Here’s what’s in fRoots No. 301, July 2008

THE EDITOR’S BOX

Ian Anderson’s comment column.

fROOTS PLAYLIST

Recent stuff we like.

CHARTS & LISTS

Specialist and general roots music album sales and airplay charts.

REVIEWS

Our key section reviewing all the latest CDs and more - loads bite the dust. No punches pulled!

ROOTING ABOUT

What’s happening: packed pages of festivals, gigs, tours, radio, CDs and all kinds of roots-related stuff. The most you’ll find anywhere…

ROOT SALAD

A cross-section of featurettes: Ethiopia’s Mulatu Astatqé; Ireland’s Tony Reidy; Mexico’s Mono Blanco; the Analog Africa label; UK based West Papuans The Lani Singers and Argentinian Alejandro Toledo; and Scotland’s Karine Polwart in the Rocket Launcher questionnaire.

NORTH UIST PASSAGE

Winging in from the Western Isles, BBC Radio 2’s Folk Singer Of The Year has a bit of a giggle with Colin Irwin.

THE CROON SHOW

Mariachi polka punk? Eastern blok rock? Elizabeth Kinder talks to the genre benders who are Devotchka.

GUINEA

In April, our intrepid team of writer Katharina Lobeck Kane and photographer Judith Burrows took off for Guinea, fifty years on from independence. Over the coming months fRoots will bring you a selection of stories from their trip. But first, we set the scene…

THE LYRA LEGEND

Psarandonis is the wild, innovative man of the Cretan lyra. Chris Williams gets a rare insight – and hears how the tax man changed the face of local roots music!

OTHERWORLDLY

Ági Szalóki is a Hungarian singing force to be reckoned with. Ken Hunt does the whole epiphany bit…

LIVE!

Blues: Back To The Source at The Barbican – bad gig, good photospread!

BIFF!

Our exclusive cartoon has a good wine.

CELEBRITY CORNER

Boris Johnson reviews The Beauty & The Sea by Mor Karbasi, as told to Gordon Neill. Maybe.