Customer Reviews

ROBERT E.LEE REMEMBERED

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

 

 

Jimerson has created a recording that gives the listener a wonderful sampling of the music Robert E. Lee would have heard during his lifetime, in a true period style. As a regular visitor to Lee's birthplace, I am impressed by and enjoyed the results of Jimerson's historical research at the Robert E. Lee archives at Stratford Hall.

Aside from the competent performances of Douglas Jimerson and Jill Worley, the singers and musicians on this CD are rather poor. But the recording is worse - poor quality, and done in such a way as to emphasize defects in the presentation. Whenever David Calib comes in with the drums, everything else is drowned out. Did they put the mike _in_ the drum? Sounds like it. The best numbers were those with Jimerson soloing with only a piano backup. It was therefore very disappointing to hear "All Quiet Along the Potomac" as a trumpet/drum instrumental. All this is not to mention the quibble that the album's connection with Robert E. Lee is a bit strained. Aside from "How Firm a Foundation," most of the songs have very little to do with Lee aside from the fact that his family might conceivably have had the sheet music lying around the house, or they were popular during/after the wars he took part in. Be that as it may, I'm sorry to say that three-quarters of the CD is barely listenable.

Of all the CD collections of Civil War-era songs I know, this one featuring tenor Douglas Jimerson is the most satisfying to me, mainly because the selections on the concert as so good. In comparison to the similar collection from Jimerson et al based on Abraham Lincoln's favorite music, the Robert E. Lee selections are more tuneful, more exciting and make a more satisfying hour of listening over and over again.

Among the better songs here are the first two -- the clarion calls of the South in the Civil War: "Bonnie Blue Flag" and "Maryland My Maryland" -- the heart-tugging "Woodman Spare That Tree" and the always humorous "Goober Peas," a paean to the staple food given to the South's soldiers late in the war: Georgia peanuts. Former President Jimmy Carter, who was a peanut farmer prior to his political career, must be proud of this tune.

Hearing Jimerson's tenor would make anyone proud to be a member of the South after hearing this collection of wonderful songs from the middle 1800s. The criticisms the other reviewer offers about the drums drowning out the voices in one song is credible but any idea that the voices and choir used here are less than professional is nonsense.

These performances are done in a style perfect for the material. They consistently exude an authenticity lost by slicker outfits that try to recreate the era such as this collection from professional musicians in U.S. military choirs. While professionally done and recorded, it is sung so perfectly and without personality that a computer might as well have done the work. Give me the flesh, blood, fire and lightning of Jimerson and his cohorts any day in work like this.