SOUND CHECK : VARIOUS/``FROM THE HEART OF STUDIO A: THE FOLKSCENE COLLECTION''.For 28 years, Roz and Howard Larman have hosted ``FolkScene'' each Sunday on North Hollywood public-radio station KPFK-FM (90.7). This collection showcases a handful of the show's archival recordings from such artists as Iris DeMent de·ment tr.v. de·ment·ed, de·ment·ing, de·ments 1. To make (a person) insane. 2. To cause (a person) to lose intellectual capacity. , Richard Thompson, Dave Alvin, Mary Black Mary Black (born 22 May 1955, in Dublin, Ireland) is an Irish singer. Career She was born into a musical family. Her father had been a fiddler, her mother a singer, and her brothers had their own group. and Bruce Cockburn Bruce Douglas Cockburn, OC (IPA ['kobɝn]; phonetically: "co-burn") (born May 27, 1945)[1] is a Canadian folk/rock guitarist and singer-songwriter. , along with equally interesting stuff by Dar Williams Dar Williams (full name Dorothy Snowden Williams, born 1967) is an American singer-songwriter specializing in what can be described as "folk-pop". She is a frequent performer at folk festivals across the nation, such as the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival in Hillsdale, New , John Gorka and Tish Hinojosa. Such is the intimacy fostered by the Larmans that the disc sounds like it's being cut in your living room. three stars - Fred Shuster Lisa Gerrard and Pieter Bourke/``Duality'' The follow-up to the 1995 solo debut from Dead Can Dance co-founder Gerrard continues the weird ethnic-music/trance sound the group pioneered. It's sort of a designer marriage of ancient and new music that makes you want to don a long brown cassock, grab a candlestick Candlestick A price chart that displays the high, low, open, and close for a security each day over a specified period of time. and retire to a cool corner of a nice quiet monastery. Except for one track, the music on ``Duality'' is sung with sounds rather than conventional language while the synths, ethnic percussion and violins saw away in the background. Somebody fetch the brown rice. three stars - F.S. Harvey Danger/``Where Have All the Merrymakers Gone?'' Another in the long list of '90s one-hit wonders, this Seattle quartet scored a winner with the darkly humorous ``Flagpole Sitta,'' a track featured on ``Where Have All the Merrymakers Gone?'' the band's mostly tiresome debut. Sadly, there's little of substance that comes close to the current KROQ fave fave Informal n. One that is preferred above others or likely to win; a favorite. adj. Favorite. [Short for favorite.] . Singer Sean Nelson has a nasal whine that works well with the right material, of which there's little here. Basically a three-chord pop-rock band that stumbled on a tiny piece of heaven, Harvey Danger is destined des·tine tr.v. des·tined, des·tin·ing, des·tines 1. To determine beforehand; preordain: a foolish scheme destined to fail; a film destined to become a classic. 2. for a future edition of Trivial Pursuit. one and one half stars - F.S. Horace Andy/``The Prime of Horace Andy: Massive Cuts From the '70s'' Blessed with a high-pitched tenor, a versatile range and strong songwriting ability, Andy is one of reggae's most original crooners. This fine budget-priced set offers generally hard-rocking material including covers of reggae and r&b tunes. Best of all is the scorching scorch v. scorched, scorch·ing, scorch·es v.tr. 1. To burn superficially so as to discolor or damage the texture of. See Synonyms at burn1. 2. ``Money, Money'' and nice covers of Bill Withers' ``Ain't No Sunshine,'' the Heptones' ``My Guiding Star'' and Bob Marley's ``Natural Mystic.'' three stars - F.S. King Sunny Ade/``Odu'' Nigerian juju singer, guitarist and band leader Ade refuses to repeat the same record again and again. That's why those who long for the subtle genius of the African Beats leader's first two Mango albums of the early '80s might find ``Odu'' a bit disappointing. The hybrid of Western pop and traditional African music in which multiple electric guitars, pedal steel, synthesizers and talking drums blend never gets tiresome, but there seems to be a distinct lack of the old dynamics. Still, it's a groove. two and one half stars - F.S. Various/``Ska After Ska: Authentic Ska Hits'' This compilation of Duke Reid-produced ska from the '60s offers a sturdy introduction to some of the genre's most influential artists. Here's trombonist Don Drummond with his band the Skatalites, Justin Hinds, Derrick Morgan and others straight off the original masters. three stars - F.S. Flamenco Passion/``Curandero'' In this winning cross-cultural world-music effort, flamenco guitar meets Indian percussion for fun and profit. Actually, the two forms work well together. Alternate title: ``How can you cook a curry with a rose between your teeth?'' two and one half stars - F.S. Bill Evans/``At the Montreux Jazz Festival'' One of the latest entries in Verve's beautifully packaged reissue series, this Evans set from 30 years ago finds the dizzyingly lyrical pianist pushed to creative heights by bassist Eddie Gomez and extrovert extrovert /ex·tro·vert/ (eks´tro-vert) 1. a person whose interest is turned outward. 