If I Had a Key to the Dawn

Lily Storm | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 23, 2009)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Songbat Records
• ASIN: B002A8QJ96
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #395,979 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

This spare and atmospheric album is a journey through the musical landscapes of Eastern Europe. The haunting voice of singer Lily Storm interprets ancient folk songs with fragile honesty and practiced skill. The pieces flow together like a series of dreams, opening with a fragmentary Ukrainian lullaby, continuing with wistful Hungarian melodies, angular Greek dance rhythms, passionate Russian and Bulgarian laments, and a fiery Romanian mountain tune, and closing with a tender Czech ode to the rising sun. The result transcends cultural boundaries and offers fresh awareness of centuries-old musical traditions.

Includes 20-page booklet with notes and complete lyrics, with English translations.

Artist Biography
Lily Storm is a virtuosa singer specializing in traditional music, with a particular affinity for Eastern European styles. Lily has performed with several ensembles in the San Francisco Bay Area, including the women's vocal ensemble Kitka. As part of Kitka, she recorded as a soloist (The Vine, Wintersongs), collaborated in concert with ensembles including Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, Ensemble Alcatraz, Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir, Davka, and Mariana Sadovska, and appeared on Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion and NPR's Performance Today. "If I Had a Key to the Dawn" is her first solo album.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A music CD album of intimate songs, some instrumental, some featuring Lily Storm's haunting voice, July 27, 2009

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: If I Had a Key to the Dawn (Audio CD)

If I Had a Key to the Dawn: Love Songs and Laments from Eastern Europe is a music CD album of intimate songs, some instrumental, some featuring Lily Storm's haunting voice, all drawing upon the musical and storytelling traditions of various Eastern and Central European nations from Greece to Hungary to the Ukraine, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and more. The songs themselves range from bittersweet love ballads to celebrations of a mother's love for her child. If I Had a Key to the Dawn bears witness beauty and the power of human emotion, and deserves the highest recommendation. The tracks are "Sleep, child" (0:48), "The peony" (1:58), "One Friday" (2:39), "Oh, stand aside" (2:36), "A bird flew to my darling's window" (2:52), "Love, love" (2:25), "The lemon tree" (3:13), "Gulo" (6:29), "Little turtle-dove" (4:27), "Instrumental (accordion)" (2:28), "Green leaf of a pear tree" (3:15), "My Nightingale" (2:37), "Years, heavy years" (3:58), "Instrumental (duduk)" (3:07), and "The swallow is flying" (2:57). 45 minutes, 48 seconds.