Customer Reviews

Harvest Home

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Harvest Home opens with a deceptively simple piece composed by Molly Mason. The sound is cool, clear and soothing, like the trickling of a stream. Jay Ungar is on fiddle and Molly Mason plays acoustic guitar and sings. Somehow, the world seems less crazy than it did just a minute ago. Molly drives home the point in her lyrics. "Each seed holds a perfect plan, in harmony with earth and man."

The first track is just a portal to a bountiful land where the trees grow tall and roots go deep. Harvest Home is filled with wonderful music and musicians -- fourteen tracks, 59.6 minutes: The Farmer's Set, Prairie Spring, Haymakers's Hoedown, Solstice Hymn, The Harvest Home Suite performed with the Nashville Chamber Orchestra and so much more. One of my favorites is La Chanson De Mardi Gras, a delectable Cajun piece featuring Christine Balfa on vocals and triangle. Christine Balfa's thin and sexy voice and oh that triangle she plays just drive me crazy.

But really, to focus on any one track in this CD is not fair. I have listened to Harvest Home now many times and always play it through from beginning to end. It is an experience that I look forward to and seem to enjoy more every time I play the CD.

I also treasure my other CDs by Ungar and Mason. If you buy Harvest Home and then like me go begging for more, try The Lovers' Waltz. You won't be disappointed with that one either.

If you're a fan of acoustic music, Harvest Home is a very nice album to listen to. Ungar & Mason are very talented musicians and songwriters, and buddy good fiddle & guitar players are irresistable to listen to.

This album also contains a number of tracks, including the Harvest Home Suite, that combine Ungar and Mason with the Nashville Chamber Orchestra. It's a nice blend.

If you've listened to the radio show Praire Home Companion or watched a Ken Burns film you've heard the work of these outstanding musicians. They're welcome inside my head any time!

In the 6 months since Harvest Home was released I have found that I now love it more than ever. It's the kind of CD that will appear on my playlist for many years, with its timeless quality that expands several musical boundaries. The deceptively simple and deeply moving Solstice Hymn and Thanksgiving Waltz are my highlights, straight from the heartland. The classical oriented Harvest Home Suite making up the last half of the CD changes the mood and requires real listening to capture all the nuances. Great stuff.

My only complaint - very minor! - is that Ashokan Farewell again appears on a Jay and Molly CD. It's a great tune but I think it deserves a rest for awhile. On the other hand, if someone has never heard it, this is about the best version they've ever done.

Anybody who loves fiddle music needs to have Harvest Home in their collection!

I was first entranced by Jay Unger and Molly Mason's music when I first heard "Ashokan Farewell" and was even more moved when I purchased their "Lover's Waltz" album, which I played constantly. However, I must admit that "Harvest Home" is by far their best recording ever--if you love fine orchestration, then this one will move you to the core of your soul. Every person that I've had the pleasure of playing this album for, has immediately ordered a copy for themselves. I just can't say enough about how wonderful this album is. It's at the top of my Christmas list to give to friends and family alike.

I like most music, but usually listen to classical.To my wonderment, I heard this sweet gentle music on my local classical station. I didn't know if I was hearing classical or country. It was so beautiful and nostalgic that my eyes got weepy. Everytime I listen, I go to the fantasy of the good ole' days of security, comfort, honor and home and find peace.

The harvest home suite follows a time-honored tradition of composing an orchestral piece from folk melodies. The neat part here is that you get to hear each of the pieces played individually, then the suite composed of them.

Every cut on this CD is perfect, from start to finish!!
I can listen to it over and over, and never tire of it. The cuts range from soothing to uplifting. It has a pure, genuine quality that Unger and Mason translate wonderfully to the listening audience!!

Every time I listen to Jay Ungar's Harvest Home, which is often, I am reminded of a simpler time. His music resonates within my innermost being. This is honest music. It helps me appreciate the joyful, robust time of basic timeless values. If hard, loud, electric sounds is what your heart beats for then you probably will want to take a pass on this. But if you enjoy the clean beautiful sounds of an acoustic guitar and the mellow music that only can be produced by a country fiddle then take my advice and get this CD, in fact it would be a safe assumption that if Jay Ungar and Molly Mason (Jay's lovely wife) are involved in the music in any way... buy it

Harvest Home includes:
Bound For Another Harvest Home
The Farmer's Set
Prairie Spring
Haymaker's Hoedown
Solstice Hymn
Thanksgiving Waltz
La Chanson De Mardi Gras
Bonaparte's Retreat/Hoedown
Ashokan Farewell
The Harvest Home Suite: Overture (Fertility Theme, Harvest Home
The Harvest Home Suite: Autumn (Thanksgiving Hymn)
The Harvest Home Suite: Winter (The Solstice, Mardi Gras)
The Harvest Home Suite: Spring (Prairie Song)
The Harvest Home Suite: Summer (Wind That Shakes The Barley, The Barn Dance)

This album contains a lot of orchestration and it mostly misses the country charm of The Lover's Waltz. Jay Ungar and Molly Mason's writing and musical skills of down home music seemed to be covered by these orchestrations. I'd like to have seen it done in the style of Lover's Waltz, which is an excellent album.

One of the finest album I've ever heard. I've listened to thousands of album in my life, Folk, Classical, Rock, Pop, et al and this is one of the best. Even none folk-lovers will love this album