Time travel is one of the more well worn science fiction tropes and it is one that remains immensely popular today. It is not hard to see why. We are a species whose curiosity about the past and speculation about the future drives much of what we do in our work and leisure time. While the technology may not exist to physically transport us backwards or forwards in time, the Arts have long been our personal WABAC (Wayback) machine, able to deliver us imaginatively, emotionally, to the time of our choosing.

Music is one such art that can lift us from the place we are at and deposit us in another time. Alex Steyermark and Lavina Jones Wright are showcasing their own version of time travel with The 78 Project. The project is inspired by the work of Alan Lomax, who traveled throughout America in the early twentieth century, capturing folk music in its raw form. The pair has been marrying the vocals of contemporary musicians with decades-old technology to create something special.

“With just one microphone, one authentic 1930′s Presto direct-to-acetate disk recorder, and one blank lacquer disc, musicians are given one take to cut a record anywhere they choose. What we have found is that the film, music and feelings that result defy space and time, living music inspired by ghosts.”

Continue reading Notes on a Time Machine →

I hope everyone is gearing up for a pleasant weekend. In our house we plan on playing it low key, basking in the warm glow of the drugs we are both on for week-long illnesses: an ear infection for Mary, possible strep throat for yours truly! Ah the joys of the cold and flu season.

As with most weekends our house will be filled with music and one group that will be dominating this weekend’s play is The Civil Wars. Since I don’t watch much live television I was not one of the many who discovered The Civil Wasr through their song Poison and Wine being played on Grey’s Anatomy. Until seeing the above video posted on a blog site yesterday I had not even heard of the duo. Once discovered I was quick to introduce them to my wife and we spent the evening listening to various recorded and later live versions of their music.

Wow! They can sing.

Continue reading Weekend Warblings →

It is extremely rare that I review music here at SSD. One of the primary reasons is that I don’t often purchase music, instead getting it through outlets such as Pandora and Youtube. The significance of this is that listening to music in that fashion means it is unlikely that I will listen to a particular album in its entirety, instead catching random samples of an artist’s work. Once in a while, however, the hope of a good aural experience is just too good to pass up, and such was the case with Lisa Hannigan’s second solo effort, Passenger.

Having only heard the title track, I gamely put this on my Amazon wishlist and received it in my Christmas stocking, a gift from my dear wife. It was a calculated risk, as you will see, but one which has paid off with unexpected dividends, for Passenger is the kind of diversely creative album that will have you hitting the “repeat all” button while you engage in an ongoing internal debate about which track is your favorite.

Where much of her debut album, Sea Sew, was filled with toe-tapping, upbeat melodies, Passenger is a more mature, varied and at times melancholic outing with songs that have a melodic heft. In short it is the kind of album I had hoped to find, one that I cannot help but want to listen to, start to finish, over and over again.

Continue reading Passenger ~Lisa Hannigan →