Customer Reviews

Hail to the Chief

5 star:		(7)
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After seeing John McCutcheon in person for the second time, I am only reminded of how inspiring his music truly is. Every lyric is filled with emotion, and this artist is a true believer in grace and kindness. Every one of these songs is a treasure and anyone who has heard the news over the past decade will hopefully find humor (or choke back a tear) after listening to each and every song on this record.

Highlights of the album include humorous tracks, such as "Monkeys", which pokes fun at the Kansas school boards, "Picture of Jesus", an interesting view at society's influence on religion, and "Talking Tinky-Winky Blues", which throws a clever spin on the Teletubbies controversy. Also included are some very tearful tracks, like "Let's Keep It Straight", dealing with gay's in the military, "The List", touching on censorship of music (my personal favorite), and "I Am Here", a tribute to America's original pasttime, baseball.

This is a perfect album, and John McCutcheon is the kind of person everybody should have in their lives. If you enjoy intelligent music that has something to say, any one of John's CDs are for you, particularly this one. Enjoy!

A friend put me on to this album and I was just blown away. I loved every single song-- they made me nod my head, laugh, and want to cry. Though the music was great, the cleverness and timeliness of the lyrics are what has made me listen to this album over and over again. McCutcheon says things I want to say about today's political climate, only he says them better. He's a modern day Jonathan Swift. I hope he puts out more like this one.

I was thrilled to see that an album of "short shelf life", aka topical-political, songs were finally available, as I have been a fan of McCutcheon's since first hearing "Christmas in the Trenches" many years ago. The emotion ~ and yes, anger ~ in some of these songs took me by surprise at first, as most of his other recordings have been somewhat more gentle. However, the anger is righteous (and well-placed in my opinion) on the subjects of LGBT rights, racism, religion and of course politics. Any liberal worth his or her salt will appreciate McCutcheon's heartfelt renderings.

The delicious humor of the title track is well worth the purchase of the album alone, and "Tinky Winky Blues" left me howling as well. As a nostalgic baseball fan, the stunningly beautiful final track "I Am Here" left me weeping. John McCutcheon brings a full spectrum of emotion to this recording, and shares it generously with the rest of us.

John McCutcheon is quite simply a brilliant folk songwriter and performer.
He's equally at home with his own sharp-edged songs about current events, traditional Appalachian folk music, folk classics penned by masters including Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, or original songs that those legends would be proud to call their own.

More than any other contemporary folk performer, McCutcheon carries on that legacy which brings meaning to music.

In this collection, he has some songs that will make you laugh, others that will make you angry, and at least one that will bring a lump to your throat (especially if you're a baseball fan -- the rousing "I AM HERE" elegantly captures everything that makes us love baseball).

Not many musicians can make that claim!

John McCutcheon takes on social and political missteps and atrocities of the past few years in this collection. In a few years, John Ashcroft and John Rocker may be forgotten, but right now, they (and the other miscreants) are still good targets for satire and sarcasm.

As a homage to one of the tracks on this CD I can honestly say there are no monkeys (bad songs) here just fun

Great tracks, all with a story to tell, especially Hail to the Chief ... though boy it makes me mad every time I listen to it! I love the album and so does my 8 year old son.