New Musique at Pomegranate

A couple of fab new music choices, just in or coming soon: first, there's Putumayo. It seems every time we start getting bored with them, they come up with another doozy, and faith is restored. "Acoustic France" just started shipping, and we've got it in stock. I love it! Sort of a mix of sultry french singers and some Django Reinhard-esque throwbacks. Since we got the advance play copy last week, we've been playing it every night during dinner on the deck. Perfect. Their other new one that I'm totally enamored with is "Euro Groove," sort of a stupid name, but really, really fun. It's sort of loungey, but upbeat. Another good one for a dinner party; nice beat all the way through (without getting goofy). Si, even the Italian hip hoppish one with a bit of bagpipe is darn good. [Oops. Shouldn't have mentioned the bagpipes. Now I have to admit that sometimes I like accordion music, too. And ukuleles.]

Then there's the fascinating Mrs. France, Carla Bruni, and her new album (arriving tomorrow!). We latched onto her music about three years ago, when she toiled in relative musical obscurity, save for the fact that she's a supermodel and Mick Jagger's ex-girlfriend. That first album, "Quelqu'un M'a Dit" has been a favorite of ours for a long time, and we've sold a lot of them. Her second album we won't even talk about. Tried to get a friend to take it for skeet practice. Now her new album is just out, and I'm so happy to have some fresh tunes from my favorite chanteuse française. Actually, she's Italian, but spent part of her childhood in Paris, so flips between the two with enviable ease. And now she's married to the president of France. If you kept up with People magazine, you'd know that.

Back to the ukulele. First of all, we learned in Hawaii that it's pronounced something like ookoolaylay, not You-ka lay lee. We loved that so many kids brought them to school; at our nieces' high school, the kids gather in the stairwells during breaks and play them together. Sweet! We even broke down and bought one (the best souvenir!) at Costco, of all places. They had stacks of them at the Honolulu store, like we have huge displays of snow shovels here. And, of course, we have a good cd for you at the stores, called "Hawaiian Style Ukulele" by Troy Fernandez. It's kind of hard to get, but we snagged half a dozen copies for sale before they go into total obscurity. It's my new happy music (and it's not cornball).