Pettit & Gira’s “Here to Stay”: winning fiddle/cello mastery with excellent tunes

It's always super nice to discover by chance artists you have never heard of and find out they're great! That's what's happened to me this week when I came across the North American fiddle/cello combo of Jocelyn Pettit and Ellen Gira. They are 2024 Canadian Folk Music Award Winners so it's high time I became … Continue reading Pettit & Gira’s “Here to Stay”: winning fiddle/cello mastery with excellent tunes

Hannah James & Toby Kuhn’s “Sleeping Spirals” leaves me reeling

"To see a World in a Grain of SandAnd a Heaven in a Wild Flower" That is the legendary opening of William Blake's Auguries of Innocence. I don't mean to raise Sleeping Spirals to the same Olympian status as Blake and his poem, but those lines spontaneously came to me when the second listening of … Continue reading Hannah James & Toby Kuhn’s “Sleeping Spirals” leaves me reeling

Album Review / Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas: Syzygy

I had the great pleasure of experiencing Alasdair and Natalie live a few years ago when they played a couple of gigs in Finland. It was a charming event, with Alasdair’s stories, their musical chemistry and, of course, amazing playing. That set leaned pretty much toward trad and Celtic but that has never been the … Continue reading Album Review / Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas: Syzygy