Customer Reviews

Songs of the Civil War

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've bought several collections of CW music, and this one is by far my favorite. The Cumberland Three are wonderful singers and they can convey a wide range of moods - bitter, jubilant, wistful, proud, sorrowful. The sound quality is exceptional considering how long ago it was recorded (40+ years?)

My favorite aspect of this is the balance of Rebel vs. Union songs - the first half being pro-CSA, and then the second half being pro-USA. Even though I'm a true-blue Unionist to the bone, I still love hearing those Rebs singing "The lyin', thievin' Yankees, I hate 'em worse than dust!". Could you even release such a song in this PC-polarized era? Heck no! But the one I can't get out of my mind is "Mary had a little lamb, it was always on the go, shouting the battle cry of freedom!"

I bought this C.D. out of duty, as part of a project for my drama students, but it's become one of my favourites. I imagine this is pretty much how the songs would have sounded at the time. I much prefer this to the sanitized sound of a choir and orchestra. Only one drawback - my students can't stop singing "Goober Peas"!

I knew I wanted to hear "I Don't Want No Pardon," but I had no idea how much I would enjoy all 23 songs on this CD. Other favorites are "Lay l0 Dollars Down" and "Gonna Get You." "Song of the Hungry" is the soldier's rewrite of Stephen Foster's "Hard Times Come Again No More." "The Boys Are Home" is the Cumberland Three's haunting version of "When Johnny Comes Marching Home." This is a CD for the whole family. Our children, aged 8, ll and l3 sing along. John Stewart, John Montgomery and Gil Robbins recorded these songs 40 years ago, but sound reproduction is excellent.

I bought the CD based on the positive reviews posted here and I wasn't disappointed. I love it. The only downside is that my family and coworkers want to kill me, because I can't seem to stop singing Goober Peas under my breath all day. It's definitely done in a "folk" style and if you're looking for a glitzy, orchestrated sound, this isn't it. But if you want to close your eyes and imagine soldiers singing in the field, this is it.

My father had this album, when I was a child, and it was one of my absolute favorites. Even though I haven't heard it since then, I still remember the music very well, and am so glad to see it again on CD. After all of these many years, I still break out in a rousing rendition of "Goober Peas' occasionally. I highly recommend this CD, and hope it brings you as much enjoyment as it has brought me.

These fellas have made an excellent song choice - most well known and done with passion as fitting the times they were originally written and performed. EXCELLENT - Goober peas - What fun! Lay ten dollars down, my favorite!

This CD is made from two separate 33 1/3 LP's issued around the beginning of the Civil War Centennial in 1961 called Civil War Almanac, "Yankees" Vol.1, and "Rebels" Vol.2. As such, it serves now as both a documentation of some of the music of the Civil War era it harkens to, as well as to the musical tastes of the period in which it was recorded. Perhaps unfortunately, it fails completely to accurately reproduce either the sound or the emotions of the 1860's; listeners seeking "authentic" interpretations of Civil War music might be advised to look elsewhere. However, I think it is no stretch at all to say that if it weren't for these and the several other similar recordings of the time from individuals and groups as diverse as Tennessee Ernie Ford and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, that there would likely never have been a Bobby Horton or any of the other modern interpreters of these tunes. Possibly the greatest contribution made by these and the other artists of their day was to keep the music fresh and before a public who were probably familliar only with Dixie and the Battle Hymn of the Republic as songs from that period.

My greatest complaint with the original recordings is the understandable tendency to tweak some of the lyrics ( and even most of the titles! ) of these once-divisive tunes; as well as the anti-historical arrangements and orchestrations. One condemning reviewer here has rightly wondered exactly WHERE Dixie vanished in this compilation - it was certainly present in the original album! If it was REALLY a case of the accused "Political Correctness" of our own craven era is unknown; but it IS a fact that Minstrel Show tunes like it were performed during the 1800's in what was called "Negro dialect". ( They certainly did a butcher job on the simillar Year of Jubilo to remove all traces of it there though! ) I own an original copy of the "Yankees" LP and can verify that all of its tracks have "made the cut" to this CD, but never having had "Rebels" I can only speculate about it. I will also add that the "Rebels" selection called "Bessie" is NOT an authentic period song, which should come as no surprise to those familliar with the actual sound of period music. Perhaps Bessie should have been replaced with Dixie for this CD!

Regardless, if viewed as the product of a "simpler period", the pre-Vietnam early 1960's when our only "war" was "Cold" and innocent Folk Music and its "Hootennanies" preceeded the antiwar Acid Rock and the cesspool that was Woodstock, this CD is a quite enjoyable experience of a period when it was actually "cool" ( to use a term coined by the Beatniks of the 1950's ) to celebrate the American past and its sacrifices in songs such as these. The sound reproduction on this CD is also remarkable, especially given the age of the originals. I have always enjoyed "Yankees" as one of my favorite LP's and am now glad to see that these by-now 50-year-old (!) recordings are still available.

I've been listening to this CD since I was 9 or 10 (well, all right, I'm only 22 now. That qualifies this as a lifelong favorite). The music has never gotten old, and forms a permanent part of my picture of the era, bringing to life the men in the trenches who fought in the most divisive war of our nation's history. Though I'm a Unionist (not a Yankee), I must confess to a slight partiality for the Southern songs - except for the Battle Hymn.

I don't know what to say other than I loved it. The music speaks for itself. Story of the Lamb is my favorite.

When I bought the CD I was interested in only one of the songs. However having listened to the entire CD I found it quite good. I find it hard to believe that one would try to compair three men with unpluged instruments with the Mormon Tabernacle Choris. That's like compairing a minnow to a shark. Get a grip. The CD is that of three intertainers telling stories of the War of Northern Aggression. Appreciate it for what it is, not for what it is not.