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Reviews: Anonymous 4: Gloryland

Reviews: 2

Review by Dan Popp March 18, 2007 (6 of 6 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:  
Don't buy a copy of this disc. Buy three so you'll have some to give away or loan. Early American music may not be everyone's cup of orange pekoe; but if you liked the female acapella harmonies on the "O Brother Where Art Thou" soundtrack ("Down to the River to Pray," "Didn't Leave Nobody But the Baby"), you'll love this album.

Trained singers can sometimes sound foolish when tackling the music of the common folk. Not these ladies. Their respect for the music is such that vocal technique seems to serve the song, without indulging in many of the idiosyncrasies one might hear on a recording by authentic, but untrained, singers.

The harmonies are heavenly. "Where We'll Never Grow Old" (or any of several others) is alone with the price of admission.

Two gripes: one, the programme of the disc seems to cater to the musicologist or the archivist more than the listener. We hear versions of the same song with a different tune; the same tune with different words; and an instumental version sometimes as well. I would have preferred a broader, though shallower selection. Enough of "Wayfaring Stranger" already.

The second quibble is a bit more substantial: the RT60 (reverberation time) of the hall is a bit long. This works fine on the hymns and slower numbers, though I still would have preferred to hear just a tad less of it. But for the faster tunes with fiddle and guitar accompaniment, some of the detail gets washed out, and the venue works against the performance. I'm listening in stereo, so this may be less of a problem in the mc mix.

The bottom line is that this is a very pleasing recording. While not "perfect," it is definitely one of my favorite discs. Now if I can just get it back from the person I loaned it to...

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Review by ruxtonvet May 31, 2010 (0 of 3 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:  
This is an exceptionally bright SACD- way too bright in my opinion. Almost painful to listen to and my system is not particularly bright. This is a very sparse rendering of these songs. Maybe I should have researched what this was more carefully before purchasing it.

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