History

A friend of mine was purchasing a selection of hurdy-gurdy music, and it got me thinking of great Hurdy Gurdy recordings. First of all, a disclaimer: As much as I love traditional French music, the kind of hurdy-gurdy playing that really excites me are the albums where performers create something new and personal, with more relevance (presumably) to the modern communities they live in. This might mean playing with other unusual or underused instruments (clarinet, button accordion), or playing in a band, sometimes even with electronic instruments. Not all of those experiments can be called a success, but some of them stand the test of time. These CDs are becoming easier and easier to find as iTunes and other services begin to take notice. I’ll list Amazon links for the albums when available, since these are DRM free MP3s that will play on any device, and can be listened to before purchase. As an aside, I use an online subscription service that lets me hear just about any recording on demand. ...

  I’ve been wrestling with the challenge of introducing the hurdy-gurdy to blog readers. I’ve lived with and around the instrument for most of my adult life, and simply don’t know where to start. ...

Back in the 60’s my uncle Jerry was a science fiction writer. He had some fame in the 50s as a novelist, and became involved in the motion picture industry. I suspect his career was unfairly stunted by his involvement with HP Lovecraft’s gothic horror novel “The Color out of Space” for Shepperton Studios. The film was released in the US as “Die Monster, Die”, and features the last performance of Boris Karloff. It is also rumored to contain massive amounts of acting under the influence of LSD. As such, it resembles Hertzog’s “Heart of Glass” as much as it does a HP Lovecraft story – not well received at the time, but increasingly well regarded as a cult classic in modern times (rotten tomatos, 71% and rising). ...