Customer Reviews

To Touch the Stars: A Musical Celebration of Space Exploration

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I _really_ liked this CD. To Touch the Stars falls into the musical subgenre called "Filk" music -- science, science fiction, and fantasy inspired folk music -- and is one of the best examples of the art. It has 17 songs in a wide variety of styles, from acoustic folk through anthem to rock and roll. Some of them are remakes of songs on the classic (and long out-of-print) "Minus Ten and Counting" tape by the long-out-of-business Off Centaur Productions. In general, the new arrangements are better than the ones on the tape (the lead-off folk-rock Witnesses Waltz is a good example). Many are by Julia Ecklar, one of the best, most exerienced filk singers in the field today, while others are by talented newcomers to the genre. I must admit I preferred Minus Ten's acapella arrangement of Hope Eyrie (AKA The Eagle Has Landed, about the first landing on the moon), but however it's arranged it still brings goosebumps. There's a new (to me) Leslie Fish song "Queen Isabella" that is just a hoot, and there's the winner of the "national anthem for Mars" contest -- "The Pioneers of Mars." It's musical, it tells a good story, and it even _sounds_ like a national anthem.

The stories that filk songs tell are for the most part stories of hope and adventure and challenge -- stories worth telling -- and this CD tells the best of them.

My New Years resolution is that I should get busy making new friends so's I can give copies of this CD to them.

In this age when hardly anyone listens to music outside of their favorite genre, I don't know what is tougher: getting to Mars or getting people to give this terrific album a chance! Space activists will love it, of course, but if others will just take a listen, they will enjoy it too. In fact, they will be amazed at how appealing these "space" songs are.

Most of the public still greets the phrase "space activism" as a non sequitur. You might as well say NASA-Industrial-Complex activism or Giant-Faceless-Aerospace-Industry activism. The assertion that there exists a genuinely passionate grassroots constituency for space exploration and development (and not made up of employees of NASA and its contractors) is still considered preposterous by many. The Moon Race proved, did it not, that it takes a gigantic army of government and industry engineers, scientists, technicians and bureaucrats to send a handful of supermen to the Moon via a ridiculously expensive and impractical rocket system? How can any regular Joe or Joan relate to all that?

Who would possibly want to sing about all that?

Well, activists saw long ago that "space is not an agency", that space travel and development don't have to be astronomically expensive, and that someday, in a future already underway, anyone who really wants to go to space WILL get the opportunity to go.

The people who see this most clearly are the artists on this album. They see past the temporary technological obstacles to a marvelously exciting but difficult frontier that will eventually give way to the blossoming of life throughout the solar system.

So what do these artists sing about?

They sing of the glory and sacrifice on the frontier ("Fire in the Sky" and "Legends")

They sing about traveling in space themselves ("I Want to Go To Mars" and "Big Blue Sky")

They sing of the joy and fun of space flight ("Dance on the Ceiling" and "Dog on the Moon")

They sing of looking at space in new ways ("If We Had No Moon" and "Others Standing By").

They sing of the disappointment that we rushed forward and then pulled back ("Queen Isabella, Where Are You" and "Hope Eyrie")

And this diverse array of artists offers songs in many different styles. There's definitely something here for everyone.

Whether you are a space enthusiast or not, you will enjoy this album. Great music that transcends genres comes from artists genuinely inspired by their passion. Take a chance. If you do, you won't regret it. In fact, you might just be inspired to help us get to Mars!

If you still honor the dream of Spaceflight, this songs will gladden your heart, & fire up your hopes for tomorrow. Strongly reminicent of the old "Minus Ten And Counting" tape from Off Centaur Music.

The Hipster gives it a big Thumbs Up!