022

Kind Of, Sort Of…No, Really Good. Exceptional, Even.

Joanne Shaw Taylor’s artistic growth continues unabated since her dramatic debut in 2008 with White Sugar. Her third solo long player, Almost Always Never, is another triumph,. one of the best blues albums of 2012.
by David McGee
 

 
 
obama newtown

‘It is past time we wipe this stain of violence from our land’

REALITY CHECK--RFK on gun violence; Pete Seeger, 'Where Have All the Flowers Gone,' President Barack Obama on the Newtown school shootings
by David McGee
 

 

 
020

Ravi Shankar: The Spirit and The Legacy Live On

Sitar master RAVI SHANKAR passed away on December 11 at the age of 92. Herewith a tribute to the life and legacy of the man George Harrison extolled as the 'Godfather of World Music.'
by David McGee
 

 
 
019

Hailing An American Treasure

From TheBluegrassSpecial.com's December 2010 issue, Chip Stern's insightful, impassioned missive concerning the life and music of Dave Brubeck on the occasion of the master's impending 90th birthday.
by David McGee
 

 

 
dallas wind symphony

A Bracing Christmas Wind

In Horns For the Holidays, the superb Dallas Wind Symphony not only celebrates the Christmas music tradition but also exemplifies the best of the wind ensemble genre, with its unique sonorities and long tradition of both origin...
by David McGee
 

 
 
family band1

Joy To The World

A wonderful and heartwarming thing happened when the Jay Ungar & Molly Mason Family Band showed up at the University of Mary Washington to play a program of evocative, sometimes poignant, sometimes haunting seasonal tunes, new ...
by David McGee
 

 

 
christmas from hereford

Lovely and Unusual

This cozy, gentle, and varied collection of Christmas music from Hereford Cathedral is broken into three sections: Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany. The music ranges from the 14th-century Resonemus laudibus, to a work by John T...
by David McGee
 

 
 
robert clara schumann spotlight 880x3851

A Day With Robert Schumann

IN this month's PLEASURES OF MUSIC, an 1884 report by May Byron on A DAY WITH ROBERT SCHUMANN. In this account, the author chronicles a day spent with the arch-Romantic composer, which includes some vivid scenes with Schumann's...
by David McGee
 

 

 
penny boston spotlight 880x3851

From Earth’s Caves, A Better Understanding of Mars

Dr. Penny Boston is exploring some of the most extreme environments on earth--the Snowy River Cave, the Cave of Crystal Giants--both in New Mexico, n the land where Billy the Kid once roamed--on the educated guess that those re...
by David McGee