Customer Reviews

Flip City

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

 

 

This was a gift and I understand they are extremely happy with this CD. Thanks AMAZON.

I heard this CD While traveling in Italy of all places. I was on a shopping trip with my wife and bored out of my mind, at the time.

I am completely surprised by this CD. It is well thought out and put together well. It flows and it swings. This CD has been mis-characterized as "Country." It's not, it is more closely related to the so-called "Western Swing of the 1930's and 1940's."

Western Swing is a radical blending of traditional country music and several styles of jazz and a healthy dose of the blues with a pinch of blue grass and folk. When it's done correctly, you get "Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys," or "Milt Brown and the Light Crust Doughboys"(racial entendres intended) or the "Skillet Lickers."

You can hear all these influences in their music. One of the best things about this group is the lead singer, Jo Miller. Her voice is smooth and has good range. Her clear contralto brings all these songs to life.

You can hear the music's lineage in the composition and arrangements of their songs, but what Ranch Romance has done, is to do what every musician strives to do. They have taken an older style of music and updated it and then taken it further than where they found it.

As for example, "Sweet Comfort in the Blues." This is a standard 12 bar blues walk taken to otherworldly dimensions because of Miller's voice and the musical arrangements and instrumentation. Miller's phrasing and timing are impeccable.

On the other end of the scale, "Wheatfield Annie" and "Have I ever Let you down, Completely" really swing. This is real dance music. You can't sit still when these songs are playing.

For the technophiles amongst you, this is a well recorded CD. It is crisp and clear and without some of the obvious mistakes on poorly recorded sessions.

As far as I know Ranch Romance only did one other CD. It was called "Blue Blazes." I enjoyed that one, as well. I am sorry they left the scene, they were ahead of their time, I guess. Too bad, for all of us.

If you like music, you won't go wrong adding this to your collection.

After years of being satisfied with my (now out of print) copy of Western Dream, I now have a complete set of this underappreciated band of yodelers. Don't get me wrong, I hate country music with a passion rarely seen, but these fine folk are a different kettle of, pardon the expression, fish. Get 'em while you can (and if you ever run across a copy of Western Dream, snatch it up!).

This is the last recording made by the hottest ever Cowgirl band, Ranch Romance. Perhaps because of the forces that broke up the band, there is a feeling of sadness that suffuses the fabric of these performances, tugging always on one's heart. In contrast to their second album, Blue Blazes, on which every tune was a winner, or their thoroughly enjoyable Western Dream, Flip City has a number of songs which are weak compositionally. However, there are two absolute power house songs that alone are worth more than the millions of dollars of what Nashville has put out in the past decade: "Sweet Comfort In The Blues" and "Can You Really Let Go Of Columbia?" "Sweet Comfort In The Blues" with its slow horse riding rhythm evokes the imagery of the open plains and the smokey honky tonk from your mind's ultimate Western movie. "Can You Really Let Go Of Columbia?" is an old style Southwestern waltz, and captures the poignancy of love that might have been, but was foregone. Both of these are blow away songs. The other two winners on the album are the hot Western Swing tune, "Pool Of Tears", and the Tex-Mex love song, "Break My Heart Again".Alas, the member of Ranch Romance have gone on to other configurations, but none have proven to be the magical constellation that this band was. Their 3-albums are like gold ingots resting in an abandoned safe, out in some long forgotten Western ghost town.

The sound of Ranch Romance is so slick and polished, but at the same time doesn't have the commercial feel that most current country music boasts. There is something of an early sixties feel to the sound, from the days before rock and roll permeated the country music landscape. You don't hear much accordion these days, and the fiddle is the finest I've heard. The song Flip City touts three changes of time signature, and masterfully, they all finish at the same time! This group is remarkable. I highly recommend this CD.