Listen to the Lion

Music from the first quarter

A roundup of some of my favorite CDs from 2008 so far, from the Examiner.

Follow the music

A column on MTV, Bob Lefsetz and the search for good music like King Wilkie.

It's nice just to be nominated

I got quite a surprise a couple of weeks ago when a friend and fellow music writer e-mailed me to say I had been chosen as one of three nominees for the International Bluegrass Music Association's Print Media Person of the Year.

Go here and scroll almost all they way down for proof.

For a writer to get any feedback at all, let alone something to this degree, is pretty rare and eminently satisfactory.

One of the publications mentioned with my nomination is the Lonesome Road Review, a music review blog I started not long ago.

It's still got a long way to go before it's where I want it, but take a look anyway. Feedback and offers to help (especially on the design and site maintenance side) are welcome here.

And while we're celebrating, check out King Wilkie with a track from their great new album Low Country Suite.

Once - the best film so far this year

A Baltimore Examiner piece on Once, a really great film starring Glen Hansard of the Frames, with a little on Van Morrison's third "best of" collection.

Good discs from '06

Spend some of your Christmas money on these CDs.

CD Review - Butch Robins

Butch Robins
Forty Years Late
Rounder Records
3 stars (out of 5)

Butch Robins is a fine banjo picker with a many ardent fans in the bluegrass world and a memoir that I'm told is quite good. Forty Years Late (originally released in 1977) is solely instrumental, and a fine example of 1970s newgrass. Guests include Kenny Baker, Norman Blake, Sam Bush, Ronnie Reno, Marty Stuart, Buck White and Roland White, so you know it's good.

CD review - The Doc Watson Family Tradition

Doc Watson & Family
The Doc Watson Family Tradition
Rounder Records
4 stars (out of 5)

Recorded in 1964 and 1965, this isn't so much a Doc Watson album as it is a literal exhibition of the musical tradition - both immediate and ancient - that he came from. Doc and members of his extended family take turns sharing fiddle tunes, banjo pieces, lullabyes, gospel songs and ballads, some of which are hundreds of years old.

Backed only by father-in-lay Gaither Carlton on fiddle, Doc's best vocal is on "Am I Born to Die?" Doc's cousin Dolly Greer steals the show with her a cappella singing, especially on "Omie Wise."

A perfect introduction to what we call old-time music.