Reviews Search | Songlines

Reviews

Review of This Too

This Too

Kinnaris Quintet

Kinnaris Quintet

Rating: ★★★

For the follow-up to their acclaimed debut album Free One in 2017, this Glasgow-based instrumental ensemble of fiddlers Laura Wilkie,...

Reviewed by Kevin Bourke in issue: July/2022

Review of Unlearning/Open Letter to Adoniah

Unlearning/Open Letter to Adoniah

Sibusile Xaba

Mushroom Half Hour

Rating: ★★★★

The credits on this double album by the young dreadlocked South African jazz guitarist and singer contain the intriguing line:...

Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: November/2017

Review of Jump Ups & Jollities

Jump Ups & Jollities

Travis Ward

Travis Ward

Rating: ★★★

‘Junkerdash is a term we applied to our peculiar take on traditional acoustic mountain music, which is filtered through a...

Reviewed by Doug Deloach in issue: Jan/Feb/2014

Review of ¡Así es… Con salsa

¡Así es… Con salsa

Alfredo Gutierrez y Los Caporales del Magdalena

Vampisoul

Rating: ★★★

One of the things that puts non-addicts off salsa is the repetition, the predictability, the trance-inducing level tone. For dancers,...

Reviewed by Chris Moss in issue: June/2023

Review of An Introduction to Shirley Collins

An Introduction to Shirley Collins

Shirley Collins

Topic Records

Rating: ★★★

You could say Shirley Collins needs little introduction and, certainly within the folk world, that is true. But this serves...

Reviewed by Tim Cumming in issue: November/2017

Review of A Day for the Hunter, a Day for the Prey

A Day for the Hunter, a Day for the Prey

Leyla McCalla

Top of the World

Jazz Village

Rating: ★★★★

A former touring member of award-winning African-American string band Carolina Chocolate Drops, cellist Leyla McCalla made her solo debut with...

Reviewed by Kevin Bourke in issue: July/2016

Review of River of Revenge: Brazilian Country Music 1929-1961 (Vol 1 & 2)

River of Revenge: Brazilian Country Music 1929-1961 (Vol 1 & 2)

VARIOUS ARTISTS

Death Is Not the End

Rating: ★★★

The pop and crackle of early recording gear, the guttural twang of handmade instruments, hand-me-down harmonies and country songs of...

Reviewed by Dan Hobson in issue: May/2023

Review of Tira-Tira

Tira-Tira

Duo Falak

Topot

Rating: ★★★

Falak is the folk music of the Pamir Mountains in Central Asia dating back to pre-Islamic times. This half-hour performance...

Reviewed by Daniel Spicer in issue: February/March/2025

Review of Roforofo Fight

Roforofo Fight

Fela Kuti

Partisan Records

Rating: ★★★★

Following Fela Kuti’s trip to the US in 1969, he returned to Nigeria with a revolutionary mission, changed the name of his...

Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: October/2022

Review of Mama Africa

Mama Africa

Miriam Makeba

Milan Records

Rating: ★★★★★

Ignore the title. For although Makeba – who died in 2008 aged 76 – richly deserved the ‘Mama Africa’ soubriquet,...

Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: July/2015

Subscribe from only £7.50

Start your journey and discover the very best music from around the world.

Subscribe

View the Current
Issue

Take a peek inside the latest issue of Songlines magazine.

Find out more