2. to turn one's interest outward to the external world. percussionist Jack DeJohnette. The trio gives exciting, energetic workouts to numbers like ``Nardis'' and ``Someday My Prince Will Come.'' Evans balances the aggressive moments with a couple of beautifully introspective in·tro·spect intr.v. in·tro·spect·ed, in·tro·spect·ing, in·tro·spects To engage in introspection. [Latin intr solo pieces, ``Quiet Now'' and ``I Loves You Porgy "I Loves You Porgy" is an aria from the opera Porgy and Bess with music by George Gershwin and lyrics by DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin. It was published in 1935. "I Loves You Porgy" has been recorded by a number of popular vocalists and jazz musicians. .'' A terrific glimpse of Evans at one of his creative peaks. three and one half stars. - Glenn Whipp Dan Bern/``Fifty Eggs'' Lyrically, no one else in contemporary music covers as much new ground as Dan Bern. When he's good, he's brilliant. In a whiny but strong voice that sounds like P.F. Sloan, he takes you on hilarious verbal journeys through his thought process, such as his observations about the relative merits of certain ``Chick Singers,'' his envy of self-confident performers like ``Tiger Woods,'' and his humorous details about the many ways in which whites and African-Americans live in ``Different Worlds.'' We wouldn't curse Bern with a ``new Dylan'' tag, but he's doing exactly what we miss about the old Dylan. three stars - Rick Shefchik Saint Paul Pioneer Press George Jones/``It Don't Get Any Better Than This'' The country Hall of Famer's umpteenth record is a fine testament of durability from a performer who seems to lose little flair with each passing year. The showcase is the title track, a splashy splash·y adj. splash·i·er, splash·i·est 1. Making or likely to make splashes. 2. Covered with splashes of color. 3. Showy; ostentatious. See Synonyms at showy. single featuring a host of George's equally legendary friends (Johnny, Willie, Merle merle a pattern of coat color pigmentation with dark, irregular blotches on a lighter background. Seen in some Collies and Welsh corgis. In shorthaired dogs, e.g. Great Danes and Dachshunds, the similar pattern is called dapple. , Waylon). And it's the ballads, those incredibly sorrowful sor·row·ful adj. Affected with, marked by, causing, or expressing sorrow. See Synonyms at sad. sor  row·ful·ly adv. tales of losers, victims and the disenchanted dis·en·chant tr.v. dis·en·chant·ed, dis·en·chant·ing, dis·en·chants To free from illusion or false belief; undeceive. [Obsolete French desenchanter, from Old French, , that continue to put Jones in a class by himself. This is an above-average album that reiterates that, in country, age is an advantage. two and one half stars - Ben Wener Orange County Register Soundtrack/``The Big Lebowski'' Good taste can cover a multitude of sins. On the soundtrack to the Coen brothers' latest movie, there's no mood, genre, theme or era to tie things together. But the sheer smarts of the musical choices holds us from start to finish. The Coens throw in everything from Dylan's 1971 track ``The Man in Me'' to Captain Beefheart's '72 blues ``Her Eyes Are a Blue Million Miles'' to classics from Nina Simone, Moondog, Henry Mancini and Townes Van Zandt. Even Kenny Rogers makes an appearance, adding up to a work veering between passion and kitsch, a perfect balance of the moving and the surreal. three stars - Jim Farber New York Daily News New York Daily News Morning daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson and his cousin Robert McCormick as a subsidiary of the Tribune Co. of Chicago. The first successful tabloid-format newspaper in the U.S. CAPTION(S): 7 Photos PHOTO (1) On ``Duality,'' Lisa Gerrard, left, and Pieter Bourke expand on the sound of the pioneering Dead Can Dance with a blend of ancient and new music. (2--7) no caption (CD covers) |
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