Customer Reviews

Beautiful Dreamer - The Songs of Stephen Foster

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Just flew in from London the other day and listened to this CD through the whole flight (thanks to United Airlines). So many good songs, so well done.

"Beautiful Dreamer" and "Slumber My Darling" open the recording by Raul Malo and Alison Krauss (etc.) respectively.

Including Krauss, favorite songs are: "Ah, May The Red Rose Live Always!" by Suzy Bogguss, very beautiful; "Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair" by Roger McGuinn, very excellent Byrdsy interpretation; Holiday Scottisch by Will Barrow.

"No One To Love" by Judith Edelman wins for the most haunting interpretation and tightest recording. "Don't Bet Money on the Shanghai" by BR5-49 for funniest.

Not dismissing the others, which make quite a bouquet of songs. "My Old Kentucky Home" by John Prine and "In The Eye Abides The Heart" by Beth Nielsen Chapman also win high kudos.

This is a great compilation!

Foster songs weren't new to me-- growing up, I heard my grandmother sing them, and sang them in school "assemblies." But this CD showed me how little I knew about the range of his works.

No big fan of the "country" sound, I nevertheless enjoy the performances on this CD that use that style. All the performances evoke the emotional sense of the music,.

Curious to find out more about the man and his times, I read Ken Foster's Stephen Foster biography, "Doo Dah", and recommend it to those who'd like to know the historical context of Foster's music.

When I was in elementary school, half a century ago, we would sometimes sing these songs. "Beautiful Dreamer", Camptown Races", and "Oh! Susanna" somehow became clunky, but enjoyable, "marches" as mangled by thirty musically challenged nine year olds, led by our frustrated, but doggedly determined teacher.

I was stunned to hear how beautiful and full of heart and soul these songs are when given fresh life by some of today's best singers and musicians. Stephen Foster's music made him famous the 1850's. This CD show how much he has influenced the course of American folk, popular, and country music for the 150 years that have followed. Echos of Foster's songs and style can be heard in many of the best American folk and country songs of the past several decades.

"Beautiful Dreamer" sounds "traditional", yet it is fresh, new, exciting and alive. If these songs had been written just this year, Mr. Foster would be acclaimed our most talented young songwriter. This CD is a treasure that has joined America's musical beginnings with the heart and spirit of today's America.

Playing Time - 62:28 -- As one of America's greatest songwriters, Stephen Collins Foster created a legacy that lives on in the hundreds of songs he left us. Although he died at only age 37 in 1864, Foster crafted many masterpieces that are presented here such as "Beautiful Dreamer," "Oh" Susanna," "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair," "My Old Kentucky Home," "Camptown Races," "Old Folks at Home," and "Hard Time Come Again No More." Besides some of the more familiar compositions, there are many others that are less often heard on this generous disc that exceeds an hour of fine music. The tunes make up part of the intricate patchwork of our national musical identity. It's high time that we rediscover this important part of our essential American heritage.

Contemporary artists do an exceptional job with their interpretations and arrangements of Foster's songs on Beautiful Dreamer. These beloved parlor songs are presented by some highly-respected musicians that represent diverse genres, yet acoustic instrumentation is very central to most offerings. Some of the participating artists include John Prine, Raul Malo, Alison Krauss, Alvin Youngblood Hart, BR5-49, Judith Edelman, Mavis Staples, Michelle Shocked, David Ball, The Duhks, Grey DeLisle, Roger McGuinn, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Ollabelle, Suzy Bogguss, and Ron Sexsmith. Two instrumentals ("Autumn Waltz" and "Holiday Schottisch") are performed by Henry Kaiser and Will Barrow, respectively.

The energy level is high on this exhilarating tribute. Thus, the well-executed album is able to keep the music fresh sounding whether covering a plaintive folk ballad or an uptempo toe-tapper.

Proceeds from the sale of this album benefit American Roots Publishing, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving American regional culture through literature and art. Liner notes, lyrics and credits are plentiful in the CD's 24-page jacket. (Joe Ross)

I've long thought that Foster's songs should be given a rock/folk treatment. The classical world interprets him once in a while, but sorely misses something.

Frankly, I can't stop playing this album. I try to play other albums in my car but just keep on thinking how much I want to play this one. My favorites here are Swanee River, Hard Times, Beautiful Dreamer, and My Old Kentucky Home. My second favorites are Nelly was a Lady, and Camptown Races. My third favorites are Don't Bet Money on the Shanghai, and Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair. The biggest disappointment for me is Oh! Susanna. Michelle Shocked curiously decides to sing her own melody for the verses and not Foster's own. An odd interpretation given the spirit of the album. I just don't understand changing the melody of songs. Though I like Roger McGuinn's Jeanie, I'm afraid I hardly understand a word he is singing.

I pre-ordered this CD when I first heard about it on NPR, and have played it daily since I received it a month ago. My wife and 12-year old daughter love it as much as I do. I've always liked Stephen Foster songs, from grade school days, and I've associated Stephen Foster with old-time folk songs. I was blown away by how fresh these songs sound on this CD. The reviewers here who did not like this album apparently could not listen with open minds or ears. I found this CD a revelation and a testimony to the timeless genius of Stephen Foster. These songs more than hold their own to material being written now.

There is not a song that I dislike; even the ones I was unsure about initially have grown on me. My absolute favorites include "Hard Times," which has become my personal theme song, "Ah, the Red Rose," "Camptown Races," and "Slumber My Darling." The artists take their own approaches to these songs. What's amazing is that they all work.

