The Loveliest Rose, by Bukkene Bruse. This group is wonderful, and this is one of my favorite albums. They are led by the fantastic and cute as a bug’s ear fiddler Annbjorg Lien, who has several albums of her own (check out her website). I quite like Scandinavian folk music, especially fiddle music, because, mainly, it’s a bit different from British (and therefore American country/bluegrass) folk music–but not that different, actually, given the musical correspondence between Scotland and Norway that went on for centuries. (Edward Grieg’s grandfather was a Scottish immigrant to Norway—and this was not unusual.) Different rhythms and melodic structure, probably because of the weird Norwegian medieval music it’s all based on. I like Allison Krauss and Laurie Lewis as much as the next bluegrass fan, but if you want to hear a fiddle band do interesting stuff, check out Annbjorg Lien’s Aliens Alive, a live album from 2001. Available from North Side Records, as is The Loveliest Rose. More recently, Lien has been responsible for helping to put together together The String Sisters, who put out one of the best albums (and videos) of the decade a couple of years ago.
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Part two in a series.

“Elite” hasn’t always been an epithet. In fact, if we consider what the dictionary has to say about it, it still signifies something potentially worthy. Potentially. For instance:

e·lit·ism or é·lit·ism (-ltzm, -l-) n.
1. The belief that certain persons or members of certain classes or groups deserve favored treatment by virtue of their perceived superiority, as in intellect, social status, or financial resources.le

That definition, while technically accurate enough, could use a bit of untangling, because it embodies the very nature of our problem with elitism in America. In popular use, the term “elite” and its derivatives has been twisted into a pure, distilled lackwit essence of “liberal” – another once-proud word that fell victim to our moneyed false consciousness machine. Full story »

Results: Many, if not most people probably expected The Rolling Stones to make it as far as the finals in the ToR. Only one band now stands in the way of that eventuality. The numbers: #2 The Rolling Stones 58%; #4 The Police 42%. The Stones move onto the Final Four.

Up next, our search for the greatest band of all time heads out to the final of the Hollywood Bowl region – and the first showdown between members of the “Holy Trinity.” This oughta be fun.

#1 The Beatles: Listen	#3 The Who: Listen

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