Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good things come to those who wait!, December 31, 2003
Over a decade in the making, the three parts of Jerry Read Smith's "Strayaway Child Trilogy" can finally be purchased all together. This set traces the musical development of a hammered dulcimer maker-turned-performer who started out terrific and just got better with the passing of the years. Mature, multi-layered and sincere, the folk arrangements and original compositions on these albums will be gems in anyone's collection! Smith writes of his "Strayaway Child Trilogy" that it "is an instrumental journey borne out of the life and work of a hammered dulcimer maker. An urge to construct ... followed by a yearning to play soon led to an unlikely and unplanned career. The music represented here is ... a twelve year story that begins with a gift ... moves on to a revelation and finally settles upon a vision. Each and every life on God's green earth is a treasure ... This music is dedicated to your journey home." Come along for the ride--it's definitely a trip worth taking! Following are descriptions of the three portions of the trilogy, originally released separately:
1.))) "Strayaway Child" is pure pleasure and something quite special! It features a blend of Celtic and American folk music played with feeling and compelling flare. The full, shimmering waterfall of Jerry Read Smith's hammered-dulcimer playing takes center stage, flowing together with a sumptuous variety of accompanying instruments--guitar, bouzouki, bass, Irish flute, tin whistle, bodhran, fiddle and slide dobro, played by Tom Fellenbaum, Chris Abell, Don Jackson and Phil Johnson. Many of the tunes on "Strayaway Child" are familiar and have been played many times by many people, but the arrangements and execution of Smith and his friends are so startlingly rich and heartfelt that I feel like I've never heard them before! In his liner notes, Smith writes: "'The Strayaway Child' is a conceptual recording ... an instrumental `dream' that expresses a journey through time filled with flights of fancy, time for thought and reflection, and emotional confrontation. It is the beginning of an instrumental trilogy, a journey of the heart!" Smith's creative journey and uniquely engaging style continues in the next installment of the trilogy.
2.))) "Heartdance" is a rich, heartwarming array of music that fills you up! This is great stuff--spunky, creative arrangements of Celtic tunes played with soul, drive and heart. Sometimes edgy, sometimes warm and mellow, "Heartdance" features Jerry Read Smith's sparkling hammered-dulcimer playing with a lush and sophisticated array of backup instrumentalists: Tom Fellenbaum on bouzouki, Don Jackson on fiddle, bouzouki and guitar, Chis Abell on flute, whistle, pipes and bodhran, Drew Beiswenger on guitar, John Rees and Chip Smith on keyboards, Rob Hinson on mandolin, and Beth Magill on whistle. In all the selections, these artists combine a sense of fun and personality with technical mastery, richly full sound and comsummate professionalism, making for an album that is truly a delight to listen to time and time again. I really enjoyed Jerry Read Smith's previous album, "Strayaway Child", but was delighted to find that I like this one even better. It keeps me smiling the whole way through!
3.))) "Homecoming" rounds out the set with more spirited, warm and innovative folk music! Hammered-dulcimer player Jerry Read Smith and his wife, flutist Lisa Maria Smith, bring Read's "Strayaway Child Trilogy" to an earnest and scintillating close with the help of keyboardists Maxwell Conrad and Hank Lueck, guitarist A. D. Anderson, percussionist Tony Creasman and brief appearances by a background choral quartet. With less emphasis on traditional Celtic motifs than Smith's previous recordings and more on the artists' own evolving styles, "Homecoming" has a cozy but progressive tone reminiscent of modern American folk music. The emphasis is still on accoustic instrumentations, but keyboards and vocalise add a gentle New Age feel to some of the pieces as well. My mother bought this recording for me during a time when I had, emotionally, strayed rather far from the fold and was just coming to terms with the idea of finding my way back home. It wasn't "her kind of music" but on some instinctive level she must have known it was mine. I am grateful for her gesture with all its implied meanings, comprehended or not, and also for the fact that she effectively introduced me to all the wonderful work of Jerry Read Smith, whom I'd not heard of before. Even today the music of "Homecoming" remains special to me, evocative of a homecoming experience--glowing, cleansing, healing, inspiring and cathartic.
"The Strayaway Child Trilogy" is available in this combined set, or if you prefer, the separate components--"Homecoming", "Heartdance" and "Strayaway Child"--can be purchased individually. Smith's next musical outing, also with wife Lisa Maria, is "One Wintry Night", a collection of heartfelt holiday tunes inspired by the book of the same name by Ruth Bell Graham.
Another great group with similar qualities to Jerry Read Smith and friends is the folksy, creative Norland Wind.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Perfection, February 22, 2002
Years ago, when I first heard Jerry Read Smith's Strayaway Child, it captivated me. It still does. It inspired me to learn to play the most wonderful instrument - the hammered dulcimer - which I think was sent to us from heaven. The music on Strayawy Child Anthology likewise was sent from heaven. Smith is a master hammered dulcimer artist. I never tire of listening to this CD.
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See all 21 tracks on this disc
by Jerry Read Smith 
