Customer Reviews

Goodnight, San Francisco

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

 

 

It's Memorial Day, 2009. Recently saw this "unknown" group come to The Blue Door in Oklahoma City. Wow!! The Bittersweets are the real deal. Hannah Prater and Chris Meyers come strumming into our town, and just pour it all on the stage. Their music is great, the lyrics are geninue and heartfelt. The song, When The War Is Over put me in a very reflective mood today. (God Bless Our Men & Women in the Armed Services!) Do yourself a favor, and buy ANYTHING by The Bittersweets. And when you see them coming close to your town, buy a ticket or 2, or 10, take some friends, and get to know this group!! They are great!!!

just a lovely album and the band are sweethearts in person

if you dig over the rhine, gillian welch, or the like, you wont go wrong picking this one up

The last CD by the trio,; now a duo

Shortly after releasing this - their second CD - drummer Steve Bowman left the band and now lead singer Hannah Prater and her songwriting partner (he wrote 9 of the tracks on this album and co-wrote the final track with Prater) Chris Meyers are going out and performing as a duo. I had the chance to hear them do an few acoustic showcases at this year's Folk Alliance conference and realized it's all in the vocal blending that makes the Bittersweets so nice to listen to. The CD has a lot of overdubbing production with keyboards and electric guitars provided by Meyers. (There some great "string arrangements" but the CD jacket lists no "strings" so I can only assume it's the synthesizers I'm hearing.)

The lyrics on some tracks are insightful (usually about relationships) while on some others, you are drawn to the beautiful harmonies that Meyers and Prater get from their vocal chords. After a while some of the arrangements do sound a bit too similar but it's always a "pretty sound". The standout track for me is "Birmingham" which is ripe for "Top 40 Country" radio. The CD was recording in Nashville and the Nashville sound is obvious on this track.

As performers live, I love the duo. Catch them if you can. If not, this CD will certainly keep you entertained. It did me.

Steve Ramm

"Anything Phonographic"