Robin Batteau - Banned in Sparta (2025)

Singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Robin Batteau returned to Harvard during the pandemic to finish his degree after a 50-year absence. While there, he wrote a thesis that led to this unusual and satisfying album, whose lyrics draw on the poetry of ancient Greeks.

“The Greek lyric poets performed live and were the stars of their day,” says the Grammy-winning Batteau. “They were singer/songwriters. They played the lyre [hence “lyric”] and danced around the stage like Tom Paxton and Taylor Swift.”

You might not be familiar with most of those Greek poets, who lived from the seventh to the fourth centuries B.C. However, you will likely recognize the names of some of the artists Batteau enlisted to sing lead on various tracks. Paxton is here, delivering a cheery number called “Thracian Filly.” So are veteran folkies such as Carolyn Hester, Eric Andersen, and James Taylor’s siblings, Kate and Livingston.

Surprisingly, none of these tracks sound a bit anachronistic. In fact, Andersen’s reading of “Cross (of Gold),” a song written more than two thousand years ago, could easily be mistaken for a recently penned original from the singer’s own catalog.