Customer Reviews

Carry the Gift

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

 

 

Nakai produces a romantic, healing, while vaguely haunting music that gently transports you back to a time when music was more than just entertainment. Nakai emulates the traditional music of his Navajo-Ute in a way that is both touching and mystic. Be prepared to be taken on a journey where you will be introduced to the feelings an impressions that Nakai himself experiences. He will show you through his music what the world around his means to him, and he will instill that awe of life in you.

Nakai doesn't fall into the trap of giving the musical tourist exactly what he expects. There is no chanting or jingling bells, no corny sound effects or war cries. Instead he simply taps into that inner peace that we all look for. Perhaps that's the reason so many people have come to appreciate his music. The universal understanding of, and need for, peace and insight.

Nakai and Eaton have provided much musical enjoyment for me through the years but this is the title that started it all. While I tend to more frequently listen to their later efforts together where they branch out and explore more musical territory and influences, Carry the Gift will always hold a special place. It is a good starting point if you are new to either artist. Then you will certainly want to move on to works like Feather, Stone and Light where the magic of Eaton's stringed instruments and the reflective/spiritual tones of Nakai's flute find perhaps their pinnacle of creative chemistry.

- Scriptor

As a player of Native American flutes I am no stranger to Carlos Nakai. He is regarded as the most important Native American musician of our time by many and I expected great music from him on this recording. What I did not expect was the wonderful way William Eaton surrounds the flute with his guitar and harp guitar work. This album is a gentle reminder that simple lines from the individual instruments can literally change the air around them and create an atmosphere of peace. This is music that everyone can relate to....Perfect!

When this CD first came out, I received it as a gift and listened to it at least every other day for 2 years. I was already a Carlos Nakai fan but had never heard of William Eaton. They are both masters of their instruments. This music touched me like no other music ever had. It just made me feel warm inside yet was also uplifting. This is simply one of the best recordings in this genre.

Carry the Gift by Carlos Nakai is wonderful. This is truly music of and for the heart. If you don't know what that means try this: If you are stressed, feel grief, loss or negative emotion, then listen, open your heart and the music will speak to you and heal you. Believe me I know. This is music unlike flute and drum traditional music, it goes not so much beyond it but beside it into its own parallel world and what a fantastic world it is.