The singer-songwriter Cedric Watson claims the region with his rhythms and song titles—including “Le Sud de la Louisiane,” “J’suis Parti au Texas,” “Lafayette La La,” and “J’suis gone a la Blue Moon.” The song that shares the band’s name, “Bijou Creole,” is rather spare—with accordion, fiddle, and a simple voice chant—but “Le Sud de la Louisiane” has a dense, low groove and blues twang, and the singer’s voice is very personable, conversational in its rising and falling but genuinely expressive, hearty.
Old Time Music, New: The Village, featuring Rickie Lee Jones, Lucinda Williams, Amos Lee, Shelby Lynne, the Cowboy Junkies, and Rocco DeLuca
(“The rise of folk music and the birth of rock and roll were a direct reaction to the saccharine pop of the 1950s—the soundtrack for a vacuous and repressive decade,” asserts Suze Rotolo in the liner notes of The Village, before citing as beacons the singer-songwriters Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, and folk music archivists Harry Smith and John Lomax.) It is never too late to salute something good, and I doubt it can be done too much: it is always news for someone; and it is gratifying to hear the songs of The Village, featuring Rickie Lee Jones, The Duhks, Lucinda Williams, Sixpence None the Richer, John Oates, Los Lobos, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Bruce Hornsby, Amos Lee, Shelby Lynne, the Cowboy Junkies, Rachael Yamagata, and Rocco DeLuca.
American, Classical, Experimental, I Would Not Be Controlled: the album Jeremy Denk Plays Ives
What emerges is not for everyone, but for the one person—or the few individuals—who will see or hear. It is beauty that does not deny force or thought. (The pretty sounds of the flute of Helen O’Connor are heard with the piano; but, meaning no disrespect, beauty and prettiness—as I have been reminded—are not always the same.) I think that the composition ends with the sense of release, of something let go. The only reason to listen to this music is the music itself; a great reason.
A review of A Family Matter by Will Eisner
Will Eisner was still working very much at the top of his game when he wrote and drew this comic, which was originally published in 1998, when he had just turned 80. With a deft, masterly touch he conveys character and compels the story forward too; all at once.
A review of Phoebe Nash Detective by Justin D’Ath
Above all though, this is a book about courage, and Phoebe’s courage is present throughout the book, in her refusal to allow injustice, and her instinctual responses to danger and discord. Once again, Justin D’Ath has created an inspiring and engaging book that young readers will enjoy and parents will welcome (a combination that doesn’t always happen in sync!).
A review of At the Beach With Bucket and Spade by J.R. Poulter
Author of the award-winning Mending Lucille, Poulter has constructed a pacy tale with an uplifting twist at the end—a story that young children will have no trouble relating to. Told in rhyme, which, of course, kids love, this is a story that at its heart is about family, highlighting such concepts as co-operation and cause and effect.
A review of Brain Cuttings by Carl Zimmer
Zimmer conducts us through a world that possesses many of the qualities of fantasy. For example, we keep track of time, more or less through the medium spiny neurons eavesdropping on the cortex. This could easily be the subject of a ballet by Merce Cunningham and John Cage.
A review of The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking & Leonard Mlodinow
If Hawking and Mlodinow are proved to be utterly wrong within the next decade, then I’m sure that, being the consummate scientists that they are, they will thrill to the answer and accede to those that will have used their theories to step up to the next level. In the meantime, I’m all for cracking the champers and toasting the multiverse. There’s so much more to love.
A review of Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah
Winter Garden is a novel with many layers. Hannah uses a fanciful fairy tale as the link between a mother and her daughters—this is the key that will unlock the secrets that have been hiding in Nina and Meredith’s mother’s past for decades.
A review of Being Light by Helen Smith
Without a doubt, Smith is a master storyteller. A novel with this jig-saw structure couldn’t possibly work without skill. To make such absurdities as fly-away castles and alien abductions so utterly believable is a testament to Smith’s talent. In less experienced hands this story would have been a farce.