The Whole Music Experience

Here are 10 pop songs sure to uplift any mood.  Listen to them, sing them, or in some cases dance to them often.  And create your own list of go-to songs. 1. Spoonful--Willie Dixon 2. Here Comes the Sun--The Beatles 3. Smile--Charlie Chaplin (I love Madeleine Peyroux's version) 4. Ma Vie en Rose--Edith Piaf (sung by Edith Piaf in French) 5. Jammin'--Bob Marley 6. What a Wonderful World--Louis Armstrong 7. Maria (from Westside Story)--Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim 8. I Feel Pretty (from Westside Story)--Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sonheim 9. My Favorite Things (The Sound of Music)--composer? 10. Summer Time--George (and Ira?) Gershwin Also listen to Fellini soundtrack music by Nino Rota, Putumayo compilations, "Careless Love" and "Half the Perfect World" by Madeleine Peyroux, Mozart operas and Catherine Russell's "Inside this Heart of Mine" (World Village) hits the spot too.

Les Chauds Lapins Amourettes Barbès Records Imagine the Golden Age of French music (1920-1940s) revisited by an American bluegrass player and a side musician for They Might Be Giants. Meg Reichardt (Roulette Sisters) and Kurt Hoffman (The Ordinaires) pull of the Parisian accent and the atmosphere of the French swing and chansons on Amourettes . On the surface you might imagine that you’re sitting in a Parisian café with the smell of roasted beans wafting past your nose and Parisians rushing pass you, but the song lyrics border on the absurd at times and recall Godard’s cinema with Parisians cloaked in bohemian black philosophizing about love, sex, and death. The recording lends itself to daydreaming and provides wonderful dinnertime music.  I enjoy listening to the album while I'm cooking dinner. Musically, the songs have been arranged for strings, acoustic bass, trumpet, plucked banjo, guitar, and ukulele, that’s right, ukulele. The plucky songs bounce along like a...

Aulaga Folk A menos cuarto Armando Records This isn’t the first time a recording by the Spanish folkloric group Aulaga Folk has crossed my path. And once again I feel tongue-tied in trying to describe the folkloric music on the CD. In 2006 I reviewed the group’s no es mala leña which wed jazz to regional folk music (Extremadura, Spain). The CD was easier to describe than the current recording a menos cuarto (a quarter to the hour) which harbors elements of Celtic Spanish with Arab-Andalusian music, and yet is neither. The album comes with a CD featuring an array of special guests including other Spanish folkloric luminaries such as Javier Ruibal and Eliseo Parra, a second disc featuring mixes and a DVD with three music videos so we can see the band in action, and not just performing music, but also collecting it. The musicians feature music from the mountainous region of Spain, Hurdes, which doesn’t have the happiest of reputations and was featured in a 1933 documentary L...