No other band sounds like Hidden Orchestra. Or so I believed. But perhaps the Crotchety Research Elves just hadn't mapped that part of the musical landscape thoroughly enough yet. Recruiting the Global Network of Discovery and Spotify as guides, Crotchety Man embarked on a journey of exploration. Those regions were not thought to be dangerous but…Read more Landscapes
2010s
Flow
By definition, fluids flow. Steam rises from a boiling kettle, spring water spontaneously cascades down the mountainside. And when you hear a particularly fluid jazz lick you can be sure the band has achieved that indefinable quality of musical 'flow'. It's what all musicians strive for, when the notes spill out without bidding, floating in…Read more Flow
Dreamers
In 2001 the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act came before the U.S. Congress. It would have given those who had arrived illegally as children the chance of permanent legal residency. But it failed to pass then and failed again on two subsequent occasions. The Obama administration implemented the Deferred Action for…Read more Dreamers
The Voice of Beauty Drowned
"I hear those voices that will not be drowned" is a quote from Benjamin Britten's opera, Peter Grimes. It is cut into the rim of this stunning sculpture of a scallop shell standing proudly on Aldeburgh beach on England's east coast. The Scallop is a memorial to Britten who lived in the town and used to…Read more The Voice of Beauty Drowned
Heterotopia
Utopia is a place where everything is good; dystopia is a place where everything is bad; heterotopia is where things are different ... - Walter Russell Mead Heterotopia is a difficult concept to define succinctly. The word comes from the Greek roots, heteros (other) and topos (place). So a heterotopia is an other place, somewhere that…Read more Heterotopia
Fernando
Fernando was a veteran of the Mexican-American War of 1846 - 1848. At the start of the war Mexico was considerably larger than it is today. The present day U.S. states of California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico and Texas then came within Mexico's borders. When Texas seceded in 1836 to become an independent republic…Read more Fernando
Let the Cards Fall
Fate is fickle, they say. On another day her pointing finger may have selected the indie pop of A Trick of the Light by The Villagers or the classical/folk guitar work of Impossible Air by Nathan Salsburg. But, today, she has guided Crotchety Man to a new single release by The Breath called Let the…Read more Let the Cards Fall
