4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Wildly uneven, but some great tracks, June 5, 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: It Came from Memphis (Audio CD)
The idea behind this CD was to show the wide range of musics made and recorded in & around Memphis--everything from country blues to rock to orchestral. Interesting concept, but it makes for a grab-bag collection of disparate elements, and a CD that fairly begs you to make your own mixtape version of your faves so you don't have to sit through the stuff you have no interest in. There are a handful of fabulous tracks: great blues from Moses Williams, Jessie Mae Hemphill & Furry Lewis; a classic 60s garage rock gem; an Othar Turner fife & drum piece. The rest is... erratic & mostly mediocre, and you get the sense you're hearing much of it simply because "it came from Memphis," not because it's good or interesting music. So, in the end, the concept fails as an organizing principle; a lot of these tracks just don't sit well together on the same CD. There's been more than enough music recorded in Memphis to produce a series of CDs, each with its own esthetic & genre, rather than trying to squeeze too many sounds onto a single disc.
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8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Quirky, but worth it, January 2, 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: It Came from Memphis (Audio CD)
I don't know how this CD came to be in my possession but it's one of my favorites. It really has to be heard to be understood because words can't do it justice and it can't be catagorized; there's just such a wide range of styles. . . I can't describe it. Sometimes the CDs that seem like a risk are the best ones out there. This is one of them.
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