 |  | Love This Mountain Music! |  |
I am from the Appalachian foothills in eastern Kentucky, and love the mountains. The music on this CD reminds of music I heard while growing up in a small mining camp in the 1950s. The music is simple, raw, and emotional. It is the kind that you might have heard performed by a family or friends gathered on the porch at the end of a hard week's work. My favorite tunes are The Blackest Crow, Angel Band, When I Die I'll Live Again, Wayfarin' Stranger, and Bow Down. (My least favorite is Fair Margaret.) Several good instrumentals on here, as well.
June 20, 2007| | | Another Great CD By Tim O'Brien | |
This is a collection of old-time Appalachian/Mountain ballads. You will not find a bluegrass cut on this project. Tim O'Brien is an awesome performer of traditional music. I have seen him several times in concert. All songs are out-standing, and the two gospel numbers will bring shivers down your spine. (Especially Wayfaring Stranger-As close to true Appalachian singing that you will get-that high lonesome sound.)
May 5, 2007 | | BACK TO OUR MOTHER THE MOUNTAIN | |
Since my youth I have had an ear for roots music, whether I was conscious of that fact or not. The original of that interest first centered on the blues, then early rock and roll and later, with the folk revival of the early 1960's, folk music. I have often wondered about the source of this interest. I am, and have always been a city boy, and an Eastern city boy at that. Nevertheless, over time I have come to appreciate many more forms of roots music than in my youth. The subject of the following review is an example.
This is music that was performed, and meant to be performed for a live audience on Saturday night after a week's hard work, or early in the morning looking out over the mountain at nature's handiwork, or at any time to evoke the loneliness of the mountains and the hardness of life. And the music brings to life all those sentiments. Certainly this is music to entertain in a time before radio.
A note on subject matter- The bulk of the songs concern home, hearth lovesickness and religion as might be expected from mountain people. And that is okay. The following is something on the order of a discalimer I feel a need to mention. This reviewer, although not a religious man, can appreciate the simple, fundamentalist but very personal religion evoked here. Not to romanticize the simple rural folk of the past but I do not believe that the religious sentiments expressed here are the same as those of religious fundamentalists today.
June 19, 2006 I looked forward to this album as a number of my favorite songs were on it but I was disappointed that songs like "Hard Times" and "Lady Margaret" were not sung all the way to the end. Both left off about two thirds of the way through the song. I mean if you aren't going to sing the complete song, why bother?
May 30, 2006Wonderful music and extraordinary musicianship. Beautiful harmonies, make-ya-wanna-dance tunes, make-ya-wanna-harmonize along songs. Old songs beautifully rendered in voice and instruments. I have a lot of bluegrass and "traditional/roots" music and this is one of my favorites. Highly recommend
November 3, 2005More reviews at Amazon.com ...
