Customer Reviews

Gravel Walk

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This collection of foot-stomping reels and jigs is performed with blaring guitars, piercing electric violin, and lots of energy. Tempest takes traditional music and reworks it in various styles, all transformed with a modernized, harder edge. It's an interesting sound and puts a different twist on stodgy old folk songs. Definitely not run-of-the-mill!

The person or persons who have been giving Tempest one-star reviews must be smoking Lefty Luckies. Tempest is FANTASTIC! Tempest's sound is not entirely original. Does it matter? Not at all. All music borrows from other music. Tempest has taken the rocked-up-traditional-folk-song style developed by Horslips in the 70s and multiplied the hard-rocking component by about 100. While "Gravel Walk" is not Tempest's best work, it is a very good one, probably their second best. Although each song is impeccably performed, as a whole the songs are not as varied or interesting as on Tempest's best work, "Turn of the Wheel." Nonetheless, there are numerous highlights. The eclectic mix of wide-ranging styles is never more evident than on this album. "Trip Across the Mountain" is as majestic and spiritual a progressive rock instrumental as you'll ever hear. "Bonnie Lass of Anglesey" really works up a groove, to borrow an overused phrase. "One for the Fiddler" has a swaying, Zydeco-New-Orleans flavor, while "Green Grow the Rashes" takes a traditional Irish tune and reworks it in a reggae style. Both work surprisingly well. "Flowers of the Red Hill" is a pleasant romp through the Irish countryside. "Sinclair", with its plodding style, is a song I didn't care for at first but grows on you with repeated listenings; it is probably the most melancholy song Tempest has ever done. This CD also has the best production quality of any CD I have ever heard. Robert Berry, the producer, puts on a clinic in production techniques. The highs are crisp without being overly harsh or trebly and the lows are rich, full, and realistic. The mix is perfect - each instrument's contribution to the total sound can be heard distinctly without the instruments ever sounding muddled together. If you like hard rock and Celtic music, do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of "The Gravel Walk" or "Turn of the Wheel". You'll be playing them over and over again.

"The Gravel Walk" comes the closest to the live sound of this band. (before the great "10th Anniversary Compilation") Mixing folk and rock the way Jethro Tull and Fairport Convention used to in their day. Balancing a bit of psychedelic guitar, with Mandola and violin, Tempest update traditional folk songs.

See this band live if you get the chance, the energy displayed on stage would blow away most folk and metal bands out there today....

The energy and intensity of the performances here recall the "Full House" Fairport Convention lineup. I find it impossible to sit still when this album is playing. All fans of Fairport and the folkier side of Jethro Tull should find something to enjoy here.

Have seen this group several times at concerts at the park- At first, I thought 'Celtic Rock?', didn't sound very exciting but, I was SO wrong!- Great music, great performers- amazing energy at their shows, in short, they are awesome! I love this CD and plan to buy more...You should too- you won't be disappointed!

This collection of foot-stomping reels and jigs is performed with blaring guitars, piercing electric violin, and lots of energy. Tempest takes traditional music and reworks it in various styles, all transformed with a modernized, harder edge. It's an interesting sound and puts a different twist on stodgy old folk songs. Definitely not run-of-the-mill!

