Sucked (or Suckered) In

I'm doing a bit of time-shifting here, as this entry will actually post while I'm attending my second Canadian folk festival of the summer (this time Calgary). What's going on with these Canadian folk festivals? Winnipeg featured Iron & Wine, Okkervil River, Neko Case and Elvis Costello. This weekend in Calgary I'll be enjoying The Decemberists, The Mekons and Mavis Staples, among many. Like our programming at The Cedar, these festivals are expanding beyond a narrow genre definition of the music they present. There's just a lot of great music, the main criteria seems to simply be music that the programmer(s) have deemed worthy of listening to. My hats off to them; that's exactly the way it should be.

I may regret this, but Ms. Veronica has set the bait twice now, and I can no longer resist: the cowbell thing. I'm not going to go as far as name a website after my feelings on the subject, but surely there are other music instruments more worthy of being picked on? Or how about an effects pedal? Surely the wah-wah, veritable aural icon of the 70's porn industry, has been more overused and distracting?

Here's the thing... the first record I ever bought with my own money (after many Beatles records I made my parents buy me) was this single in 1968:



Of course, for many The Beatles themselves had already settled this question three years before with this classic:



As far as I'm concerned, those two songs are all the instrument needs to justify itself. Now shut up already.

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Global Roots Part Three

Saturday night, September 26: I'm happy to report that we're finally bringing a great Ethiopian singer to The Cedar to open this evening of music. The Twin Cities has one of the largest Ethiopian American communities in the U.S. (for years we've tried to get the great Aster Aweke to perform here) so it's high time. The singer is Minyeshu, and she takes Ethiopian tradition and brings with it a modern, European sensibility (for many years she has lived in Belgium and The Netherlands).



Headlining the evening will be the iconic Brazilian band Os Mutantes! They are touring to support their first record in 35 years, being released on the uber-hip Anti- label in early September. Here's an archival clip from the late 60's:



It will be another evening with an open dance floor (third in a row- a Cedar record, which will of course be broken the very next night...).