Chambergrass: Decade of Tunes From Edges Bluegrass

Berline Crary & Hickman (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 4, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sugarhill
• ASIN: B000066ARU
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #328,441 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars These musicians are hard to top!, July 26, 2002

By 

C. Williamson (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Chambergrass: Decade of Tunes From Edges Bluegrass (Audio CD)

A CD full of inventive and intelligent acoustic string music. It's bluegrass at its most creative. These three guys play together like a well-oiled machine, with instrumental lines intertwining and reacting to each other like ping-pong balls in a steel drum rolling downhill (only it sounds a LOT better!) This is like a Master's Class in pickin', and I recommend it highly for bluegrass lovers and musicians alike.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very instrumental, June 4, 2002

By 

"zangorn" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chambergrass: Decade of Tunes From Edges Bluegrass (Audio CD)

I like the jams on this, there is a lot of clearly a lot of talent here. Check out track 7 if you can find a sample. Good chord progression, tension build, melody, its just excellent, simple bluegrass.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellence (In a narrow range), September 16, 2005

By 

Flat White Pick (Oklahoma, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chambergrass: Decade of Tunes From Edges Bluegrass (Audio CD)

This is a very nice collection of Berline, Crary, & Hickman tunes. Several of the cuts are live recordings. There is a very high level of inventiveness in their re-arrangements of traditional tunes. The level of instrumental virtuosity is high.
The weaknesses of the recording, in my view, are: Berline's fiddling sometimes has dubious intonation. Not all the time, but sometimes. (Take this with a grain of salt, though. I'm very sensitive to intonation.) Hickman's playing can be too minimalistic at times. He is a player that values simplicity; that's his style. He is, no doubt, an excellent banjo player. I've played with him before, and can attest that he's fantastic. The simplicity is part of his style. Still, some might prefer more flash. Lastly, Crary's guitar tone is tinny on many of the tracks. He has always been one to rely on his Taylor's pickup system (versus a mic) in a live situation, and his tone reflects this. It sounds thin and plastic on live cuts. His playing, though, is very good. There are some spots where I think he overplays.
Overall, a very good but not perfect collection of performances. They are fantastic musicians; make no mistake. Just don't come into the cd expecting the sort of laborious perfection that many recordings strive to achieve nowadays.