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From Eric Johnson, Song Explorations on Acoustic Guitar and Piano (2018)

The Yamaha CD-C600 is kaput (wrrr-glkk-wrrrr-glkk-wrrr-glkk). The old Carver CD/A-360 comes out of the closet, with its weird in-out -in-out -in-out sliding carrousel, tamed by cutting power during the slide out, loading CDs, powering on, slide in, select play. 😎

"Wolf Rune, a solo album, casts a new light on the highly personal idiom of Sinikka Langeland, kantele player and folk singer from Finnskogen, Norway’s “Finnish forest”. Sinikka integrates her own songs among folk hymns, shamanistic rune songs and traditional dance pieces, draws texts from multiple poetic sources, and expands the expressive range of her instruments. Few artists embody the spirit of place as comprehensively as Langeland, and her music ruminates upon the wildness of the natural world and the interrelationships of its inhabitants. Wolf Rune, recorded in December 2019 in Oslo’s Rainbow Studio, [Release date: 09.04.2021] is an absorbing addition to Sinikka’s ECM discography, which has featured critically acclaimed projects including Starflowers, The Land That Is Not, Maria’s Song, The Half-Finished Heaven and The Magical Forest.

Arriving recently are recordings by Keith Jarrett (old Live in Bremen) , Gov't Mule (new Heavy Load Blues Deluxe ), King Crimson ( Music is Our Friend, Live in Washington, D.C. and Albany, 2021) & yet this is where my attention returns.

The Dusty Springfield recording has been my touchstone, this version sidles right up in a jazz vein.

"What the amazing Paul Hanson does on bassoon — an exceedingly difficult instrument to play and one almost exclusively associated with classical music — is akin to what other innovators like guitarists Charlie Hunter and Stanley Jordan, banjoist Bela Fleck and bassist Jaco Pastorius have done with their respective instruments. Like those musical revolutionaries, Hanson has created a vibrant new, expansive vocabulary through a combination of virtuosity, vision and soul, as he demonstrates so profoundly on Frolic in the Land of Plenty."

Hadouk Trio

Live version of "It's For You" from Pat Metheny & Lyle Mays, As Wichita Falls, So Falls Wichita Falls