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Peter Rowan Honors ‘Old School’ Bluegrass on 2013 Release

Bluegrass legend PETER ROWAN is in the studio with an inter-gernerational lineup of musicians recording his new album, The Old School, for a spring 2013 release. Session details and a teaser video from Compass Records comprise our album-in-progress report.

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What’s So Funny ‘Bout Peace, Love and Kumbaya?

Contributing editor MICHAEL SIGMAN, surveying a raft of what he considers 'Kumbaya abuse,' says it's time to take the song back.

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Remembering Mr. Earl: They Often Called Him Speedo…

REMEMBERING EARL 'SPEEDO' CARROLL and MICKEY BAKER--Earl Carroll and Mickey Baker had but one big hit each, but both are major early rock 'n' roll hits. As a singer and showman, Carroll's influence extended into the dawn of soul music, whereas Baker was one of…

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Factoid: Casablanca Is 70

On November 26, 1942, Warner Bros. premiered its new Michael Curtiz-directed film Casablanca, starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Hans Conreid. In 'Casablanca is 70," we reveal some fascinating factoids and falsehoods about the production, and also pay a 40th anniversary tribute to the best…

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Turn the Tide: Benefit Concert in NYC for Hurricane Sandy Victims

On Dec. 2 some stellar New York City working musicians are getting together for a benefit to aid victims of Hurricane Sandy. All the particulars are here.

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At Thanksgiving, ‘Signs of the Times’

'Signs of the Times'--Paul Laurence Dunbar's dialect poem in honor of Thanksgiving, originally published in his 1897 book of verse, Lyrics of a Lowly Life.

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The First ‘First Thanksgiving’

THE FIRST 'FIRST THANKSGIVING'--More than half a century before the Pilgrims landed on American shores, Spanish settlers in what is now St. Augustine, Florida, celebrated a lavish Thanksgiving dinner celebration and Mass of Thanksgiving with Native Americans. Historian Michael Gannon tells the tale.

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‘Our Spirit Refuses to Die’: Declaring A National Day of Mourning

The story of the National Day of Mourning marked by Native Americans on the fourth Thursday of November begins in November 1970, the 350th anniversary of 'the first Thanksgiving,' with the suppressed speech of Wamsutta (Frank B. James), Wampanoag Nation leader.

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‘Now Our Minds Are One’: A Native American Thanksgiving Liturgy

A meaningful call-and-response prayer from the Haudenosaunee native tradition to give some persepctive on thanks and PRovidence this Thanksgiving Day.

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Learning to Savor Thanksgiving:

Learning to savor Thanksgiving: Two Native Americans explain how they have embraced certain aspects of the white man's Thanksgiving rituals.