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.

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….

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.

Scheduled for release October 27, Sarah Lee Guthrie & Family’s new CD Go Waggaloo can be pre-ordered from Smithsonian Folkways. Arlo Guthrie and Pete Seeger are part of the extended-family-and-friends group. Three of the songs on the album consist of lyrics written by Woody Guthrie, only now put to music. The first hundred CDs will be autographed.

Joan Baez: How Sweet the Sound, a documentary scheduled to air on the PBS American Masters series October 14, was shown at the Toronto Film Festival on September 18. The first U.S. showing will be October 9, at the Paley Center’s DocFest 2009 in New York. The film will be released on CD and DVD October 13 and can be pre-ordered from Amazon. Candid interviews with fellow musicians, including Bob Dylan, help round out the story of Baez’s life as a sociopolitical activist and folk musician. See her web site for a preview.

Folk music has frequently been associated with political action, whether in the interests of worker rights, world peace or environmental stewardship. Nearly four decades ago, a group of anti-nuclear activists held a concert in Vancouver to raise funds for a trip to Amchitka, Alaska in an attempt to prevent nuclear testing planned for that island. On stage were Joni Mitchell and James Taylor, whose careers were just beginning to take off, and Phil Ochs, a promising young performer who did not live out the next decade.

After all these years, Greenpeace has decided that it’s time to release the recordings of the concert. The organization announced earlier this week that a double-CD set will be available on November 10. The album will be exclusive to Greenpeace and the proceeds will support the work of the organization.

Well, I have to tell you, the latest web buzz (as far as folk music goes) is all about Bob Dylan’s Christmas album. First Rolling Stone reported late yesterday afternoon that sound clips were available on Amazon.uk. Then last night, people realized that the clips weren’t there any more. (I was looking for them myself with no luck while I was waiting for the AMA awards to be announced.) Then New York Magazine reported this afternoon that someone had uploaded all the clips to YouTube in the meantime. NYM has the clips embedded in their site also.

I’m seeing mixed reviews and I’m not going to attempt to judge this album based on these samples. So if you want an idea of what Christmas in the Heart is going to sound like I’d suggest you move quickly to one of the sources mentioned above. Feel free to comment here. I’ll be interested to see what you think! Or you may want to reserve judgment for the CD’s release on October 13. Proceeds benefit Feeding America in the U.S. and other charities internationally.

Laurie McClain’s new album Ascend will be celebrated Friday night at the Fiddle & Pick in Nashville. The event starts at 8:00 pm. Admission is $5.00 and directions are on Laurie’s web site. If you have not had a chance to hear Laurie’s work, you can make a good start by listening to clips from past albums. Her music is simple, sweet and meaningful, and she does an excellent job of covering other people’s music as well.

Newsweek is offering Bob Dylan fans a free listen to one of the songs on his new album, Together Through Life. The magazine will also be carrying Dylan’s ongoing conversations with music author and VH1 exec Bill Flanagan. The album streets April 28. More details in this article.

If you live anywhere near Hendersonville, North Carolina, you might want to find a way to listen to folk singer/songwriter Jenny Arch. According to a recent BlueRidgeNow article, she plays regularly at the Back Room in nearby Flat Rock, has recently left a band to concentrate on solo work and plans to record a CD this month. I’ve listened to song samples on Jenny’s MySpace page, and believe we will be hearing much more from this musician. I’ll watch for the CD release and keep you posted.

Louisiana bluesman Sonny Landreth’s Levee Town CD, originally released in 2000, will be reissued April 21 in an expanded format. Jennifer Warnes, Bonnie Raitt and John Hiatt contribute vocals. For reference, here’s a review of the original.