Masaki Batoh (of Ghost) has also released two remarkable solo records on the Now Sound; they are combined onto one CD called "Collected Works 1995-1996."

Pearls Before Swine has been in our thoughts very much of late. If you have not heard the classic albums on ESP, "Balaklava," and "One Nation Underground," then please do something about this immediately. Next we recommend "Use of Ashes," "These Things Too," and "Beautiful Lies You Can Live In," all on Reprise but not yet reissued on CD. Tom Rapp is one of the best songwriters we have. And he shares our interest in another, Robert Zimmerman . . .

Yes, Dylan is more than a cliche. Recently we have been delving into the world of Dylan bootlegs, and our report is: there's a lot of good ones, both live and studio. Favorites: Basement Tapes (the original version, we're still looking for the complete ones), Royal Albert Hall, the Minneapolis Hotel Tape. When we get tired of Dylan, we listen to Sandy Denny singing Dylan.

According to Greil Marcus, Dylan was in turn much inspired by the Harry Smith Anthology of American Folk Music (1952), but whether or not you care about that connection, this is a fascinating artifact and it has now been rereleased in a beautiful box set by the Smithsonian/Folkways. We have also been enjoying another eccentric collection of old 78 rpm recordings, the Secret Museum of Mankind, on Yazoo. This is a haunted collection of "ethnic" music recorded in the 1920s to 40s -- there are four volumes thus far and we hope more coming.

And our psychedelic folk-rock obsession continues: the Incredible String Band, Nick Drake, Sandy Denny (with Fotheringay and early Fairport Convention), Tim Buckley, C.O.B. (which was Clive Palmer's band after he left the Incredible String Band), John Fahey, Anne Briggs, Spider John Koerner, Bridget St. John, Trees, Magic Carpet, Mellow Candle, etc. etc.

DK's biggest hero is still a drummer, albeit one with the most heartbreaking voice on the planet: Robert Wyatt. Rock Bottom is the classic, but don't overlook the others, especially the relatively recent Dondestan. We have it from a reliable source that RW's next record is amazing, so keep an eye out for it! Some of his best drumming can be heard on the live Soft Machine record from 1969, "At the Paradiso" -- this used to be a bootleg but has now been legitimately released.

 
DK's other favorite male singer is Milton Nascimento, the Brazilian pop star. His first eight albums, all of which have been rereleased on CD from EMI/World Pacific, are phenomenal, we listen to them constantly these days. Our favorites are Milton (1970), Clube da Esquina (1972), and Clube da Esquina 2 (1978). Any one have any English translations of his lyrics?

We have also been listening to a lot of Indian classical music, especially the singers, and especially the divas Kishori Amonkar, Shobha Ghurtu, and Parveen Sultana. There is a remarkable collaboration between singer Asha Bhosle and the sarod master Ali Akbar Khan, called Legacy, that was released recently by the Ali Akbar Khan Foundation and can be found most anywhere that carries such records. It's a collection of songs from the 16th-18th centuries; it also happens to be beautifully recorded.

Asha Bosle's movie music can also be great, if silly, and if you saw us on tour recently that was probably her tape you heard us playing before our set.

As for Western "classical" music, the composers heard around our house include Scelsi, Feldman, Cage, Webern, Satie, Ustvolskaya, Rzewski, Christian Wolff, Stockhausen, Ives, assorted romantics like Debussy and Mompou, and always Bach and Mozart, we can't help it! If you are into Harry Partch, the recent 4-CD box of archival recordings from the Innova label is eye-opening.

Finally, we have discovered that medieval music is much improved these days. The singer Montserrat Figueras and her partner, Jordi Savall, are making the folk music of the 1990s, using scores from the 14th and 15th century. There is a great (and cheap) compilation CD of their work together aptly titled The Voice of Emotion.