Customer Reviews

Hop High

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

this is the best new picking I've heard in a long, long time. if you have not heard of crooked still, mark my words, you will, because they are just now on the 1st step of a long, long, bluegrass escalator into the stars. i recommend listening to this album while: driving up highway 1 between big sur and monterey, drinking copious amounts of honey wine, having a picnic with your shoes off, grilling italian sausages, reading ann landers, backcountry skiing, water-skiing, on a pier by a blue lake with your feet dangling in the water.

a beautiful combination of traditional music and fetching, talented contemporary soundstuff. everything about the crooked still sound gels and i put it right up there with the telluride bluegrass sessions in my all-time favorite category. lovely stuff. beatiful work. welcome to the world crooked still!

I HAD THE GREAT PLEASURE OF SEEING CROOKED STILL 4 TIMES AT THE OCT 2005 MAGFEST IN LIVE OAK, FL. AS THE PRIVIOUS RATER SAID, THIS IS A BAND ON THE VERGE OF GREATNESS. THE CD IS WONDERFUL, WITH AOIFE,S WINSOME VOICE & RUSHAD'S INCREDIBLE CELLO PLAYING. THE OTHER 2 MEMBERS DOC, THE BANJO PLAYER & COREY, THE DOUBLE BASSIST WERE GREAT ALSO. AOIFE'S VOICE HAS TOUCHES OF ALLISON KRAUSS & MARIA MULDAR IN IT, BUT IS REALLY ALL HER OWN. AS WONDERFUL AS THEIR CD IS, IT IS NOTHING TO COMPARE TO THERE LIVE PERFORMANCES. I HOPE YOU HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO HEAR AOIFE SING "COME INTO MY KITCHEN" & TO WATCH RUSHAD'S ANTICS AS HE PLAYS. (IF YOU EVER SEE HIM, ASK HIM ABOUT "i shot the squid & ate my son" ) AOIFE, DOC & COREY HAVE TO WATCH RUSHAD CLOSELY AT THE END OF EACH SONG AS HE FINISHES IT HIS WAY & DIFFERENTLY EACH TIME. CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THEM MANY TIMES NEXT YEAR (ALREADY HAVE TICKETS TO SEE THEM IN HARRISBURG, PA IN FEB 2006) & YOU SHOULD PLAN TO ALSO.

Other worldly harmonies, haunting female vocals. Crooked Still lies somewhere on the other side of Bluegrass and Folk. Guess you could say they transcend Bluegrass. Much like Nickel Creek, Crooked Still blazes a new trail down in the lower range of traditional Mountain Music. We live up the mountain from Doc Watson and plan on seeing them at MerleFest in April. If you ever get their interpretation of Gillian Welch's Orphan Girl in your head you're in trouble my friend. Thanks Crooked Still. I for one am glad you took this fork in the music world instead of the classical one you were on. Go ahead, and buy this CD you will not be disappointed.

Okay, wonderful band. Saw them in concert. The Doc who plays banjo is...a little eccentric, probably on purpose. But once they started playing, it was delicious.

With that said, WHY DOES AMAZON HAVE IT LISTED FOR BOTH $6.99 *AND* $9.99?? Who would seriously buy the 9.99 version simply because it's from a later edition CD? They are the exact same thing!

WHY AMAZON WHY??

Anyway, buy it--but get the 6.99 version.

It's absolutely amazing what this band can do with a hundred-year old song.

I was fortunate to catch Crooked Still promoting this debut CD at the 2006 Grey Fox Bluegrass festival in upstate New York. The audience seemed to be in awe. All the buzz was about them, and the line to buy one of their CDs was too long for me to wait in. I bought from CDBaby instead. (I got even luckier when I caught them in Madision, CT 4 months later, bought a second copy, and conversed with the band.)

I'd describe them as alternative bluegrass. The bluesy tunes are the most alluring for me. Listen to Last Fair Deal and Old Virginia on CDBaby - the long sound clip captures a beautiful cello solo, a wonderful double bass, an artful backround banjo, and good samples of lead singer/band leader Aiofe O'Donvan's sweet yet sultry voice. For more fun, listen to Angeline the Baker, Orphan Girl, Lulu Gal, Shady Grove, and of course, Hop High. And there's the rest... actually, there is not one bad song on this CD, so sample them all!

I would not purchase a used CD if you can afford not to; this band may not make the top 40 (like all bluegrass, unfortunately), but the band members deserve the credit for their talent - buy it new so they can get it.

This is the first bluegrass-flavored music I've ever heard that goes wild in the lower registers.

Being on the other side of the big ocean, we only get info of new groups through a limited number of channels. I am very lucky that CD Baby informed me that this title was available. Great music, a lot of folk, part bluegrass, part pop. Great combination. Add the good looks from Aoife and you have all ingredients to sell this album. I realise that a live show in Europa is far from realistic, but i think there shows to be awesome.

Wow... I grew up with old skool country in the 60's... and the flavour of this music is incredibly refreshing, combining the old skool feeling with Crooked Still's original sound (love the cello!).

Crooked Still's Hop High is
a snappy contemporary rendering of favorite mainly Old Time songs and tunes. Perhaps a little too modern for my taste, but this CD will be enjoyed by all who hear it.

My introduction to Crooked Still was seeing them perform live at the 2004 Falcon Ridge Folk Festival in Hillsdale NY. At the time they were a relatively unknown band and blew everyone away with their great music. That performance and this CD put them on the road to becoming quite well known in the folk music world. Great arraignments of songs and excellent musicians make this a wonderful CD. Aoife O'Donovan has a voice that reminds you very much of Alison Krauss. Rushad Eggleston who was the original cello player left the band in 2007. You don't normally expect to hear cello from a bluegrass band but Rushad was excellent and fun to watch. Several of the members met at Berklee School of Music in Boston. One of the best Folk CDs of 2004