Fat Man & Little Boy’s new album The Atomic Duo has been in my CD stack for a while now; I enjoyed listening to it on a Thanksgiving trip, so that tells you. I wanted to share it with you in case you had not already read a review of it elsewhere. Although this is technically their first album together, I hesitate to call it a debut album because these two are not new to the music business.

Fat Man & Little Boy, in this case, are musicians rather than bombs, but you notice by the CD title that they took advantage of the pun. Their real names are Mark Rubin and Silas Lowe. Rubin was a founding member of Bad Livers, and Lowe has been a member of several bands including the college group Northern Aggression. Lowe plays the resonator mandolin and the melody banjo; Rubin plays the resonator guitar and the fiddle. Both of them provide vocals, separately and together, for the tracks that have them. George Carver, the album producer, joins them playing the harmonica and bass harmonica.

These are a couple of guys goofing off in front of a mike, and at the same time a lot of fun to listen to. They know their instruments and they know the old music they’re playing, well enough to occasionally interject their own words for an updated take. The first tune on the CD is a merry ragtime number called “Easy Winner.” Going down the track list (not, by the way, in the same order as listed on the cover), they have a great time bringing out one old song after another and giving it their own sound. Even with depressing material such as “Rope Stretchin’ Blues,” this is an enjoyable selection of ragtime, blues and swing. ”Turpentine Farm” is one of the funnier numbers. The group pulls out the country sound, twangy slides and all, on the love-story-gone-wrong song “The Memory of Your Smile” and on the country gospel tune “Mother’s Not Dead.” Although the songs are labeled “traditional,” another review names some of the sources, or at least the original known performers.

Several live radio recordings are available on Archive.org and videos of more radio station performances are available on ReverbNation. More on how the duo and the album came about, and Rubin’s thoughts on the cultural legacy of music, are found in an interview on the Americana archive site SPPS.

In case you haven’t already seen it, there is a series in progress over at the Open Salon site about Bob Dylan and the musicians who influenced him. Three posts so far, all thought-provoking for anyone interested in early folk music and blues. The author plans to take this through ten posts in all over a period of several months. If you start with the introductory post it contains links to the others.

Music historian Alan Lomax recorded folk musicians not only throughout the southeastern United States but also in various other countries. During the mid-1930s he made extensive recordings of musical performances in Haiti. The recordings….

The Larry Stephenson Band recently released a 20th Anniversary CD commemorating the band’s twenty years in business. Stephenson, a mandolinist and award-winning vocalist, has been a professional musician for over thirty years but his current band was formed in 1989. The numerous guest performers on the album include country artists Connie Smith, Marty Stuart and Ricky Skaggs and bluegrass musicians Del McCoury and Kristin Scott Benson.

Listening to sound clips, I immediately begin to imagine an old cabin floor with all the chairs pushed back, dancers twirling each other around and lots of laughter going on….

American folk musician Peggy Seeger and New Zealand Celtic group Cairde team up Saturday night in a benefit performance for the Nelson Women’s Centre in Nelson, New Zealand. The Centre was partially burned by arsonists a few years ago. Seeger being very active in gender issues, this is a project dear to her heart. Irish singer Irene Pyper-Scott and New Zealand instrumentalist Nathan Torvik will join Seeger on stage….

Smithsonian Folkways now offers the fourth blues album in their Classic series. The album includes music by Etta Baker, Lesley Riddle, Sticks McGhee, Pink Anderson and numerous other musicians. Check out the link for a free download of one of the songs.

Leonard Cohen is one of several artists scheduled to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in June. Cohen, who received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammys in January, recently postponed his tour due to health issues.

Bonnie Raitt will be inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in May.

It’s not often someone gets to hear their own death announced over the radio. It seems someone started a rumor of the death of Canadian folk singer Gordon Lightfoot and too many people believed the news and passed it on. Lightfoot was quick to inform the world that he was alive and doing just fine, thank you very much. We’re glad to hear it.

The 2010 International Folk Alliance Conference is being held in Memphis Wednesday through Sunday. Public events include a Roots Music Spectacular on Friday and Songwriters in the Round on Saturday, both free at the Center for Southern Folklore, and paid performances at the Bartlett Center of a Sacred Steel Gospel Review on Friday and Songwriters in the Round on Saturday. More details are available on the conference web site.

Journalist and photographer Stephanie Ledgin has released her latest book, Discovering Folk Music. Ledgin is a former board member of the International Bluegrass Music Association. In addition to directing folk festivals, running radio shows and writing extensively about bluegrass and other forms of roots music….

The White House hosted two special events Tuesday in honor of Black History Month: a high school workshop in the afternoon and a concert Tuesday evening. Both featured performances by noted folklorist and musician Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon. Concert artists included, among others, Yolanda Adams, the Blind Boys of Alabama, Smokey Robinson, Joan Baez and Bob Dylan. An article in The Root has a thoughtful analysis of Dylan’s role in the civil rights movement.

PBS will broadcast the concert at 8:00 p.m. EST Wednesday, February 11. Beginning Thursday, February 12, the performance will be available online.

Todd B. loves his ukulele. Or make that ukuleles. He has gone so far as to write a song about his collection, which you can see in this video. Todd, an enterprising musical moonlighter nicknamed “Brother Sonny” who does not disclose his last name on his web site, has written several original contemporary folk songs and has performed the work of various folk artists including Burl Ives and Bascom Lamar Lunsford.