Customer Reviews

Beautiful Stars

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The bass voice of Isaac Freeman, from Fairfield's Four is matched here with Mike Henderson and the Bluebloods, the most outstanding of gritty blues outfits today. This album is sheer revelation in its uncompromising attitude to creating gospel with more than a hint to country-blues and down home playing. This music would stand its ground both in church and in a playhouse and proves the deep gospel links in todays music. Mike and band provides fabulous backing with piano, stand-up bass and mostly slide guitar. The small choir provides a perfect response foil for Isaac's deep singing. All the backing musicians are totally in understanding with the gospel roots but add that extra bit of grit that makes this an outstanding performance. If this music does not want make you sing and dance, nothing will. This is perfect music to brighten up the day, even without the religous message, and I can wholeheartedly recommend this CD to anyone who likes true music by real musicians!!! In addition, you should check out Mike and the Bluebloods releases "Thicker than water" and "First blood" for the grittiest blues ever to come out of Nashville or any other place for that matter. To the Bluebloods I would just like to say: When is your next CD coming?

An awesome CD with great vocals and arrangements.

What a great surprise! Powerful voice, perfect, soulful background singers and an understated, yet powerful band. Song after song hits the groove. This almost sounds like a Ry Cooder album, complete with stinging slide guitar, but with better vocals. The Garrison Keillor song ("You Must Come In At The Bottom") is my least favorite, but even it is worth a smile. This record is tremendous!

I loved him with the Fairfield Four, and his beautiful bass voice still sends chills up my spine. His back-up singers are daughters of the Fairfield Four's tenor singer Sam McCrary. The band is mellow and bluesy, the songs are traditional, some with spoken introductions by Freeman. The last track is a simple little poem about how a lie can grow. Garrison Keillor's song "You must come in at the bottom" sounds like it could be an old traditional song as well, though Keillor wrote the song especially for Freeman in honor of his deep voice. With its references to Biblical characters it sounds like a gospel standard, accompanied by bass and drums. If you like the old-time traditional gospel sound, you'll like this CD.

This is a wonderful recording. The band are top-notch and play a very nice style of blues. The backup singers are fantastic and Isaac is a deep well of heartfelt, warm and expressive inspirational music. I'm sure not everbody would find this appealing but for those who love the rich soulfulness and joyous exuberance of genuine gospel music (not that lame CCM stuff) this is just pure gold. I give this 5 stars because in it's own unique way, it's as close to perfect as you can get.

Some other great recordings of fine, contemporary gospel music are; "Spirit of the Century" by the Blind Boys of Alabama, "Jubilee" by the Holmes Brothers and "Father, Father" by Pops Staples. The best gospel song I have EVER heard, is "Strange Man" by Dorothy Love Coates!

Absolutely amazing! What a magnificant bass voice. I was truly engulfed by this CD and recommend it highly. If you like great gospel quartet music, this CD is a "must have".

I am a fan of Isaac Freeman and the Fairfield Four, I bet I've watched & listened to them sing "Dig a Little Deeper" and "Roll Jordan Roll" on YouTube fifty times and never get tired of it, but don't expect this album to reflect their sound. I'm sure the Bluebloods are a good group but to me the two don't mix well. I even listened to the samples and perhaps thought that the songs would be better on the CD, and the price was right at $1.52 to take the gamble. It is a very mellow, slow CD that you could lose interest in quickly, on the second listen through I found myself skipping songs and came up with only 2 or 3 that I listened all the way thru. I wished that he would have stuck with a capella and got the Fairfield Four or some resemblance thereof to do back-up vocals for him, perhaps at a lower volume. That is exactly what JD Sumner did when he did a solo album with the Masters V and it turned out great. Also I would have wished that he would have stuck to more tradtional Gospel hymns and the story telling at the beginning of 2 or 3 of the songs could be left out. I guess that he accomplished what he wanted to do and that was try something different. Some people may love it, but not so much for me.