Travel Books - Slow Boats to China
After twenty years as a peripatetic foreign correspondent covering wars and revolutions for the Observer, Gavin Young finds that he needs...
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KEN HAIGH
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kenhaigh
- May 4, 2021
- 2 min
Travel Books - A Hermit on Lake Baikal
In The Consolations of the Forest, Sylvain Tesson parks himself in a small ranger’s cabin on the shores of Lake Baikal to explore what it...
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kenhaigh
- Apr 30, 2021
- 1 min
Banjo Friday 10
I must confess I had never heard of Ola Belle Reed until I heard Brad Kolodner play "I've Endured" at a house concert a few years ago. ...
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kenhaigh
- Apr 26, 2021
- 2 min
Travel Books - Delhi: Adventures in a Megacity
My memories of Delhi are somewhat vague. I remember snake charmers at the Red Fort and a ordering a hamburger at a Wimpy’s restaurant in...
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kenhaigh
- Apr 23, 2021
- 2 min
Banjo Friday 9
The late Pete Seeger is one of my heroes. Born in New York City in 1919, Seeger was a Harvard dropout who discovered the banjo and hit...
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kenhaigh
- Apr 20, 2021
- 3 min
Travel Books - Thubron's China
I recently decided to re-read one of my favorite books about China, Colin Thubron’s Behind the Wall. As I cracked open the cover and saw...
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kenhaigh
- Apr 16, 2021
- 1 min
Banjo Friday 8
It's always fun to watch a banjo cross genre boundaries. Today's selection comes from Finland and a bluegrass band called Steve 'n...
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kenhaigh
- Apr 12, 2021
- 2 min
Travel Books - How the Heather Looks
Literary pilgrimages are not that unusual. A whole tourist industry has arisen around visiting the homes and haunts of famous writers: ...
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kenhaigh
- Apr 9, 2021
- 1 min
Banjo Friday 7
Here is Cathy Fink, on the five-string, and Marcy Marxer, on a cello banjo, with a really fine rendition of "Coleman's March." This is...
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kenhaigh
- Apr 6, 2021
- 3 min
Travel Books - Singing for his Supper: Simon Armitage on the Pennine Way
In the summer of 2010, English poet Simon Armitage decided to walk the Pennine Way. There is nothing too unusual in that, several...
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kenhaigh
- Mar 29, 2021
- 2 min
Travel Books - Cache Lake Country
When I was a boy of perhaps 10 or 12 years old, I read a book that made a great impression on me. It was the story of a man who lived in...
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kenhaigh
- Mar 26, 2021
- 1 min
Banjo Friday 6
This week I'd like to feature a clawhammer player from Toronto, Chris Coole. Chris got his start busking and has become one of the most...
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kenhaigh
- Mar 22, 2021
- 2 min
Travel Books - In the Footsteps of Marco Polo
My bookshelf at home is weighted down with the books of William Dalrymple. Clearly, I’m a fan. But I had never read his first book,...
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kenhaigh
- Mar 19, 2021
- 1 min
Banjo Friday 5
I want to feature another banjo duet this week, although I don't want you to get the impression that banjo duets are a common thing....
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kenhaigh
- Mar 15, 2021
- 2 min
Travel Books - Travels with Steinbeck
John Steinbeck’s Travels With Charley has long been on my “to read” list. The other day I had to make a long car journey and thought,...
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kenhaigh
- Mar 12, 2021
- 1 min
Banjo Friday 4
When I was in university and just starting to teach myself the 5-string banjo, I haunted used record stores trying to find old LPs of...
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kenhaigh
- Mar 8, 2021
- 3 min
Travel Books - Theroux's Great Railway Bazaar
The unexpected success, in 1975, of Paul Theroux’s The Great Railway Bazaar led to a renaissance in travel writing. Theroux’s bestseller...
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kenhaigh
- Mar 5, 2021
- 1 min
Banjo Friday 3
I mentioned in an earlier post that Earl Scruggs inspired me to take up the five-string banjo. I would imagine that he inspired many of...
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kenhaigh
- Mar 2, 2021
- 2 min
Travel Books - Statler's Japanese Pilgrimage
For more than one thousand years, pilgrims have been walking clockwise around the Japanese island of Shikoku seeking the spirit of the...
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kenhaigh
- Feb 26, 2021
- 1 min
Banjo Friday 2
Here's another great song for the banjoist, "The Mexican Cowboy," aka "The Hills of Mexico." Like all great folk songs, you can find it...
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