The Whole Music Experience

Fawn Wood Iskwewak Canyon Records Fawn Wood (Cree and Salish lineages) represents a new and powerful voice on Canyon Records. Along with her husband Dallas Waskahat and her Native American musician family members, Wood honors indigenous women on her CD, Iskwewak (means all women in the Cree language).   Her collection of mostly round dance songs sung in Plains Cree, vocables and English, reflect on the different situations women face from participating in relationships with the “wrong man” or honoring elders, as in Grandmother Song .   Mostly, Wood sings about love for her husband and for her baby son. I cannot emphasis enough the beauty and power in Wood’s vocals, along with her sense of humor, and songwriting skills.   The text to Mr. Wrong cracks me up every time I hear it, especially the line “Mr. Wrong with five kids on the side...” However, most of the songs fall on the tender side expressing love and appreciation for relations.   If y...

Bratsch Urban Bratsch World Village I was in the mood for gypsy jazz just when the French group Bratsch’s new recording Urban Bratsch arrived in my mailbox.   A delicious mix of klezmer, gypsy jazz, German theater (Brecht/Weill), and Eastern European music, this quintet delivers a whopper of a recording. It is as eclectic as Lo-Jo, and as rousing as Les Yeux Noirs (also from France).   These guys show what passions are possible played on acoustic instruments (guitar, accordion, violin, double bass, and clarinet). The opener Sirba Din Joc De Constanca/Hora certainly starts off a rousing listening experience with its gypsy violin.   I expect to hear one of those wild and crazy Eastern European zithers conversing with the violin, but in all honesty, this music fills the space just fine.   Francois Castiello’s accordion resembles a harmonium on the ballad Scetate with Nano Peylet’s klezmer clarinet singing mournfully along with the raspy vocals...