Customer Reviews

Our American Journey

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have every one of Chanticleer's recordings and agree that the ensemble produces some of the finest vocal recordings and performances in the world. I'm a huge fan. Huge. I love both old standards and new choral compositions, from monophony to atonality. So why was I less than overwhelmed by this CD?

One of the things I noticed about this recording is that the characteristic blend of voices seems off. This isn't due to any particular error in performance or engineering, but perhaps just due to the voicing of the arrangements. The resulting prominence of the sopranos is a little jarring, even though I'm always impressed by a good countertenor. Maybe it's me, but this disc just seems to be somewhat of a departure from the seamless and shimmery quality Chanticleer is known for, such as in Magnificat and Colors of Love.

Also, the southern accent produced in certain selections borders on parody. Even folks in the Appalachian hills where I grew up would have noticed. If they had backed off just a hair, they would have gotten it right on the money.

Okay so this isn't my favorite recording. I think one 4-star disc out of a sea of 5-star productions is a pretty good record. I remain a huge fan.

...It is just jaw-dropping amazing what these guys can do with their voices, from the pure, crystalline tones of Mexican Baroque to Appalachian shape-note singing to Native American chant. What's really amazing is that these guys sound this good or better in concert! Was particularly excited that they finally recorded "Voices of Autumn" by Jackson Hill, which I first heard at one of their concerts 2 years ago. Other highlights are "Soar Away," "Willow Weep for Me" and "Calling My Children Home," but every track on this album is stellar.

This album shows Chanticleer's great talent and it displays they're wonderful voices. I've seen them perform pieces from this album and they do it with such passion. It's wonderful. If you don't get this or any of their albums you truly are missing out!!

-=<+>=- THE UN-COVERED WAGON -=<+>=- Chanticleer is amazing! I'm the composer of "Un-Covered Wagon" and I must say they performed it in a spectacular way. The piece is not easy. The text is sung entirely in Mohican with American Indian "vocables" that tell of the existential reciprocity Indians have with the earth: Ka Akai ke scheech ko naap (You Earth make us) / Nenangpe ke scheech ko wa (We People make you) / Po ma yik (We all live here) / Ga mao we (Always, Ever).

One of the first epic Western films "The Covered Wagon" (Paramount, 1923), based on Emerson Hough's novel, portrays the pioneers crossing what they saw as an open territory free-for-the-taking. But obviously, there were other people already living in this so-called "untamed wilderness" -- The Indians.

I am struck by how one-sided this American expansion is continually portrayed, not only for the old B/W era, but in today's America too. America creates and sustains an unenlightened legacy of trampling across the continent for it's own uses. Sanctioned by all sorts of religious dispensations where a glorious "end of time" reigns care-free and supreme, like protective salvation, this ratified conquering is highly prevalent even today.

I wrote the "Un-Covered Wagon" in order to uncover an alternate view -- that America was never empty nor free for the taking at all. The American continent has always been filled with others, people, stories and history, and has been known as intimately as a familiar footpath shared daily by humans and animals alike -- long before America existed. To reveal this musically, I super-imposed a racist hymn, "Faith of Our Fathers," one half-step apart in tuning from an Indian background to create a new way of hearing that hymn. Chanticleer performs this difficult passage flawlessly and the effect is spooky and surreal. The end of the work calls for three different Indian singing styles to be super-imposed upon each other, and all can be heard clear as a bell in Chanticleer's spectacular performance. I am deeply proud of both the work and Chanticleer's performance of it.

"Un-Covered Wagon," as music and message, urges us to reconsider the seasoned and intelligent tradition of keeping good familial relationships with the earth -- that may in fact suit us better -- and to finally strip that out-dated chuck wagon called progress. Life is for sharing, not controlling.

