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Yankee Reviews

Music Review: Crooked Still

"We call ourselves a funky string band," says lead vocalist Aoife O'Donovan. Their bluegrass and old-time tradition tunes are ones you'll recognize . . . but not quite. "We put a new spin on old material," says double bassist Corey DiMario.

What makes Crooked Still a New England band?

Corey: We all met in Boston [while at the New England Conservatory, Berklee, and MIT]. The rest of the band still lives in Boston. I live in Brattleboro [Vermont] now, but I'm a Massachusetts native.

Aoife: I'm a true old New Englander. I have roots dating to the Salem witches. I'm a direct descendant of Rebecca Nurse.

What sets you apart from other bands?

Aoife: Our instrumentation. We have a cello, which not a lot of other bands have. Corey: . . . and in not having a guitar [on most tracks]. The sound is sort of stripped down and has a lot of low end. It presents a feeling.

What's your favorite track on your newest CD Shaken by a Low Sound (released by Whately, Massachusetts-based Signature Sounds Recordings)?

Aoife: "Come On in My Kitchen." It captures what our band is all about. It's so real. We're not trying to be anything but what we are.

Book Review: The Children in Room E4 American Education on Trial

Not long ago, Lois Luddy, who teaches at the Simpson-Waverly elementary school in Hartford, Connecticut, asked her third graders (all black and Hispanic) to write about what they'd find in a meteor crater in their backyards. They couldn't do it. None of them knew what a meteor was, or a crater. Very few had backyards. They were full of questions, such as, "What would happen if Hartford were hit by a meteor?"

Luddy was too much of a professional to tell her kids that Hartford was hit by a meteor. The Children in Room E4 (on sale January 19) is a biting, disturbing, heartbreaking story of the crater left behind by decades of racism and economic segregation. Luddy is a great teacher and Eaton a superb reporter. You'd better read the book now, because it won't be made into a movie. There's no happy ending. After 18 years of courtroom battles to desegregate Hartford schools, they are more segregated than ever.

Film Review: Disappearances

Scene Set in Prohibition-era northern Vermont. A former whiskey runner decides to make one last trip across the border in an attempt for fast cash.

Genre Vermont "Western" meets Coming of Age.

Highlights Stunning landscape cinematography, all filmed on location; complex characters by a distinguished cast (Kris Kristofferson, Gary Farmer, Geneviève Bujold, Luis Guzmún); and a story line with supernatural elements and mystery.

Trivia St. Johnsbury's main street was covered with dirt and the parking meters removed for the in-town shots.

Limited Edition DVDs are available from Kingdom County Productions of Barnet, Vermont (802-592-3190).

Recommendation This film completes director Jay Craven's trilogy based on local author Howard Frank Mosher's books. The others are Where the Rivers Flow North and A Stranger in the Kingdom. To learn how Craven makes his films on a shoestring budget, get the DVD Act of Faith.