When Ida Guillory was growing up in Lake Charles, La., playing accordion was not considered ladylike. That didn’t stop Ida. She would eventually be crowned Queen of the Zydeco Accordion. "Music — zydeco music — was in my family as long as I can remember. I had two uncles that played accordion and a cousin […]
Music
Coverage of the music scene in Humboldt County with upcoming shows from locals and out-of-town acts, reviews, interviews and more.
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Cruisin’
We were finishing up a day at the Humboldt County Fair, which is more or less a day at the races. (I managed to hit a couple of exactas and come out ahead.) While perusing the canned fruit, model trains, quilts and other exhibits in the Home Ec building, we chanced upon an old friend, […]
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Parades
"To be lonely is a state of mind, something completely other than physical solitude." "The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea." — Danish writer Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen) There are Scandinavian countries where daylight lasts for days on end, or darkness continues from one day into the next, depending on […]
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Reggae Rising
Hippies from the hills, turbaned dreads, tattooed party boys, college kids, urban refugees, friends and families — they all gathered by the Eel River once again on the first weekend in August for another round of Reggae. Aside from the split with the Mateel (which seldom came up in conversation), it was the same as […]
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All Over The Map
The Delta Nationals are a talented quartet of local blues-rooted musicians whose second album, All Over the Map, emerged earlier this year. As the title suggests, the album is a diverse collection of toe-tapping music authored by the band members. The Delta Nationals have created a wonderful boogie sound on this album which should resonate […]
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The Boy Bands Have Won
Remember the super catchy popular hit song “Tubthumping” from 1997? Sure you do, you still hear it played at major sporting events: “I get knocked down but I get up again. You’re never gonna keep me down ….” Perhaps the most popular protest song of the decade. Sorry, sports fans: Chumbawamba are a self-described “Anarchist […]
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Song of the Lark
It’s a dream for traditional folk musicians: Lark In The Morning Music Celebrationis a week-long camp in the Mendocino redwoods with lessons and workshops on all sorts of instruments and traditional styles led by stellar players from around the world. Dancing, parties and picking sessions everywhere you turn. A fair number of musicians and dancers […]
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Feed the Animals
By Girl Talk. Illegal Art. “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to bear witness to the holy union of these two songs: Do you, Jay Z’s ‘Big Pimpin,’ take this, The Jackson 5’s ‘ABC,’ as your overdubbed remix of a partner for as long as drunken college students think it’s catchy …” A classic […]
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Reggae on the River 2008
July 19 at Benbow State Park In front of an adoring crowd, Culture’s lead singer Kenyatta Hill dedicated his performance at Reggae on the River to his deceased father, the roots star Joseph Hill. The senior Hill helped found the band and penned such esteemed roots classics as “Two Sevens Clash” and “Zion Gate.” Gigantic […]
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Gojira
It’s the movie that launched at least 30 sequels, but the original has rarely been seen in the U.S. For most Americans, Godzilla: King of the Monsters started the franchise in 1956, and things devolved from there: from the barely comprehensible mashup of Raymond Burr attempting to interact with Japanese footage to badly dubbed city-stomping […]
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On The Rise – Again
Well, it’s that time of summer, time for Reggae — again. You might be thinking, wasn’t Reggae on the River a couple of weeks ago? It was. This weekend it’s Reggae Rising, the massive festival at Dimmick Ranch on that familiar bend of the Eel River. By all accounts RotR was a successful venture, raising […]
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As You Like It
Directed by Kenneth Branagh. HBO Films. With Henry V in 1989, Kenneth Branagh burst onto the world cinema scene as a combination Orson Welles (theatre enfant terrible who directs and stars in his first major film while in his twenties) and Laurence Olivier (choosing the same play as Olivier did for his first of several […]