This is only one of the finest pieces of music to be produced in this country for quite some time.

It is a collection of selected songs of Stephen Foster performed by a number of contemporary musicians. Some of these are John Prine, Yo-Yo Ma, Alison Krauss, Mavis Staples and a host of other very talented people. The album was produced by American Roots Publishing in Nashville, and won the Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album.

If you want to do yourself a favor, order it immediately. I would buy it and send it to you myself, but I can't because I'm about to go broke from doing that too much already.

Beautiful Dreamer--the Songs of Stephen Foster is as important an album as has been released in years. And, as has been established in these reviews, Foster was the first great American pop songwriter. As Beautiful Dreamer reminds us of--or else introduces us to--some of Foster's most popular gems, it also unearths some lesser-known songs of equal importance that gives us a deeper look into Foster's brilliance and breadth. But a brilliance on top of Foster's own is the producers' having these seminal Americana artists cover Foster's works, with their own contemporary interpretations, which is now introducing a whole new generation to Foster and his style, at once poetic and profound, whimsical and humorous.

I've been playing the CD around the house lately, and my nephew, a budding musician and songwriter, has just now been introduced to Foster. This CD has led him to question me, and then to do some research on his own, and he is now, quite deliriously for me, going back to the source and studying. How great is that? What a better teacher of fundamentals than Foster? Those of you who have kids will understand; you have to speak to this generation in its own language before they will assign to you or that which you promote, validity. This CD has done that, and my brainy, talented nephew has just become the go-to guy for songwriting.

But back to just listening. Beautiful Dreamer: the songs of Stephen Foster is simply amazing, and an incredible musical beauty, not even taking into account it's preservative value. (Go to www.americanrootspublishing.com to find out about the folks who put out this CD--what a great organization that all us Americana lovers should support). To have the Duhks do Camptown races was pure genius. "Nelly Was A Lady" by Alvin Youngblood Hart is astonishing, as is he, and Judith Edelman's "No One to Love" is pure heartbreak perfection. I do not use that word loosely-- PERFECTION. I could go on and on about the individual songs, but suffice it to say that this is not only historically important, but its contemporary validity is evidenced in that it's the favorite CD in my house these days--loved by persons who range from 14 to 47.

Did I say a must have for collectors? Yes. I'm a collector. And for anyone who loves simply great music.

This is the starting point you've been looking for. In order to gain a glimpse into the heart of your own society and culture, in order to begin to understand how we got where we are musically and even sociopolitically, give this CD a fair shot. If you can get past the first impression, this CD will rock your world and send you on a beeline for more knowledge about the life and work of Stephen Foster. In the process, you'll automatically learn more about 19th-century America and you'll appreciate anew why everyone secretly agreed in 1991 when the Violent Femmes sang, "We like all kinds of music; I like American music best."

At first, this collection seems to disappoint. All but 3 or 4 of its 18 songs are plain slow. What should be the highlight -- the glorious classic "Oh Susanna" in the hands of the impeccable Michelle Shocked -- suffers badly from her wacky alternative interpretation.

But then you pick up the album's groove, which is especially crucial for "getting" certain musics (case in point: any of Keith Richards' solo work), and you start playing and re-playing a selected few tracks. For this listener, it was The Duhks' version of "Camptown Races" and then the previously unknown "Don't Bet Money on the Shanghai" by the band BR5-49.

Next thing you know, mystical cosmic forces compel the CD to stay glued in place and to keep playing for 48 to 72 hours, especially haunting you with Mavis Staples' bombshell version of "Hard Times Come Again No More." By this time, you've gotten deep into the composer's mind (before alcoholism and rotten luck led to his death at age 37), and you find yourself enjoying every single song. Several deal with universal rather than American themes, including "No One to Love," "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair" and "Comrades Fill No Glass for Me."

One good thing about music -- when it hits, you feel no pain.

I saw a PBS program last year on Stephen Foster's tragic life and I wanted to know more about him. The first song I ever learned as a child was my Grandmother Townsend singing "Old Folks at Home" to me - I imagined it was her very own song. S. Foster tried to do in his day what folks like James Taylor (who does a fine cover of Oh Susanna on Sweet Baby James)have done with great sucess in our time. There was very little in the way of copywrite protection in those days when perhaps a good living could have otherwise been made publishing sheet music for folks to perform in their homes. Without copywirt protection, Foster never was able to make ends meet and his wife left him and he pretty much drank himself to death. The title track was found after his death and though it became perhaps his most popular song, it was never performed during his lifetime. He had only 38 cents in his pocket when he died.

The quality of the songs and the modern artist who perform them on this album are both first-rate. That's not to say that I am fond of every song included here, but I do like most of them very, very much and I am able to give it five stars understanding that some of the ones I don't care for are favorites of other reviewers. McGuinn's "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair" (probably written to Foster's estranged wife), Prine's "Old Kentucky Home, Raul Malo's Title Track, A. Krauss' "Slumber My Darling" are lovely. I had never heard "No One to Love" or "Ah May the Red Rose live Always" and they are beautiful songs. That perhaps will be the treat for most people who purchase this album - many songs that were extremely popular in their day have become obscure and this album will introduce what amounts to "new" songs that will stand the test of time. Many of these songs will still be well-known 500 years from now, but I enjoy the album not for its important historical value but rather for the quality of the compositions and the fine artists who perform them.