Nolan Warden's blog

In June of 1944, U.S. researcher Henrietta Yurchenco and a team of Mexican government workers set out on a multi-day journey from the old mining town of Bolaños in northern Jalisco. The team, aided by donkeys carrying supplies and audio recording equipment, were on a mission—funded by the U.S.

The title of this blog—“Ethno Muse Ecology”—comes from Nazir Jairazbhoy’s joking etiology of “ethnomusicology” as the study of the tenth Athenian muse, the “ethno muse.” I’ll be using it for more general thoughts about ethnomusicology itself, distinguishing it from my fieldwork blog (

Greetings again from Colotlán, Jalisco, Mexico. In response to a comment on my first blog post, this entry explains a little bit about the difference between the words Wixárika and Huichol that are both used to refer to the indigenous group with whom I’m studying here in Mexico.

Greetings to Ethnomusicology Review readers! I’m delighted to begin my correspondence from Colotlán, Jalisco, México. As many of you know, Jalisco is often considered the home of what we might think of as stereotypically Mexican: mariachi, tequila, and the traje de charro.

Earlier this year, I was perusing the Wayne and Wax blog, masterfully maintained by ethnomusicologist and DJ, Wayne Marshall. In one of his entries, he mentioned A Tribe Called Red (ATCR), a Native American DJ collective from Canada. I was immediately blown away by their original work, remixes, and video pieces.