Iain’s had the Several Annies, his library apprentices, busy organising the Autumn and Winter reading groups at the Estate. This involves scheduling the use of the Robert Graves Memorial Reading Room and other spaces as need be, arranging with Mrs. Ware for food and drinks and of course ordering extra copies of the books. Some groups are perennial such as the Old Norse and Tolkien groups, but new ones do occur like the group reading fiction based on the Child Ballads. They’ll be reading works like Pamela Dean’s Tam Lin and and Ellen Kushner’s Thomas the Rhymer. Now there’s a book group I’ll attend!
Lisa reviews Duncan Garrow and Chris Gosdens’ Technologies of Enchantment? Exploring Celtic Art: 400 BC to AD 100 the result of a UK Arts and Humanities Research funded project from 2005–2008. The goal:
examining Celtic art from the late Iron age through the early Roman era in Britain, from, as the subtitle notes, 400 BC to AD 100. Most of this art is metal work, and much of it has been, for a very long time, lumped together under the rubric of Celtic with little analysis of what was meant by Celtic, or even by art. The project, and this book, looks at the artifacts in terms less of their artistic value (the motifs, and styles of decoration, for instance) and instead looks at them as artifacts used by people in a particular place and time.
She also reviews Ilana C. Myers Last Song Before Night a debut fantasy novel about the power of music to enchant.
Ilana C. Myers Last Song Before Night is, in the most simplistic reduction, a quest fantasy, set in the rich, complex pseudo-medieval society of Eivar where poets and seers are trained in a special academy. Once, long ago, poets were also enchanters, but their abilities made them dangerous and feared when misuse of their gift caused a dreaded plague. Now the Crown via the office of Court Poet determines what songs the poets may sing and who may be a poet. Women, we learn, are not poets or musicians, and therefore, unwelcome at the academy.
If you’ve been reading our Kinrowan Estate metanarrative for long, you’ve noticed our obsession with good food and probably even better libations from my beloved loose leaf Earl Grey tea to the Kinrowan Estate Special Reserve cider we serve in the Green Man Pub. It’s worth noting that eating local doesnt limit our dining options much.
Oh we order herbs and spices, teas, coffees, chili peppers, even noodles and rice from sources outside of Scotland, but pretty most everything else comes from within a few miles of our Estate on one side of the border or the other as Gus explains in this story.
I asked Gary who Bill Evans was when I spotted his review of Evans’ The Complete Fantasy Recordings and Gary said:
Pianist Bill Evans was influential in several post-World War II jazz music trends including post-bop, modal, and cool jazz styles. He brought techniques and ideas from his early classical training into his jazz playing, and was best known for his inimitable use of the keyboard to create subtle colorings and emotive voicings.
Now I consider essential one of those often trite words that both book and music packagers use when selling yet another anthology or music compilation that offers nothing worth noting, but Gary in his second music review has the real deal in a The Essential Van Morrison:
The Northern Irish singer and songwriter has spent the past 50 years fusing American jazz, pop, blues, soul and rhythm & blues with Anglo-Irish folk music to create something thats been dubbed Celtic Soul. The Essential is a two-disc, 37-track collection from Sony Legacy celebrates that half-century of song, as part of a huge new reissue project.
I’ve seen the Batties as we diehard fans call the Battlefield Band at least a dozen times down the years. Lars has a review of Battlefields Band’s newest recording Beg & Borrow. Twelve special guests assist Battlefield Band on an album. Our reviewer says:
The first word that comes to mind when listening to this is rich. It is a rich record in every aspect. 18 tracks, 12 instrumental sets and six songs clocking in on just under 80 minutes, the Battlefield Band and 12 prominent guest musicians, and a booklet with extensive presentations of every musician and track on the album. As I wrote, rich.
We also have a review of Väsen’s Live på Gamla Bion. This is a group our reviewer Gary really appreciates:
Väsen is one of my favorite instrumental folk groups. If you dont know Väsen, this performance DVD is a superb introduction to these highly skilled and very personable Swedish musicians.
Let’s finish this update up with one of my favourite Cats Laughing tracks off their second album, Another Way to Travel. It’s called “Bright Street Business in Blues.” It’s not precisely Americana, but Cats Laughing is definitely a roots band that draws on many influences common to Americana music. They just successfully online funded a new recording of a concert done earlier this year.
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