East OF West 40

Grammy nominated Jai Uttal (2002 Mondo Rama) is a pioneer in the world of music community with his eclectic east meets west sound. His 2011 album and eleventh studio release, Queen of Hearts, is a unique mixture of reggae, ska, and samba rhythms, used as a backdrop for call and response, dance-oriented Kirtan, and invoking Queen Radha (Radharani), the bestower of devotion. Recorded in California, the eight track album was written and produced by Uttal alongside his longtime collaborator Ben Leinbach.

A complete guideline for learning Bengali language speaking, writing and reading

Cities and countries engulfed by panic and death, desperate for vaccines but fearful of what inoculation may bring. This is what the world has just gone through with Covid-19. But as Simon Schama shows in his epic history of vulnerable humanity caught between the terror of contagion and the ingenuity of science, it has happened before.

JAPANDROIDS is a two-piece band from Vancouver, BC., which began in 2006 and consists of Brian King and David Prowse. JAPANDROIDS are one guitar, one set of drums, and two vocalizers. JAPANDROIDS are maximal in their delivery; a two- piece band sounding like a five-piece band. With the release of their second album, Celebration Rock in 2012 the band embarked on what seemed like an endless world tour, performing over 200 shows in over 40 countries, and played their final show in support of Celebration Rock in Buenos Aires, Argentina in November 2013. They would not perform live again for three years.

Back in the 1960s, when fingerpicking folk guitarists were a dime a dozen, John Fahey stood out for several reasons. For one thing, his sense of humor was sophisticated and unfashionably cynical for the period (this is the guy, remember, who simultaneously celebrated the blues tradition and ridiculed his own blues pretensions by adopting the nom de plume of "Blind Joe Death"). But most of all, he possessed absolutely astounding chops, and made no attempt to hide his superior guitar skills despite a pop music climate which was much kinder to earnest amateurism than to hard-earned virtuosity. Since that period, though, his profile has stayed pretty low.