Folker Magazine

Review of Aragon Mill: The Bluegrass Sessions

You know something very special is happening when Si Kahn decides to record his 17th album with a German bluegrass band. All Si would have to do to put together a first class band at home in the USA would be to ask.

But Si understandably has a deep appreciation for the quality musicianship of the three Looping Brothers: Ulli Sieker (mandolin, fiddle), Matthias Malcher (guitar, banjo) and Ralf Strotmann (bass).

The three German musicians looked at Si Kahn’s wide repertoire of original songs, and chose 15 to turn into flawless, exciting bluegrass.

Working with Swedish dobro player Nickie Widen, Dutch fiddler Joost van Es and Si’s melodious baritone, they created fresh arrangements of Si’s signature songs of everyday life, with all of its worries, problems and joys.

On the fast uptempo numbers, the Looping Brother’ colorful licks on mandolin, fiddle, five string banjo and flat picked guitar create excitement with their virtuosity and speed, giving older songs like “Five Days a Week” a refreshing new life. But the slower, more melancholy songs are equally pleasing, thanks to tastefully arranged instrumentation and the three Looping Brothers’ perfect back up vocals.

A wonderful collaboration.

–by Ullrich Joosten, translated by Peter and Eva Fritsch

In Honor of Si’s 80th Birthday Today, April 23,

Please Join Us in Launching the Si Kahn Living Legacy

Cathy Fink, Marcy Marxer, John McCutcheon

The goal of the Si Kahn Living Legacy is to build awareness of, support for, and public access to the amazingly large body of Si’s creative work that no one except Si has ever seen, and ultimately to keep it alive and easily accessible after he’s gone.  Si has been recognized internationally as one of the most important English language social justice songwriters, connecting his cultural work and social activism like so many before him, including Pete Seeger (with whom he worked, toured, and recorded) and Woody Guthrie.  

Nora Guthrie and others started the Woody Guthrie Archives long after Woody’s passing. As Si turns the corner to his 80th birthday, it’s a perfect time to think ahead, to gather, catalog, and make available those of his songs, stories, book manuscripts, poems, and other creative works that have never before been seen or heard by anyone except Si. The time to do this is now, while he’s healthy, still actively creating, and available as a friendly resource to the Living Legacy’s growth and development. 

It of course takes funding to build and maintain a major project like this. Your contributions are tax-deductible, as the project is managed by and part of the 501(c)3 non-profit Generations: Music for Justice (EIN 87-1647310).

Let’s do this together, recognizing the importance of Si’s life not just as an organizer and musician, but as a humane, generous, deeply kind person, who has spent his entire life trying to make this tired world a kinder, gentler, more just place for all of us.