Greetings from the Winter Solstice (thankfully not in Moscow).

Greetings from the Winter Solstice (thankfully not in Moscow).

This is excellent modernized trad music! Sami Yoik, Eastern European gypsy jazz and prog rock, rolled into one!
https://play.google.com/music/m/Tjbyndqrwfewypn4v33cirjmx6m?t=D_s_iggun_Cuozzut_-_Mari_Boine

I maintain that Weird Al is the greatest living American songwriter and arranger.

I maintain that Weird Al is the greatest living American songwriter and arranger. Here is a retrospective of his work.

Originally shared by Allen Varney

"Squeeze Box, released a few weeks ago, is an exhausting, astonishing compilation of every one of Al's 14 studio albums, from his New Wave-meets-accordion mash-up 1983 self-titled debut on through his farewell to the full-length album format, 2014's Mandatory Fun, with another disc of 'medium rarities,' all of it slotted into a replica plastic accordion. It's a Complete World Book Encyclopedia set of Nerd Culture. It contains more studio albums than the Beatles ever recorded, documenting a man who has remained in the public eye for nearly twice as long as Elvis Presley.

"In terms of longevity, Al falls somewhere between The Simpsons and Saturday Night Live, though rather than an ever-cycling comedic ensemble, Al's just one bespectacled, poodle-haired accordionist with an adenoidal voice who's never done illegal drugs in his life and kept the same band and manager for the duration of his career. And rather than simply document his knack for turning the Knack and the Presidents of the United States into punch lines, Squeeze Box posits Al as a singular entity in pop culture [...] both the last of a specific type of musical comedian, and the dawn of a new era, where novelty albums and songs are relics and they instead move at the speed of novelty videos that proliferate on social media. As the hours of Squeeze Box roll on (and on and on), the corny jokes, dad-worthy puns, obscure pop-culture references, and musical in-jokes start to fall away, replaced instead with a staggering sense of accomplishment. Like a slice of bologna, Weird Al has had a remarkably long shelf life." (Vulture):

http://www.vulture.com/2017/12/the-unexpected-longevity-of-weird-al-yankovic.html

http://www.vulture.com/2017/12/the-unexpected-longevity-of-weird-al-yankovic.html?utm_source=tw&utm_medium=s3&utm_campaign=sharebutton-b

Mari Boine is Samiland's Björk but much better.

Mari Boine is Samiland's Björk but much better.
https://play.google.com/music/m/Tmtawxbnou2okixcfemdettmgea?t=Vuoi_Vuoi_Me_-_Mari_Boine