Customer Reviews

Spirit Of The Glen

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards was formed in 1971, by the amalgamation of two earlier regiments (the Prince of Wales's Dragoon Guards and The Royal Scots Greys). They are a crack armored regiment, equipped with Challenger 2 tanks, which saw action in the 1991 Gulf War, Bosnia, Kosovo, and the recent invasion of Iraq. All this is to say that this is a real regiment of real soldiers. But, they are also real musicians.

This album is not just a collection of bagpipe tunes, but is instead a wonderful selection of wonderful, modern Scottish musical pieces. All of the tunes include bagpipes, which is considered by many to be THE Scottish musical instrument, but they are backed up by a many other instruments, including the keyboard and guitar.

Overall, I found the effect to be excellent, reminiscent of the more modern Scottish music I have heard at Scottish music festival. It has a more rounded sound that your older pipe-and-drum music, one that is sure to please anyone that likes ethnic music. I must say that I liked the selection of older and newer tunes, including Mull of Kintyre and Dances With Wolves.

I think that this is a great album, and I don't hesitate to recommend it to everyone!

I love the bagpipes and drums, so this album was right up my alley. The instruments are played flawlessly. The song choices are a nice mix of what you would expect from the bagpipes along with a few nice surprises. What I didn't enjoy was the vocals accompanying several of the songs. I personally would have proffered this to be an all instrumental album. But that is my own opinion and has nothing to do with the quality of the songs themselves.

I am a casual celtic music fan, not an expert. But here's been my experience with recorded bagpipe music. You always think you want to hear bagpipes and bagpipes alone, but you don't. Live in full power, they're wonderful, but unaccompanied bagpipe music on the stereo will empty a room even faster than my collection of polka records.

What you really want is something like this: beautifully played bagpipes with other elements tastefully blended in. This collection of mostly mournful tunes includes everything from a symphony orchestra to voice to keyboards, but the bagpipes never get lost and the music is never sappy.

This would make a perfect gift for all your relatives who are not hardcore folkie purists, but would love something Scots-flavored to listen to now and then. In fact, I whipped it out of the box, and after 10 minutes my sister wanted a copy and my father said he was going to buy two for his brothers. And if only Grandma McDonough (nee Maxwell) were still with us, I'd get her a copy to enjoy with her Laphroaig.

I grabbed this when I saw it listed in the Amazon Vine newsletter; I love the mood and texture of the bagpipes and one would be hard pressed to find better bagpipers than the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards.

The opening rendition of "Amazing Grace" is simply beautiful. Same for their version of "Over the Hills and Far Away," which was a surprising and especial treat for a Sean Bean/Sharpe's Adventures fan like myself.

The CD, however, is not pure pipes and drums. There is an orchestra with flutes, cellos and violins involved here. And, to be honest, the slick orchestration and vocals on some of the tracks tend to detract from the beauty of the pipes, leaving the work with an almost new age sound.

Somewhere out there, there is a bagpipe ensemble that is just itching to record a collection of disco favorites. Fortunately, the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards is not it! With Spirit of the Glen they manage to stay true to the pipes' highland roots, even while touching other genres like Pachelbel and Stewart (as in Rod).

Spirit of the Glen is a masterful collection of traditional and modern that will have you researching your family tartan and wondering how you might look in a kilt. But even more so, it's wonderful music, beautifully played with excellent lyricism.

Actually, it's not that big a stretch for a bagpipe ensemble to borrow from Rod Stewart, given his Scottish roots and fondness for his home country. But the Dragoon Guards give Stewart's Sailing a plaintive soulfulness that rivals even Rod's recording. On the more traditional side, if Amazing Grace wasn't written solely for the pipes, it should have been. And the version offered here is one of the richest I've ever heard.

For the traditionalist, there's a Scottish Medley and Highland Cathedral. But the most memorable tune might well be Mull of Kintyre (written by some guy named Paul McCartney...) with vocal work by a wonderful tenor. For better or worse, that's been an aural tick in my head for a couple of weeks now.

That said, Pachelbel's Canon is just as boring when performed by bagpipes as violins (I know... for many people it's their favorite classical piece. I just happen to think it's boring).

One final aspect that I appreciate about the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards is that these musicians are soldiers first and musicians second. They've served two tours in Iraq and have endured the same training as any other military unit. That's not always the case with top rank military ensembles. For example, members of the "President's Own" United States Marine Band are auditioned from the musical community at large, and then receive an abbreviated military training.

I love a good bagpipe album, but many of them are old recordings that lack the pop of modern recording technology and most of the rest are too "traditional" and don't add any real modern flair. So, I was quite happy to find *Spirit of the Glen* by the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, Scotland's only cavalry unit (and veterans of the Iraq war).