OK, I might as well get my two-cents-worth in. First, Gravel Walk is a very good, if not excellent, album which showcases the classic Tempest style of great musicianship with genre-mixing in a hard-rock format of wild electric violin, scorching guitar, and a hard, driving rythm section. Tempest has shown an amazing versatility to perform almost any musical style imaginable; throughout their history they have played everything from bluegrass to surf to Middle Eastern to Norwegian to Celtic to jazz to reggae to straight folk to psychedelic with head banging hard rock thrown into the mix. Gravel Walk is arguably among Tempest's best 2 or 3 albums. Next, I want to say I don't know why some people seem to have such a hatred for this group. I have all Tempest's albums, and the only one I really don't care for is their newest one, "Balance", where they seem to have lost their focus. But even "Balance" isn't horrible, it's just mediocre. As a Tempest fan I feel it necessary to address some criticisms which I feel are unjustified: 'Tempest sounds like a poor imitation of Jethro Tull.' That's not surprising, because they don't sound anything like Jethro Tull. The only thing Tempest has in common with Jethro Tull is that they both use a flute (and Tempest uses it a lot less often than Jethro Tull). To say that Tempest is trying to sound like Jethro Tull is as ridiculous as saying that Led Zeppelin is trying to sound like Abba because they both use electric guitars...'Leif Sorbeye's vocals are bad.' This is a matter of taste. In my opinion, he has a voice which is perfectly suited to the style of music he is playing; in fact he has an "Old English Traditional Folk" style voice that sounds like it's straight out of the 18th or 19th century but is equally suited to hard rock without any loss of lustre...'Listen to real Celtic Rock bands like Wolfstone or Brother.' No thanks. Brother has a generic bar-band sound with a vocalist that sounds like he is some average nondescript Joe just pulled in off the street. And Wolfstone? The Wolfstone vocalist has a "milky mayonnaise" voice; he sounds like he has eggs and mayonnaise stuck in his throat. I'll take Sorbye any day. Musically, Wolfstone often sounds like a folk band who is trying real hard to create rock music but isn't quite sure how to go about it: an annoying overuse of cheesy, new-age-modern-soft-airy-jazz-elevator-music-synthesizers and occasional electric guitar combined with a disproportionately large number of soft, nondescript, generic, cliched ballads which are virtually indistinguishable from each other: if this is your cup of tea, then by all means listen to Wolfstone. I feel the biggest difference between Tempest and the impostors is that Tempest is first and foremost a ROCK band who has incorporated folk and other styles into their music. As a result, Tempest knows how to ROCK HARD. Groups like Wolfstone are FOLK bands trying to incorporate rock elements into their FOLK music and it's often not a comfortable mesh; consequently, nothing in the Wolfstone catalog comes close in terms of the head-banging, hard-rocking energy and excitement to Tempest. Bottom line? It's all a matter of taste. If you like generic nondescript bar bands or new age elevator music, there are plenty of groups to fill your void. If you like DISTINCTIVE, intricate music performed with quality musicianship combining a variety of styles and lots of hard-rocking energy and intensity, open up your mind and give Tempest a listen

Unlistenable! Possibly the worst vocalist I have EVER heard. 10 tracks of train wreck. By far, this is the WORST CD I had bought in the last 5 years. There is NOTHING Celtic OR musical about this band. P.S. Who writes their lyrics? Ronnie James Dio?

I love music. I often spend several hundred dollars buying new music and albums I am unfamiliar with. I bought this because I thought it was the band Tempest that Alan Holdsworth was in some years ago. BIG DIFFERENCE! BIG MISTAKE! Bad CD, wonderful coaster. On a positive note, I did need a new jewel case, however, I really didn't need to spend 15 bucks for that. Next time I'll buy jewel cases in bulk and hopefully I won't shake with fear when I come to the "T" section in a music store.

OK, everyone seems to either love or hate this band. So, I've concluded that there are two types of people who buy this album. There's the intelligent rock fan who appreciates the presence of flute, fiddle, and mandolin (completely lacking in today's rock scene) and recognizes the skill of the band, Sorbye's mandolin and Mullen's fiddle in particular. Then there's the world music pseudo-intellectual who hears the word "Celtic" and immediately thinks Enya. Those distaining rock music will probably not appreciate Tempest's genius. Those of us with open enough minds to like both Led Zeppelin and the Chieftans will see Lief Sorbye as picking up where Ian Anderson left off, and staying considerably closer to his folk roots than Jethro Tull did.

THAT SAID -

There is, of course, the intelligent fan for whom Tempest does not click, but those people, especially ones who live in Oakland, would do well to refrain from calling Tempest Wolfstone impostors. The two bands in fact debuted in the same year, 1991, and began playing around the same time. Which you prefer is a matter of taste, but Tempest has always shone more scope, unafraid to introduce eastern elements ("Surfing to Mecca") or add Norwegian folk songs into their Celtic mix ("Sinclair"). They also don't overuse annoying keyboards.

As for this album, it is probably Tempest's best. Fiddler Michale Mullen steps into the foreground on this album, rocking through reels such as "Flowers of Red Hill" and laying down an excellent solo on "The Bonnie Lass of Anglesey." Ever single song is excellent, with the possible exception of "Buffalo Jump," a somewhat bizarre choice of cover. Jay Nania is perhaps Tempest's best bassist, laying down some slap lines that somehow manage to fit, and Lief Sorbye's mandolin playing continues to outshine his singing (which is at least tolerable, contrary to what some will have you believe), and if it is sometimes drowned in Mullen's fiddle it remains excellent when it does shine through.