If it aint baroque, don't fix it

It isn't music, but hopefully it might be sonorous; and if you read it aloud, while watching the Wizard of Oz, with the lights off, and your pants down...you know the drill.

Help me come up with a title for my new short story!

The Blind Troubador of Oaxaca

This is an old Smithsonian recording of a blind, elderly fellow who would walk around Oaxaca singing and playing songs. The last track, "La Llorona," is a famous Mexican folk song about a woman who drowns her children and then stalks the landscape weeping for them.

Doce Cascabeles (12 Bells)
Quien Sera' que me ama? (Who will it be who loves me?)
Ll Llorona

Straight from Mexico's ice cream capital

This is the Mexican jumbo-harp music (the mariachi's "country cousin") we listened to a few months ago. The group is from Michoacan, the ice cream capital of our great neighbor to the south.

Paseando por Michoacan
La Renca
Son del Ranchero


If you could speak Spanish, you'd know that the second track is all about a man who marries a woman with a club foot. I think at one point she beats him with her crutches. The chorus from the third makes a guest appearance at the end of my farm story.

Romanian Flutes

This record was made in Romania in 1975. It features several traditional wooden flute instruments: the fluier, pan pipes (nai), caval, taragot, and bagpipes (cimpoi). Gheorghe Zamfir, a gypsy with a knack for nai, received his instrument directly from Pan! It speaks and breathes a crushing lament in "Bocet". The selections are a mix of traditional Romanian folk dances and gypsy music.

Romanian Flutes Side 1
1. Craitele (fluier) 2. Rustemul ca la Listeava (nai) 3. Doina Oltului si Hora (nai) 4. Cintecul Janluvui (nai) 5. Briul (fluier) 6. Bocet (nai) 7. Hora Iautareasca (nai) 8. Geamparalele de la Costesti si Sirba Munteneasca (cimpoi)

Dalmation Songs

"Music of Yugoslavia" i.e. the Adriatic coast and islands of Croatia. All sweetly intoned duets concerning gals and birthdays and the sea and so forth. Brother, I can really get in to these happy tunes.

Dalmation Songs Side 1
1. Mestre Ivonko Zonkovic 2. Mornaru, Vrati Se (Sailor, Return) 3. Pjesma O Hvaru (Song of Hvar) 4. O Zlatno Sunce Milo (Oh, You Golden Sunshine) 5. Cvit Za Rodjendan (A Flower for a Birthday) 6. Sedela Je Ancica (Little Anne was Sitting)

Dalmation Songs Side 2
1. Tri Sulara (Da mi je s Tobom Mare Proci) (If I could Only Come with you Maria) 2. Mestar Ivo 3. To Je Bio Divan Dan (It Was a Lovley Day) 4. Lipi Pivac (The Handsome Singer) 5. Sad Zbogom More Moje (Mornarev rastanak) (Goodbye Dear Sea) 6. Nostromo Se Tuzi (The Helmsman is Sad)

Party Hulas!

Featuring the Voice of Genoa Keawe

This was recorded in Hawaii in 1965. Genoa was the most well known singer and these were the most popular songs in the islands at the time. All but one of the musicians on the record are women.

Hank Williams eat your heart out!

Party Hula Side 1
1. Noho Paipai 2. Ahulili 3. Papalina Lahilahi 4. Ka 'Ano'i 5. Mauna Loa 6. Ku'u Lei Hoku

Party Hula Side 2
1. Hula O Makee 2. Alika 3. Na Ka Pueo 4. Green Rose 5. Kane'Ohe 6. Ua Nani Moloka'l

Jew's Harp

This is from my friend Dean's sweet music blog

---True Panther Sounds---: Magic Alphabet

Apparently baltimore man Dan Higgs (famous for singing in Lungfish and tattooing people) made a whole record of jew's harp jams. That's crazy because, like a pair of humble sticks, the jew's harp is a one-note instrument. Fortunately the dudeman knows how to express that note with heaviness and rapture.