Pure Music

Turlough O Carolan was born in 1670. He lived through a time when the old structures in Irish society were dying and a new order was being imposed. Carolan adapted his traditional harp music to the baroque style popular in the Europe of his era, which gave him a unique voice as a composer at a pivotal time in Irish history. Today Carolan’s music is as popular as ever. Hear The Chieftains, Robin Bullock, Planxty, and Abby Newton with the legacy of Ireland’s last true bard.

This episode originally aired the week of July 7.

For more information on this program, visit .

Tags: Irish, Irish Bards

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Richard Smallwood, “Promises” (Verity Records)

The death of Richard Smallwood’s mother in 2005 left him so distraught that the Stellar- and Dove Award-winning artist lost the inspiration to write a song for four years.

But Smallwood found motivation after watching a news telecast that highlighted many of the world’s problems. As a result, he wanted to show people that there is still hope, and that led him to produce his latest album, “Promises,” which features his choir ensemble, Vision.

His belief that anyone can overcome life’s obstacles is the driving force on his 12th album.

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Tags: Richard Smallwood, Smallwood

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– Justin Bieber‘s cover of Vanity Fair did not go over well with readers, as the February issue he appeared on was the lowest selling in 12 years.

According to Woman’s Wear Daily, the issue is one of the three worst selling since 1992. The Bieb joined Harrison Ford and Will Smith as the mag’s poorest performers in recent history. Smith tallied 202,701 copies in 1999, Ford tallied 243,000 in 1993 and Bieber tallied 246,000.

A Vanity Fair spokeswoman opined, “Who knew 12-year-olds didn’t buy magazines?”

Yet, Bieb’s poor magazine sales were not limited to Vanity Fair.

Cover, Justin Bieber

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Langford will be performing with the 40-member, Toronto-based Burlington Welsh Male Chorus. There are also intriguing possibilities involving Staples and Jones, who both recorded for the venerated Memphis label Stax in the ‘60s and ‘70s.

Tickets ($25) go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday at ticketfly.com. More information is available at hideoutchicago.com.

Tags: Staples, Staples Andrew

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Album of the week

IMELDA MAY

“Mayhem”

***1/2

Imelda May has the dangerous curves of a ’50s pin-up girl, and backs them up with a seductive feels-good-to-be-bad voice.

May, a Dubliner, sings rockabilly — the early-rock form in which country, boogie-woogie and swing collide like speeding hot rods — with femme-fatale charm. She writes her own words and music, and has obviously studied masters from Gene Vincent and Duane Eddy to the Stray Cats, inducing the same hip-shaking as those rockabilly aces.

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