Border of Heaven

Connie Dover | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 28, 2000)
• Original Release Date: March 28, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Taylor Park
• ASIN: B00004SUM0
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #126,165 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #71 in Music > World Music > Europe > General

Editorial Reviews

An Spailpín Fanach, Wonderous Love, Lord Franklin, and 9 more beautiful tracks from Connie Dover.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Renditions of Traditional American Songs, June 26, 2004

By 

B. Niedt (Cherry Hill, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Border of Heaven (Audio CD)

It's hard not to fall in love with Connie Dover, who looks and sings like an angel. She has cited Steeleye Span and its lead singer, Maddy Pryor, as an early influence. That makes sense, because she is perhaps the purest soprano folk singer I have heard since Maddy Pryor. Before I acquired this CD, my only exposure to Ms. Dover was several songs here and there on various Celtic music collections, but on each and every one, her voice always stopped me in my tracks. So when I saw this collection of early American folk tunes (and the songs that inspired them), I thought it was a bit of a departure for her. But these arrangements strikingly emphasize the Scots-Irish influence on American folk music. Even old chestnuts like "Sweet Betsy from Pike" and "Streets of Laredo" can be heard in a new light. Ms. Dover gets expert assistance, too, from familiar names like Phil Cunningham (who also produced), Jerry Douglas and John Hartford. This is an impressive effort from one of the most beautiful voices in traditional music.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it!, April 9, 2000

By 

Lori J. (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Border of Heaven (Audio CD)

I have all of Connie Dover's CDs (some in multiple fomats so I can listen to tapes in the car, CDs at home, etc.) They've gotten me through many a road trip.

Border of Heaven is a wonderful addition to the collection. The music traces the connections between traditional Celtic music and early American folk music. The songs range a bit further afield than her usual, primarily Celtic, offerings, but her voice is as crystalline as always and the music shows wonderful range and creative flair.

I would recommend this CD to anybody interested in beautiful folk music. If you're a Celtic purist you might want to start with her earlier releases, but you really shouldn't miss out on this one.

Connie, if you're reading this, when are you coming to Minnesota?

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars going to the West, October 16, 2000

By 

Jerome Clark (Canby, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Border of Heaven (Audio CD)

Connie Dover has too much talent and taste to do a mediocre recording, but even by the high standards of her previous efforts, The Border of Heaven is an impressive achievement. This thematic CD traces the movement of the Anglo-Celtic immigrants from England, Scotland, and Ireland to the American West. Part of the legacy of that great historical odyssey was a body of extraordinary songs adapted from Old Country originals. Nowhere is the link so explicitly underscored as in Dover and cowboy singer Skip Gorman's brilliant medley linking "The Streets of the Laredo" to the ballad in its original form, "The Sailor Cut Down in His Prime." In a recording of such excellence and artistic consistency, it's hard to single out one song or performance as better than any other. She does a particularly masterly reading, however, of "Lord Franklin," concerning Sir John Franklin and his doomed 19th-Century search for the Northwest Passage. Till now, the definitive reading of this lovely, sad ballad has been John Renbourn's, but Dover may have surpassed it. Her rewriting of the Alabama folk song "I Am Going to the West" is another standout. (The finest purely traditional version can be heard on Mike Seeger's Third Annual Farewell Reunion, on Rounder.) She also reminds us that "Sweet Betsy from Pike" is a much more interesting song than we knew when we were singing it in grade school. Perhaps the only not wholly inspired choice here is over-recorded "The Water Is Wide." Even so, with The Border of Heaven, Connie Dover steps into the front ranks of American folk singers.