on the radio changed his life and Madagascar Slim as he prefers to be known professionally was born. An immersion in blues as well as the popular music of his own country made him a bicultural artist. By combining his love of the blues and his roots in Madagascar Slim has fashioned his very own approach to world music – infectious passionate and full of complex rhythms that surprise and delight. He has emerged on Canada’s blues folk and world music scene as an innovator and carrier of the traditions of his homeland. This includes extensive touring collaborations and now three Juno Awards… An immersion in blues as well as the popular music of his own country made him a bicultural artist. By combining his love of the blues and his roots in Madagascar Slim has fashioned his very own approach to world music – infectious passionate and full of complex rhythms that surprise and delight. He has emerged on Canada’s blues folk and world music scene as an innovator and carrier of the traditions of his homeland. This includes extensive touring collaborations and now three Juno Awards.
Griots And Guitarists
cbc.ca – Jan 19, 2008
And as to that other lovely man from Madagascar Madagascar Slim his full name is Randriamananjara Radofa Besata Jean Longin and he’s lived in Canada since he was a young man. His many influences include Jimi Hendrix and a pantheon of blues players and he’s equally adept at Malagasy music and the blues — sometimes at the same time!.
The world of Kwame Kwei-Armah
Telegraph.co.uk – Jan 19, 2008
Books I’m reading a book about the American invasion of Grenada in 1984 by a wonderful historian called Richard Hart. My friend Naomi Wallace whose play I directed in Baltimore last year gave me first editions of James Baldwin’s Blues for Mr Charlie and The Fire Next Time so I’m working my way through those again. Indispensable gadget Apart from my laptop it’s my Sonos music system. It’s a digital box that allows me to have different music playing in different rooms all over the house. It’s perfect for a house of music lovers. Songwriting I’d love to have time to write songs.
New spin: Jason Isbell and company mix past future during Granada…
Dallas Morning News – Jan 19, 2008
Isbell late of the critically acclaimed Drive-By Truckers was worthy of continued scrutiny. Like the Truckers his sound might best be described as an amorphous cross of the music of Lynyrd Skynyrd and Crazy Horse – heartfelt vocals going out over a churning sea of guitar noise. Fronting a band that included another guitarist and keyboards known as the 400 Unit Mr. Isbell played unabashedly electric music while he addressed contemporary issues like “Try” from his new album Sirens in the Ditch. In that song he speaks to the futility of attempting to get someone to conform to your own standards (“You can’t make a woman sleep alone”) while the band squalls and rages behind him. n another he takes the view of a deceased veteran (“Dress Blues”) or less specific regret (“Chicago Promenade”)… Isbell played unabashedly electric music while he addressed contemporary issues like “Try” from his new album Sirens in the Ditch. In that song he speaks to the futility of attempting to get someone to conform to your own standards (“You can’t make a woman sleep alone”) while the band squalls and rages behind him. n another he takes the view of a deceased veteran (“Dress Blues”) or less specific regret (“Chicago Promenade”). Furiously chewing what had to be gum throughout the set Mr. Isbell did songs about down-home pride like “utfit” wherein he is advised by his pa never to call his dress by such a name and to avoid other such pop-culture buffoonery. Perhaps the best part of the evening however were the covers where these Alabama boys revealed the unlikely amalgam of rock both punk and classic with equally affecting versions of the Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer” and Van Morrison’s much earlier “Into the Mystic. “As if that wasn’t enough the encore was a completely non-ironic version of Thin Lizzy’s “Jailbreak” which may have been the best expression of what they bring to the pop music table: an unalloyed appreciation of the past with an unwavering eye to the future.