Customer Reviews

God Bless The USA / U.S. Army Band & Chorus

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

 

 

This CD captures the spirit of that soon to be lost bit of authentic Americana--the band concert on the village green. As a saxophonist with nearly thirty years' of concerts and parades under his belt, I can tell you that this is a fine and very enjoyable concert!

The playing is outstanding, the men's chorus exactly as it should be, and the selection of music will be familiar to anyone who spent an evening under the stars listening to the local musicians play Sousa and other crowd-pleasing, but not hackneyed favorites as found on this album.

The only flaw I detected is a change to the lyrics of the title song, Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA". In a bow to political correctness, the line "and I won't forget the MEN who died, to keep that right for me" was altered to a gender-neutered "the ONES who died...".

Let's face it--of the millions of American war-dead, only a small handful were female. Am I the last remaining American to understand that a man fights not because he wants to, but because he understands that it is his manly duty to fight? By neutering a "man" into a "one", to please the tender sensibilities of an academic feminist, we insult those men who gave their lives that their womenfolk, among others, might live in freedom.

I say that stinks. The Army ought to know better.

I like this CD - but it has both strong and weak points. The strong point is the excellent U.S. Army Chorus - their all male voicing is perfect for this kind of repertoire. The weak point of this disc is the limited repertoire and the inconsistency of the quality throughout the disc. My understanding is that these Allegro recordings are essentially legal pirates of music which the military itself is not permitted to sell to the public. Through a quirk in the law - Allegro gathers whatever free recordings it can find of the military ensembles and repackages them for sale to the public. The result is a rather paltry selection of music of varying quality (since the recordings contained on this disc were not intended for commercial release on a CD). After listening to this disc I am convinced that the best choral recording of the entire patriotic repertoire is the newly released "Spirit of Freedom" by the Washington Men's Camerata (on the Gothic label).

God bless this album. This country was founded on the blessings of god and this album will make you feel the glory of that blessing. The melodies bring thoughts the amazing landscape that make up the country. Its perfect whenever you need to be reminded of the blessings of the USA.

I was very pleased with the US Army Band and Chorus compilation. The songs are all very patriotic, which can be taken in many different ways. For me it stirs feelings of well founded nationalism - a gratitude for complete freedom. The musicianship is outstanding, and who better to sing songs about our country that own United States Army. The CD quality is great and packaging is pleasing. I would highly recommend this album.

Nice work by the all male US Army chorus on the excerpt from the Testament of Freedom. A superb men's chorus is the most welcome aspect of this disc. But much of the standard patriotic repertoire is missing from this collection. Indeed, the disc contains an odd and rather paltry collection of recordings that are also available on CDs which I have gotten directly from the Army and which are which are distributed by the Army without charge to the public. Where are the National Anthem; Eternal Father; and so many other patriotic standards which are featured on fine patriotic discs by the Robert Shaw Chorale, the Washington Men's Camerata and the Morman Tabernacle Chior?

The music found on this CD represents a problem found with many of the US service bands today. These premiere bands of world class quality too often restrict themslves playing patriotic dribble! Instead of sticking to marches, and other standard band fare they too often perform pretencious music with embarrassing patriotic overtones. One can be patriotic without having it hammered over your head like a lot of this music does. Also, the selections are odd because the music on this CD was not intended for commercial use in this way. The US Army Band in common with all US service bands produces free recordings for public use. What has been packaged here for sale is not a good example of that. Hence the different sound qaulity on some of the tracks, as well as the overall short duration of the CD. Less than 50 minutes total.