Customer Reviews

By the Hush

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4 star:		(2)
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Andy M. Stewart is one of my favorite Scottish singers, along with Dougie MacLean (check him out if you haven't yet!). By the Hush is Andy's first solo release apart from Silly Wizard. It has all the classic Andy M. Stewart ingredients: great ballads, fun-loving songs, and of course Andy's lovely Scottish voice. This album is "rougher" sounding than his later solo albums and his albums with Silly Wizard, but if you can see past that you'll find it doesn't matter much when you listen to the words he is singing and his voice. Andy is a great storyteller and two of the things I enjoy most about his albums are his lyrics and his explanations of the history of each song in the CD booklet.

Two of the tracks - "The Ramblin Rover" & "The Parish of Dunkeld/The Curlew" - were also done on a Silly Wizard album. I felt they sounded better with the full band performing them. However, the rest of the album sounds fine, especially his ballads, which are my favorites. If you enjoy traditional, authentic, Scottish music, I would recommend ANYTHING by Andy M. Stewart, Silly Wizard & Dougie MacLean.

While this one is a must have for Scottish music fans, it's not the best of Andy's solo work. This album features mostly the Andy's voice - there's not so much instrumentation as on Donegal Rain or Man In The Moon or any Silly Wizard's albums. There's no instrumental only pieces except for Curlew. On the other hand - Andy's singing is great and you can hear it well on this album, since his voice is so dominating. Album consists mostly of sad songs except for Rambling Rover and Parish of Dunkeld which can be heard on Wizard's albums with more instrumental backup.
So if you want to listen to a great voice or if you already have other Andy's albums - this one is for you. But if you want a more diverse list of songs, try his other works and be sure to check Silly Wizard!

This is a terrific CD. I owned the LP when it first came out and was thrilled to get it in this format. Andy M. Stewart has a wonderful voice and the musical compositions are exquisite. I highly recommend it to all.

This is one of the best traditional music albums I've heard. Excellent traditional music of the British Isles.