Customer Reviews

At Home and on the Range: The Duo Live

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I would place this in my top ten favorite live compact discs of all time. I attended one show from this duo's recent tour and I find this recording immensely satisfying. And when friends have been over and heard this cd playing, they immediately say "I want this disc!" so it's not just me that feels this way. The playing is stunning. Even though the tracks are culled from 5 different venues, the tonal quality is consistent enough that you never notice the transitions between cuts/venues. There is very little talk or banter included on the disc, but what was included I am glad for, as it adds personality and warmth to the experience. On one track, the 6-minute-plus Gator Strut, the boys get really extreme and 'out there', which is typical of how they sometimes interact musically on stage, and I'm glad they had the courage to include this version. Also, on the back of the cd booklet is a beautiful photograph of their instruments, nice enough that I'd love a print of it to have hanging up at home. In the twenty years I've been listening to the work of Darol Anger and Mike Marshall, I've come to believe that any project they get involved in is one worth checking out. These two artists define what effortless, joyous musical mastery is all about.

The Duo is probably the best setting to allow these master musicians to stretch out and fill up the room with their incredible music. I've followed these two gentlemen for 20 years through all of their various projects and collaborations, and this disk is my favorite. I usually think of Mike Marshall as a mandolin god, and his mando talents are well featured here especially on "Big Man From Syracuse", but what amazes me most on this disk is his incredible guitar playing, and his interplay with Darol Anger. Mike's choices of chords are so beautiful, as he adds harmonic depth and interest to a tune, like "Down in the Willow Garden", "In the Pines", and "Vasen your seatbelts/The crossing", that it opens the tune up far more than usual, and gives it so much more feeling. When he returns to the essential basis of the tune, you feel like you are coming home from an amazing odyssey. Darol Anger's fiddle soars so beautifully in the duo, and the range of feelings and sounds he produces are astonishing. I love the way he constructs a solo, by slowly outlining a phrase, and then with such style, playing all over, inside, and around it, before heading out into new territory. This is a brilliant live recording of these masters at the peak of their powers. You will not be disappointed.

Although Anger and Marshall have been making great music for a long time, they are a recent discovery for me. Pleasantly, I discovered them at a summer festival and was immediately impressed with their virtuosity and sense of humor. This CD contains a variety of Americana at it's best.A couple of favorites of mine are "In the Pines" and "Frogs on Ice" If these guys appear in your area, don't miss them. Live performance is better for the soul.

I bought this CD after seeing them live -- see them if you have the opportunity.

One of my all time favorite CDs. It's so good mainly because they're some of the best musicians around. The opening song, Down in the Willow Garden, is one of the most beautiful songs I've heard in a long time, followed closely by their their rendition of "In the Pines".

If you like this genre of music, whatever it is, then you must have this CD.

Anger and Marshall are tremendous together. Neither overshadows the other, and each is clearly heard. Live really captures the essence of this music (just like jazz)...it really doesn't get any better. Slow, fast, sublime. In todays manufactured pop music culture, here is real talent.