Email Author Rick Mason

2009 Stories by Rick Mason

• BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet

  published December 30, 2009

  Just as the post-holiday blues and the prospect of four or five more months of bleak mid-winter raise their ugly maw, a welcome ray of peppery... More >>

• The Bad Plus

  published December 23, 2009

  The best quote about the Bad Plus, the locally rooted iconoclastic jazz trio, comes from way across the pond in the UK's The Guardian... More >>

• Michael Johnson

  published December 23, 2009

  It seems as though everyone who has ever had a long stopover at the airport is returning to Minnesota for the holidays, with the possible... More >>

• Bill Carrothers Trio

  published December 23, 2009

  While we don't know if Bill Carrothers will be humming "I'll Be Home for Christmas," he might as well join the lusty chorus of local expats in... More >>

• Atlantis Quartet (CD-Release)

  published December 16, 2009

  Since its inception in 2006, the Atlantis Quartet has quickly moved into serious contention on the Twin Cities modern jazz front, as well as begun... More >>

• Paul Renz (CD-Release)

  published December 16, 2009

  Although Paul Renz is a remarkably accomplished and eclectic jazz guitarist and composer, the jumble of descriptive terms that initially spring to... More >>

• The Blind Boys of Alabama

  published December 16, 2009

  It's been 70(!) years since a few students in their early teens at the Talladega Institute for the Negro Deaf and Blind in Birmingham hit the road... More >>

• Pieta Brown

  published December 9, 2009

  This show coincides with the recent release of Pieta Brown's seven-song EP, Shimmer, which is significant for several reasons. For one,... More >>

• the subdudes

  published December 9, 2009

  From their origins at Tipitina's through their removal to Colorado, eventual breakup, and reunion, the subdudes have remained a fundamentally New... More >>

• Andrew Bird

  published December 9, 2009

  Classically trained violinist, virulently eccentric and eclectic singer-songwriter Andrew Bird ranks high among the most intriguing and... More >>

• David Grisman & John Sebastian

  published December 9, 2009

  Back in the hazy recesses of the early '60s, David Grisman and John Sebastian encountered one another at the jam sessions that regularly broke out... More >>

• Bela Fleck & the Flecktones

  published December 9, 2009

  If the proverbially hip notion of a cool Yule melts your icicles, you couldn't do better this holiday season than check out banjo iconoclast... More >>

• Bebel Gilberto

  published December 2, 2009

  Although she has sung since childhood and royal Brazilian musical blood flows through her veins, Bebel Gilberto only found her distinctive... More >>

• The Hidden Cameras

  published December 2, 2009

  >"Ratify the New," the leadoff track on the Hidden Cameras' Origin: Orphan, begins with a two-and-a-half-minute drone that accurately... More >>

• Erik Friedlander

  published December 2, 2009

  In Block Ice & Propane, innovative cello provocateur Erik Friedlander recalls summer-long cross-country road trips he took as a boy with... More >>

• Natalie MacMaster: Christmas in Cape Breton

  published December 2, 2009

  This fiery Cape Breton fiddler inherited traditional Celtic music from Scottish ancestors who settled in Canada's Maritimes and her technical... More >>

• Zachary Richard

  published November 25, 2009

  Zachary Richard launched his career on the cusp of the Cajun renaissance in the early '70s, but even then was a renegade. He picked up Cajun... More >>

• Cliff Eberhardt

  published November 25, 2009

  With his characteristically raspy, soulful voice, nipped by anguished yelps that flit past like sniper's bullets, Cliff Eberhardt can conjure... More >>

• Leo Kottke

  published November 25, 2009

  Among the premier fingerstyle acoustic guitarists on the planet, Leo Kottke is perhaps one of the most eccentric too. Not only does he harbor a... More >>

• Hot Club of Cowtown

  published November 18, 2009

  Swing is definitely the thing for the Hot Club of Cowtown, whether it's the Parisian variety of Gypsy jazz played by Django Reinhardt and Stephane... More >>

• Roy Haynes & the Fountain of Youth Band

  published November 18, 2009

  The hell with Ponce De Leon, Roy Haynes is the guy you want to hang out with if you're looking for that elusive elixir of rejuvenation. His... More >>

• John Fogerty

  published November 18, 2009

  When Creedence Clearwater Revival splintered in the early 1970s, John Fogerty found himself in a kind of limbo. He responded by recording an album... More >>

• Dafnis Prieto Sextet

  published November 18, 2009

  Cuban-born and -educated drummer and composer Dafnis Prieto has increasingly made a name for himself since taking up residency in New York a... More >>

• Vic Chesnutt

  published November 18, 2009

  As eccentric, inspired, and riveting as the most provocative outsider visual artists, Vic Chesnutt writes songs that cut to the quick while... More >>

• Evan Christopher & Henry Butler

  published November 11, 2009

  A dazzling clarinet player, Evan Christopher (pictured) is thoroughly steeped in traditional New Orleans jazz, exemplified by the likes of Sidney... More >>