More John Lincoln Wright

Ironically but not surprisingly John Lincoln Wright’s few surviving recordings are now going through the roof. I only hope as commenter Pat said “… Rounder or some other outfit will release all of John’s music on CD.” Pat pointed me to some good YouTube links. If you don’t have time for the whole list, “I’m …

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John Lincoln Wright RIP

The finest country and country swing musician in New England, John Lincoln Wright, died last week at 64. He was a friendly acquaintance rather than a close friend; we attended Boston College together for a brief couple of months together in ’67 (we both left); and later I worked in a Cambridge bar (the lamented …

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Guest Post: Tom Russell at Knuckleheads in KC

I had hoped to attend, but when I realized I couldn’t get to Tom Russell’s show in Kansas City I contacted my friend on the spot, honorary Magdalenian Jennifer Wilding, and inquired whether she would be interested in “covering” it for Q- blog. She was, and took her friend Rick Malsick. Turned out Tom was …

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Gallo…

… de Cielo!This whimsical portrait of Tom Russell’s celestial fighting rooster came to live at Casa Q for my 61st birthday, as Tom and Libby conspired. Or as he put it, “…that was one we kept in our private collection but it wanted to move to Magdalena near the other wild birds.” (In addition to …

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Some “Country” Music Videos: Nostalgia and Chills…

Not all “country” music is unsophisticated or even American. Here I give you a bunch of stuff I have been working through and following. Let us start with Tom Russell’s classic “US Steel”— a straight- up traditional country lament complete with sweet pedal steel, but set in Pennsylvania rather than on the border or even …

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Visitors

Tom Russell would be too modest to say so but he might just be the best and most lasting singer- songwriter of my generation; while some annoyingly typecast him as a western or cowboy or border balladeer he is in all ways an American bard, a living link between cowboys and the beats and all …

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Joel

Our friend and sometimes neighbor Joel Becktell– we say “sometimes” only because he is a full time freelance cellist and though he has lived here for years travels every month of the year, somehow managing to maintain a garden and cook good meals for his friends, and staying up with me all too late to …

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Two Quick Links

Via Margory: Bill Buford’s excellent New Yorker review of the continuing dilemma we omnivores face is now on line. I have two of the cookbooks and recommend both, especially the Fearnley- Whittingstall. But why on earth does the third cost $130+?? A good Buford quote: “For all the disarray, there is a coherent ideology. It …

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