Customer Reviews

Covenant

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Contrary to the views of some other reviewers...I'm rating this one at about 41/2 - 5 stars. I've played it repeatedly since buying it last week and have not tired of the lyrics or the music. It does lack some of the wry humour of past songs but I don't see that as a reason to down-grade this cd - maybe Greg just wasn't in a humourous mood. A lot of great songs in a variety of musical styles.....I love them all but particularly the Memphis blues/soul (hints of the MG's?) of "blues go walking" and "real good friend"; the beautiful acoutic "lullaby"; "marriage chant"; "you and me babe"......all of them really except "blue car". Bo Ramsey, as usual, is fantastic on electric guitar. I had the pleasure of seeing Bo play live with Kevin Gordon at a small venue here in ChCh, NZ about 7 years ago.....it remains the very best live performance of all that I've ever seen in 30 years of live music attendences. Another great album, along with "Dream Cafe" & "Further In" to make love to - something I found not possible with "Poet Game" and "Slant 6 Mind" I would not hesitate to recommend this album to anyone who loves fabulous, intelligent music.

Not long ago I was feeling pretty sorry for myself and telling my son how I wish I had a new singer to get excited about. I needed a new voice, someone with a new slant on the world. Then I heard Greg Brown sing 'Cept You and Me Babe on [the] radio ( if you haven't heard the "Pig" ...) and I knew he was just what I needed! I bought COVENANT and it has been my constant companion since the day it arrived.You can read all the reviews but Brown is part Dylan part Leonard Cohen with a dash of John Stewart and Dave Mallett thrown in for good measure. If you're in the kind of musical funk I was in and need someone to get excited about Greg Brown's your man.

In a passionate, blues-inflected series of songs, Greg Brown explores the boundaries of folk music, tracing the areas where folk moves to blues. His usual baritone is low, sometimes guttural, and the music and the lyrics fit together in ways that most folk artists can only dream about. Some songs are explicity blues - "Blues Go Walking" and others hover closer to that boundary.

In the opening track, for example, "Cept You and Me Babe," he inverts the meaning of the title line, turning it into a message of separation and loss. Earlier Amazon reviewers criticized the the lines "Half the people you see these days are talking on cell phones/driving of the roads and bumping into doors/people used to spend quite a bit of time alone/I guess nobodys lonely any more/'cept you and me babe." As far as poetry goes, you know, that's not half bad, but combined with the music and the inverted meaning, you'll find you can't get the song out of your head.

Other fine songs include "Rexroth's Daughter," "Blues Go Walking," "Dream City" and "Blue Car." Overall this is a darker-toned album, perhaps reflecting Brown's life at the time, but it is melodic, moving and memorable. It's great to see Brown experimenting with music forms, and not trapped in a formula.

One tip: wait a full minute past the end of the last documented track. There's a surprise lurking there.

Brown is one of half a dozen genuine folksingers in America, still untainted by the music machine, still energetic and inventive. This is a fine album, and a fine addition to Brown's extensive discography. Highly recommended.

This is my second Greg Brown CD (my first was Slant Mind, which rated a "3" from me) and I'm glad I didn't let some of the negative customer reviews sway me from this purchase because I *love* this music. I've listened to Covenant time after time and still savor it. In fact, my appreciation of the lyrics continues to grow. The only song I don't like is walkin' daddy. Maybe you have to be middle aged and in a reflective state of mind to really relate to this collection -- its nostalgia, wry humor, quiet emotion, and deep melodic style. Well, it speaks to me and makes me smile a lot. The sound quality is excellent.

Musically, the album presents a glittering and simple combination of aggressive, bass-centered, muffled acoustic guitar strumming coupled with delicate and pure electric accents. Lyrically, the songs represent the distilled ruminations of a mature artist struggling with marriage, temptation, legacy, and memory. Gone are the tongue-in-cheek throw-offs, the extended lyrical soliloquies, and the rich arrangements of, variously, his previous efforts. What's left is a remarkable collection of sparse songs that pinpoint the struggles of a man seeking to make sense of the oft-conflicting demands of parenthood, marriage-hood, manhood, and adult-child-hood, with music that is at once evocative and tense. In my humble opinion, his most accomplished, cohesive, and penetrating work yet.

It would be very difficult to look at the humor, tenderness, intelligence, and originality of Greg Brown's lyrics and call him anything other than a true musical artist. While most folk singers these days all write one type of song--that is, a brooding and semi-self-indulgent ballad about pain and loneliness--Greg Brown's songs have a haunting yet friendly and open quality that sets them well above the rest. He is clearly a masterful observer of his world, plus an educated one at that, yet he doesn't preach. Even when some of his songs take on an edge of sharp social commentary, he remains as humble as his songs are honest, sad, lonely, or funny--but always lovely.

"Covenant" itself is a great album, from its music to its beautiful cover. It's hard to say which Greg Brown album is the best; each shine in their own way, but songs like "Rexroth's Daughter" and "Lullaby" make this album a must-own.

My dad turned me on to Greg Brown this spring. He bought the CD down from Atlanta to visit, beaming with pride that a fellow Iowa boy had been getting such critical aclaim. I was suprised to see how strong Brown's cult is, and since hearing this album, his name and music seems to be turning up everywhere.

Greg's voice is low, rumbling, strong but wavering. His songwriting is in the tradition of Bob Dylan/Bruce Springstein - a solid mix of blues, country and rock and roll. If you like these other songwriters, I urge you to buy this.

People like Greg Brown, Wayne Hancock and Lucinda Williams are the best thing country music has going for it after decades of trash.

'Lullybye' is my favorite track, but the whole album is good.

Once again Greg Brown has created a masterpiece of passionate folk ballads and blues with his own twist of humor, irony and bitterness. This album joins a set of outstanding studio albums from the last decade starting with Dream Cafe(1992) and including Poet Game (1994), Further In (1996), and Slant 6 Mind (1997), everyone full of moving songs delivered in Brown's sexy baritone and Bo Ramsey's sparse yet very cool electric guitar.

Things start quite promising in this cd, with "'cept You And Me" and "Rexroth's Daughter", two richly testured songs that rank witth the best that Brown has ever done. But somehow the rest of the cd left me cold, unoriginal songs that could well be in many 70's or even 60's albums that no ones remembers. If you are new to Greg Brown and want to know what is the fuzz about then just dont start here, go the poet game or the dream cafe, they are two of the best cd's of the 90's.

Greg Brown has done it again. This may not be his best, but it has good lyrics and excellent music. "The Mariage Chant" alone is worth the price of the CD. After listening to the CD a couple of times I found myself humming the tunes later in the day. Whatever you call it, it is good music.