Old School

Golden Delicious | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 22, 1997)
• Original Release Date: April 29, 1997
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Cavity Search
• ASIN: B000003D9U
• Also Available in: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #440,269 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Blue Grass from Oregon?, July 7, 2000

By 

"cardinalcell" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Old School (Audio CD)

Yes. It's a bluegrass band from Portland, Oregon. And, as far as I can tell, they really do love bluegrass because they do it great. Some of their songs are just hilarious as well. You have got to hear their version of Hot Corn, Cold Corn. I have fits of laughter hearing this song even after about 100 listenings.

5.0 out of 5 stars Caution: Wild Hillbilly Nightmare Hellride crossing ahead!, October 21, 2009

By 

Zuzu's Petals "Zuzus Petals" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Old School (Audio CD)

So Golden Delicious does not meet Ear-Candy Man's strict definition of "a bluegrass band". Who freakin' cares? The point is not to get so hung up on labels and genres: this band and the music they made a decade or so ago is something that resists the confinement of categorization - and that's a darn fine thing. Bela Fleck and the Flecktones are also a band who play jazz with bluegrass instruments. Dixieland is an entire musical category where banjo music is applied to a non-bluegrass style. At least GOLDEN DELICIOUS was never guilty of lobotomizing an audience into a coma with one more flat-tire, worn-down and predictable rendition of The Orange Blossom Special. As a live band, they were pyromaniacs whose music was the kindling to a bonfire musical set that left an audience spinning, reeling and screaming for an encore.

Thank God musicians like Krebs, Richey, Hord and company applied a raging and unleashed sense of creativity whose vision and reach for darkness, texture, mirth and danger somehow combined in Golden Delicious to create a wicked vision of a wild hillbilly nightmare hellride: the music tears down walls and pushes out boundaries for those who partake to enjoy effortlessly. There's bluegrass - sure, but also a bit of gypsy jazz, hippy folk, blazing riffs and a whiff of carnival spirits involved.

I found great mood and resonance in what Ear-Candy reviews in this space as dreadful with "Darling Corey" and it's just all-too apparent that the genius of Pete Kreb's guitar is completely lost on that pale critique. Their version of "Little Sadie" on their LIVE AT LAURELTHIRST album rivals any treatment submitted by Doc Watson or the Grateful Dead. "Hoodoo Bash" would probably make anyone's Halloween Top 10 list if more folks knew how great it was. "House Carpenter" is an exquisite monophonic mantra built upon traditional acoustic instruments.

Don't just take my word - Google Krebs and find out that he is included in an elete group of musicians who were cherry-picked for a project to pay tribute to Django Reinhardt. I'm glad Portland has him and his talent lives on, even if Golden Delicious was a short-lived project for the musicians involved.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars banjo does not = bluegrass, February 18, 2009

By 

T. Lawless "earcandy man" (Memphis, TN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Old School (Audio CD)

This is a folk and rock influenced bar/frathouse band that plays a few bluegrass and country tunes. A bluegrass band it surely ain't. That don't mean you won't have a good time with these boys, but know what to expect. As soon as you add drums to the mix, the weight of the bluegrass bounce ( carried by the acoustic rhythm instruments ) is immediately watered down to nothing.
I found this recording dreadful. The guitar sounded so thin, I wasn't sure if it was electric or acoustic. In Darling Corey, the solo sounded like the guitarist just learned the blues scale last week, and nothing else. The percussion added nothing but a confusing mud to the mix.
If you're looking for air-tight four part bluegrass harmony, you best keep lookin.' I found the singing amateurish, with little blend within the spare harmonies.
I'm not here just to rag on these boys; I'd enjoy them at a backyard barbecue or a college mixer. But I'd be seriously ticked if someone told me to come see some excellent bluegrass, and I found this bowl of unripe apples.