While this CD has a few lulls that I wish were replaced with more stirring pieces (Caledonia's pop vocals and acoustic guitar snapped me out of the album's rising moods and left me feeling I was watching a sappy love story movie), most of the selections on this disk are moving classics (Amazing Grace, Highland Cathedral) and modern gems (music from the scores for *Last of the Mohicans* and *Dances with Wolves*) that are played with powerful precision and emotional energy.

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A Guide to my Music Rating System:

1 star = Not worth the blood dripping from your ears/
2 stars = Don't bother, clean your bathroom instead.
3 stars = Wasn't a waste of time, but it was time wasted.
4 stars = Good music, but not life altering.
5 stars = This music changed my world in at least some small way.

I've always loved the sound of bagpipes, but I've never taken the opportunity to get a CD that focuses on them. I changed that by getting a Vine review copy of Spirit Of The Glen by The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards. It's a wonderful CD that mixes bagpipes with vocals and celtic sounds, and the songs have a presence that make you feel like you're watching an epic film.

Contents:
Amazing Grace 2007; Sailing; Highland Cathedral; Last Of The Mohicans; Hector The Hero; Mull Of Kintyre; Dances With Wolves; Scottish Medley; Pachelbel's Canon; The Day Thou Gavest; Caledonia; Over The Hills & Far Away; Your Love Echoes Around The World; The Green Hills Of Tyrol

I won't profess to be someone who could discuss the nuances of music or provide critical analysis of a particular CD. But I can certainly say I know what I like when I hear it. And I like this. The pieces that consist of pure bagpipe music have a haunting quality to them. When combined with vocals and a full orchestra, the pieces are unlike anything I've ever thought of as bagpipe music. What I find even more amazing is that these pipers are all full-time military men who have spent time in hotspots like Irag. It just goes to prove that it's possible to be successful at both a job *and* a hobby.

I'll be adding these tracks to my iPhone for on-demand listening throughout my day.... a great CD.

This is an amazing CD. The quality is very high, which is amazing since it was recorded by active duty military personnel. And for a CD that features bagpipes so prominently, it is actually quite diverse.

Amazing Grace is the lead off song, as would be expected. It is one of the best renditions I have heard. There are some military themed contributions, such as Last of the Mohicans and Hector the Hero. The instrumentals are excellent, but so are the songs with vocals. Caledonia, for example is stirring, especially given its performance by active duty soldiers.

During some crazy times at work, I was able to grab some peace by taking a few minutes and playing this CD. It is high quality, touching, and worth every penny.

This long awaited CD has the legendary pipes of the Scots DGs going New Age in sound. With orchestral and vocal music, along with modern rythems this is certainly not your standard pipes CD. The Scots DGs have been struggling to maintain their cutting age with combined music ever since losing their famed regimental band in 1994. This was a big blow to their music scene, as it was with the band that the pipes combined in 1972 to usher in the original "Amazing Grace". Now with band no more, various acconpaniments have been added. This CD is probably the most ambitious yet in terms of modern sounds. The drums are hardly used at all in the CD, except for the Middlesex Drum Corps who are a totally seperate music group.

In a way it's too bad the pipes and drums did not combine for one traditional medley so that the many new listeners which this CD will attract would have gott'en a sampling of what a great regimental pipe band sounds like. With their previous CDs the Scots DGs would usually offer a little of the traditional sound of pipes & drums just to show contrasts and versatility. That is lacking here in what is a totally New Age Celtic sound.

The CD contains many of the Scots DGs previous well known selections, reworked into modern arrangements. Some of their older favorites are missing. "Going Home", "Road To The Isles", "Flower of Scotland", "The Way Old Friends Always Do" and "Chariots of Fire" were some of the favorites that were often paired with "Amazing Grace". Including them here with newer sounds would have opened a wider audience to them. Too bad this opportunity was not taken to revive some older classics from the heyday of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards combined bands.

This is certainly a big label deal for the Scots DGs who continue to be innovators in the modern pipes & drums sound. In early 2008 they embarked on an extensive USA tour with the Band of the Coldstream Guards. This CD was released in the middle of that tour which makes for great timing! In that tour their music selections were more the traditional fare with combined band. While I always enjoy a new Scots DG release my hope is that in the future they will include one or two traditional tracks so that new listeners can hear what a truly fine pipe band they are, and get an introduction to pipe music that they otherwise might not get. Those looking for that more traditional sound will not find it here, but if you're looking for an ambitious production with new arrangements of some old favorites then this CD certainly hits the mark.

I'm a big celtic music fan, but shamefully I had not paid much attention to bagpipes before. This CD changed that. The bagpipe and drum mixes were eloquent and powerful. I'm not a professional music critic - just an average celtic music fan. I prefer vocals but I found the instrumentals on this CD stirring as well. This a a great mix of music with lots of variety.