Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Andrew Calhoun & Campground- Lost John

















Found.

Have you ever heard a well-intentioned church choir perform an "authentic" black spiritual? The result is often unfortunate.

Accordingly, I had reservations about Bound To Go: Folk Songs & Spirituals, a new release in which folk stalwart Andrew Calhoun and his associates perform 35 songs from the African American folk tradition. It held the potential to be painfully awkward.

Instead, Bound To Go is a revelation. In his extensive essay in the accompanying 24-page booklet, Calhoun makes a strong case that the 19th century material revived on the disc is more closely connected to the European folk tradition than it is an antecedent of the blues. Considered from that enlightening perspective, the music can be appreciated as invaluable historical literature.

Bound To Go is a profoundly important document.

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It was a treat to cover Friday's T.I., Keyshia Cole, Tech N9ne, Eric Benet, Noel Gourdin, Gorilla Zoe, Camp 22 and Keanthony show. Jason Whitlock's extensive profile of Tech N9ne sheds light on the behind-the-scenes drama that I only allude to in my review.

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I caught Megan Birdsall Saturday. That's a video montage of the show.

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I loved Ashton Shepherd's show Sunday. Here's my review.

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I thought I bought a ticket to a reggae concert. I was wrong. Matisyahu played over two-and-a-half hours of prime jam band grooves last night. He and his band were really good, but their style was more String Cheese Incident than Barrington Levy. And Trevor Hall is a cool dude.

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I have no plans to attend an auction of the remaining Music Exchange inventory. Too many ghosts.

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Nigerian singer Sonny Okosuns died May 24.


Kansas City Click: Barbaric Merits are among the hip hop artists hitting the weekly Jumpoff at the Peanut tonight.

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