Cherish the Ladies is an all-woman Irish band named after an Irish jig; their new release of dance tunes and songs is titled The Back Door. Also from Ireland, Altan has followed up their first CD, The Red Crow with Harvest Storm, and this time they’ve added wonderful harmonies and Gaelic choral singing to their instrumental expertise. Fiddle wizard Kevin Burke (from the Bothy Band and Patrick Street) has released a new solo CD titled Open House; Pat Kilbride (the only Irish musician in Scotland’s Battlefield Band) also has a new solo CD out called Undocumented Dancing. Ron Kavana, whom some call the best singer-songwriter to come out of Ireland in recent years (he’s good, but my vote is still with sexy Luka Bloom), has released Home Fire (featuring Terry Wood of the Pogues on mandolin).
Scotland’s Tannehill Weavers have released Mermaid’s Song, full of songs and reels featuring superb highland piping. Scottish singer Dick Gaughin’s classic album A Handful of Earth has been released on CD, as has British singer June Tabor’s classic Ashes and Diamonds. Tabor has a new release as well, titled Angel Tiger, featuring her steady touring partner Huw Warren on piano. Texas native Ingrid Karlins, who mixes her ancestral Latvian music as well as American lullabyes into her compositions, has her first major release out now titled A Darker Passion. Singer Connie Dover teams up with Scartaglan on their new release, Last Night’s Fun: Irish Music in America, recommended to those who love music of Capercaille’s ilk.
Milladoiro is a band that plays the Celtic music of Spain; they’ve followed up last year’s lively Castellum Honesti with a new release, Calicia No Tempo. Skin the Peeler is an excellent new Franco-Anglo worldbeat dance band that has been touring the folk festivals of Britain lately; keep an eye out for a commercial release from these folks.
Abana Ba Nasery (The Nursery Boys) bill themselves as the guitar and soda bottle kings of Kenya. Their first Western release, Nursery Boys Go Ahead!, was recorded in London with contributions from Ron Kavana, Three Mutaphas Three and the Oyster Band—and it’s a real treat. Vocalist Mili Bermejo and classically trained acoustic bassist Dan Greenspan have teamed up with guitarist Mick Goodrick for Ay Amor, a collection of traditional and contemporary songs from Argentina, Cuba, Mexico and Venezuela.
On Fanafody, Tarika Sammy—four young musicians from the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar—plays the unique and magical music particular to the tribes of their country. On Tribal Voice, Yothu Yindi, a tribal band from Australia, mixes the rhythms of aboriginal music and the lowing strains of didgeridoo with the dance beat of modern rock and roll. They’ve just completed a successful U.S. tour to introduce American audiences to their unusual and infectious style of music. On Warriors, Robert Mirabal mixes didgeridoo and Australian rhythms with his own Native American flute music to a haunting, eerie, and mythical effect. On R. Carlos Nakai’s Spirit Horses, this extraordinary Navajo/Ute musician plays traditional Native American flute in a most untraditional way against a background of cello and full orchestra.
Andrew Cronshaw and the people who created last year’s excellent charity compilation, Circle Dance, have now produced All Through the Year, a collection of performances by Maddy Prior, Fairport Convention, The Home Service, Richard Thompson, and others. Finally, if you were lucky enough to catch Canadian Celtic singer/harpist/songwriter Loreena McKennitt on her American tour this year, I expect you’ll agree with me that it is well worth making a special effort to catch her on her next swing through the states. McKennitt has a truly exquisite voice, and a preference for songs (such as her rendition of the Yeats poem “The Stolen Child”) imbued with romance and magic.
The 1992 World Fantasy Convention and Awards Ceremony was held in Pine Mountain, Georgia, over the weekend of October 30-November 1. The Guests of Honor were writers Anne McCaffrey, Michael Bishop, and John Farris, anthologist Martin H. Greenberg, and artist/film producer Robert Gould. Winners of the World Fantasy Award (for work produced in 1991) were as follows: Boys Life by Robert R. McCammon for Best Novel; “The Ragthorn” by Robert Holdstock and Garry Kilworth for Best Novella; “The Somewhere Doors” by Fred Chappell for Best Short Story; The Ends of the Earth by Lucius Shepard for Best Collection; The Years Best Fantasy and Horror: Fourth Annual Collection edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling for Best Anthology; and Tim Hildebrandt for Best Artist. Special Award/Professional went to George Scithers and Darrell Schweitzer of Weird Tales magazine; Special Award/Nonprofessional went to W. Paul Ganley of Weirdbook. The Life Achievement Award was given to Edd Cartier. The judges for the awards were: Gene Wolfe, Robert Sampson, John Jarrold, Arthur Byron Cover and Jill Bauman. The 1993 World Fantasy Convention will be held in late October in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The 1992 British Fantasy Awards were presented at British Fantasy Convention XVIII on October 4, 1992, in Birmingham, England. My co-editor reports on these and other awards in her summation.
The International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts was held in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, in March. The Writer Guest of Honor was Philip Jose Farmer, the Artist Guest of Honor was Kelly Freas, and the Scholar Guest of Honor was Jack Zipes. The Crawford Award for best first fantasy novel was awarded at the conference to Greer Ilene Gilman for her novel Moonwise, published by Roc.
The Fourth Street Fantasy Convention was held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in June. The Writer Guest of Honor was Megan Lindholm and the Editor Guest of Honor was Betsy Mitchell. There will be no Fourth Street Fantasy Convention held in 1993 as the convention organizers shall be working toward the Minneapolis World Fantasy Convention in October.
That s a brief roundup of the year in fantasy; now on to the stories themselves.
As always, the combined word count of the best stories of the year ran longer than we have room to print, even in a volume as fat as this one. Each year when I send the list of fantasy stories to our packager, Jim Frenkel, he calls me up to gently remind me, “We can’t fit them all.” So the following are stories I consider among the year’s best and would strongly suggest you seek out if you haven’t read them:
“A Beauty in the Beast” by William J. Brooke from Brooke’s collection Untold Tales.
“Ghost Dancing” by Annie Hansen from Kenyon Review Vol. 16.
“The Monster” by Scott Bradfield from the Los Angeles Times Magazine, June 28, 1992.
“Things of this World, or, Angels Unawares” by Randall Kenan from Kenan’s collection Let the Dead Bury Their Dead.
“Bringing Sissy Home” by Astrid Julian from the Writers of the Future Volume VIII.
There were also several other excellent stories in the anthology After the King, edited by Martin H. Greenberg, in addition to the two chosen for reprinting in this collection. I particularly recommend the Yolen, McKillip, Beagle, and Tarr contributions.