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Review of Anna & Elizabeth

Anna & Elizabeth

Anna & Elizabeth

Top of the World

Free Dirt Records

Rating: ★★★★

Like a long-lost Coen Brothers soundtrack, this album opens to the old-time sounds of the Southern cotton fields. Drenched in...

Reviewed by Nathaniel Handy in issue: July/2015

Review of Raices en Viaje: Roots en Route

Raices en Viaje: Roots en Route

Proyecto Evocación

Spherical Records SPR 002

Rating: ★★★

The Festival del Caribe in Santiago de Cuba in July often gives rise to unexpected en¬counters. 2009 saw a unique...

Reviewed by Jan Fairley in issue: October/2010

Review of Ears of the People: Ekonting Songs from Senegal and Gambia

Ears of the People: Ekonting Songs from Senegal and Gambia

VARIOUS ARTISTS

Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

Rating: ★★★★

It has long been recognised that the banjo's history can be traced back to West Africa, though until recently it...

Reviewed by Alexandra Petropoulos in issue: April/2023

Review of Music for an Elliptical Orbit

Music for an Elliptical Orbit

Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh

Diatribe

Rating: ★★

This is no album for fiddle-tune purists. The majority of its music explores the harmonic and textural effects that can...

Reviewed by Matt Milton in issue: November/2015

Review of Best Foot Forward

Best Foot Forward

Omar Puente

Top of the World

OP Records

Rating: ★★★★

If the electric violin is an acquired taste, it is one very quickly acquired in Omar Puente's case. A classically...

Reviewed by Mark Sampson in issue: April/2017

Review of Vivian Leva & Riley Calcagno

Vivian Leva & Riley Calcagno

Vivian Leva & Riley Calcagno

Free Dirt Records

Rating: ★★★

Looking for a musical antidote to the crushing malaise? Look no further than Vivian Leva and Riley Calcagno's self-titled debut....

Reviewed by Doug Deloach in issue: April/2021

Review of The Empress

The Empress

The McDades

Free Radio Records

Rating: ★★★

Siblings Shannon, Solon and Jeremiah McDade have been steeped in folk music from childhood, playing in a family band with...

Reviewed by Li Robbins in issue: December/2021

Review of Shame

Shame

Rachel Baiman

Free Dirt Records

Rating: ★★★★

If Nashville singer and multi-instrumentalist Rachel Baiman's debut solo album were a time of day, it would be a warm...

Reviewed by Nathaniel Handy in issue: October/2017

Review of L’Bnat

L’Bnat

Asmâa Hamzaoui & Bnat Timbouktou

Top of the World

Ajabu!

Rating: ★★★★

The second album by Gnawa maalma Asmâa Hamzaoui and her all-female group Daughters of Timbuktu is a bass-lute thudding, qaraqab-clattering,...

Reviewed by Jane Cornwell in issue: June/2024

Review of Yoruba Odyssey

Yoruba Odyssey

Adédèjì

Top of the World

One World

Rating: ★★★★

In recent years Nigerian music has become synonymous with the globalised Afrobeats of the likes of Burna Boy and Wizkid....

Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: January/February/2023

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