-
Carminho • Sara Tavares
The fadista Carminho sang almost by surprise last week at City Winery. The concert was announced perhaps a week before, but she stood before a full house, following an energetic set by the Portuguese creole artist Sara Tavares. It wasn’t the only way she surprised me. I expected, from what I had seen of her…
-
Spanish Wine and Cheese
I enjoyed the cheese and Spanish wine tasting on Monday night at City Winery, which was co-sponsored by Murray’s Cheese. It was my first time in the place’s actual winery, as opposed to the concert venue next door. We were loomed over by the stainless steel vats in which they make their own wine-on-tap (it’s…
-
Ana Moura
The title of Ana Moura’s new collection is DESFADO, and I take that to mean, without knowing Portuguese, that it is fado, but not, or fado but at an angle, askew; or perhaps it means to be taken by fado, touched by it as by madness, kidnapped by its pirate lilt and stirred by its…
-
Iris Dement
I have changed since last I heard Iris Dement live, sometime in the late ‘90s soon after the release of what, until now, was her last album of original songs. She was for me in that decade the premier artist of that conglomeration of bluegrass, gospel, country, acoustic protest, blues, and anthemic individualism that we…