Customer Reviews

Coming Home

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

 

 

It's rare that you find an album on which every song is fantastic. This is one such album. The vocals, the instrumentation, the blending is all top notch. There is also enough variety in the music that listening to the entire album in one sitting doesn't become boring. Anne and Pete Sibley, without a doubt, are the best folk/bluegrass duo out there. "Coming Home" is their fourth release. I can't comment on their Christmas album; I haven't listened to it. Listening to their other albums, however, you can actually hear their progression into the realm of bluegrass.

The Sibley's first album "Think of This River" (2004) contained some bluegrass music, but it also contained some songs that I would describe more as New England College Folk Music. Each song was well done, but the album as a whole seemed a bit unfocused.

By the next release, "Will You Walk with Me" (2006), the Sibley's transition to bluegrass was almost complete. Except for one or two of the cuts, I would say this album is almost as great as "Coming Home".

"Coming Home", as I've already suggested, is as close to a perfect album you will find. Unlike many artists, Anne and Pete Sibley did not start strong and then burn out. Rather, they started very strong, and with superb talent, they continue to climb to higher levels. I consider "Coming Home" their high water mark to date. But grab you floaties, because it looks like the water is going to continue to rise for a long, long time. I can't wait until their next release.

I had the pleasure of listening to and meeting Anne and Pete Sibley in person this summer at the Beartrap Bluegrass Festival. I picked up this cd at the time because of one song titled "Past the point of Rescue", but all the songs are good. Anne has a very nice earthy voice. They have some unique (at least to me) time changes in the note spacing of some songs. The rolling notes at the start of "Comming Home" seems to me to set up the emotional content of the song before the first word is sung. This cd and Paolo Nutini have beeb playing almost every day for the last two months and I still love them both. jot

Saw this performed live at the Westcliffe, Colorado Bluegrass Festival. The place was jammed and the crowd loved it. So did we.