With Respect,
Brent Michael Davids
Mohican Nation

By saying that Chanticleer does it again, I mean that they have, astonishingly, matched the all but unbelievably high quality of their previous discs. I've copies of everything they've recorded, and the range of the music they sing is, so far as I know, incomparable. E.g., their recording of Gregorian Chant, "Mysteria," is finer than that of any of the many monastic choir recordings available! And the aptness of the sound they produce, matching the specific work being performed, is itself, truly wonderful. The present recording exemplifies all these virtues, and to the same exceptionally high degree.

This album features a wonderful selection of "American" choral music. I'm not a big fan of the "stylized" singing of the shape-note pieces (with the nasal voices), but that is my only complaint. My favorite piece is Steven Stucky's "Whispers" which is an artfully crafted homage to Orlando Gibbons' "Drop, Drop, Slow Tears" and William Byrd's "Ave Verum Corpus." Joseph Jennings and Chanticleer effectively demonstrate that there is no "defining" American choral music and it is this rich panoply of variety which is so enchanting!

I purchased this CD after hearing this magnificent choral group sing "Calling My Children Home" in a recent concert. Written by Doyle Lawson (from the group "Quicksilver"), Charlie Waller and Robert Yates, the song is a standard bluegrass number I had known for years (Emmy Lou Harris for one has recorded it); but I had no idea it had found its way to San Francisco. Chanticleer has made this song their own. I cannot imagine anyone else's version coming close to theirs.

The group sings 17 other songs on this CD, most of them arranged by Joseph Jennings, Chanticleer's music director. Their version of William Billings' "David's Lamentation," a Sacred Harp work, will blow you away. Another favorite of mine is "Wayfaring' Stranger." There are also two Stephen Foster songs included, "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair" and "Camptown Races" as well as Gershwin and other American composers.

There seems to be no kind of music that this group cannot sing better than most other groups. They remind us that there is no musical instrument more beautiful than the human voice.

This CD should be one for the time capsule.

Chanticleer fans know what to expect in terms of vocal quality, and won't be disappointed. I agree with another reviewer that the Appalachian accent is a little over the top, but I thought the shape-note style was perfect: brilliant sound, but not that nasal.

I enjoyed the many styles of music in this CD, but since I tend to listen to CDs straight through as albums, I found it a little disconcerting to go so suddenly from one style to the next (e.g., Mexican Baroque to shape note).

That being said, everything is splendidly, sensitively performed. The renditions of "Whispers" and "The Un-Covered Wagon" are breathtaking. By all means, buy and enjoy this!

I attended one their concerts as they performed the music on this CD live. Chanticleer's versatility was staggering, and the beauty of what they sang was transcendant. I've been waiting for the CD to come out eagerly, even though they dropped one of my favorite songs from the performance.

I am amazed at the clarity of their voices on the CD. Even though my speakers are nowhere near the acoustic level of a performance hall, the real, unique essence of Chanticleer still shines out. [I do think they pulled the bass back a little for the recording - a shame.]

The review at the top mentions their versatility also. Let me flesh out some of the other song styles they perform on this CD. "Whispers" was composed especially for Chanticleer by Steven Stucky, currently of Chairman of the Cornell Music Dept., and is very much a work of modern music theory. "Voices of Autumn" draws on Buddhist liturgical chants and the Japanese pentatonic scale, while "The Un-Covered Wagon" -- another piece written specifically for Chanticleer -- requires the singers to sound like the shakers and drums of Native American cermonial dances, and even calls for nose flutes. Where can you find all that mixed with latin and English hymns, Gershwin, and Camptown Races? Keep it coming, guys!

The reason I wanted this was for song#16. Calling my children home. I ordered 4 of these for my four children in memory of their deceased father who meant so much to them. He died right after his 41st birthday. I hope it will bring my children closer to their heavenly Father again. One problem was gohastings sent a damaged cd. I have yet to have them replace it. They seem to be ignoring me. So aparently you have to use Amazon.com themselves to be satisfied. Thank you. Dawn Feruson