Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Fabulous, but...
I have every one of Chanticleer's recordings and agree that the ensemble produces some of the finest vocal recordings and performances in the world. I'm a huge fan. Huge. I love both old standards and new choral compositions, from monophony to atonality. So why was I less than overwhelmed by this CD? One of the things I noticed about this recording is that the characteristic blend of voices seems off. This isn't due to any particular error in performance or engineering, but perhaps just due to the voicing of the arrangements. The resulting prominence of the sopranos is a little jarring, even though I'm always impressed by a good countertenor. Maybe it's me, but this disc just seems to be somewhat of a departure from the seamless and shimmery quality Chanticleer is known for, such as in Magnificat and Colors of Love. Also, the southern accent produced in certain selections borders on parody. Even folks in the Appalachian hills where I grew up would have noticed. If they had backed off just a hair, they would have gotten it right on the money. Okay so this isn't my favorite recording. I think one 4-star disc out of a sea of 5-star productions is a pretty good record. I remain a huge fan.
Rating:  - amazing!
...It is just jaw-dropping amazing what these guys can do with their voices, from the pure, crystalline tones of Mexican Baroque to Appalachian shape-note singing to Native American chant. What's really amazing is that these guys sound this good or better in concert! Was particularly excited that they finally recorded "Voices of Autumn" by Jackson Hill, which I first heard at one of their concerts 2 years ago. Other highlights are "Soar Away," "Willow Weep for Me" and "Calling My Children Home," but every track on this album is stellar.
Rating: - THE UN-COVERED WAGON
-=<+>=- THE UN-COVERED WAGON -=<+>=- Chanticleer is amazing! I'm the composer of "Un-Covered Wagon" and I must say they performed it in a spectacular way. The piece is not easy. The text is sung entirely in Mohican with American Indian "vocables" that tell of the existential reciprocity Indians have with the earth: Ka Akai ke scheech ko naap (You Earth make us) / Nenangpe ke scheech ko wa (We People make you) / Po ma yik (We all live here) / Ga mao we (Always, Ever).One of the first epic Western films "The Covered Wagon" (Paramount, 1923), based on Emerson Hough's novel, portrays the pioneers crossing what they saw as an open territory free-for-the-taking. But obviously, there were other people already living in this so-called "untamed wilderness" -- The Indians. I am struck by how one-sided this American expansion is continually portrayed, not only for the old B/W era, but in today's America too. America creates and sustains an unenlightened legacy of trampling across the continent for it's own uses. Sanctioned by all sorts of religious dispensations where a glorious "end of time" reigns care-free and supreme, like protective salvation, this ratified conquering is highly prevalent even today. I wrote the "Un-Covered Wagon" in order to uncover an alternate view -- that America was never empty nor free for the taking at all. The American continent has always been filled with others, people, stories and history, and has been known as intimately as a familiar footpath shared daily by humans and animals alike -- long before America existed. To reveal this musically, I super-imposed a racist hymn, "Faith of Our Fathers," one half-step apart in tuning from an Indian background to create a new way of hearing that hymn. Chanticleer performs this difficult passage flawlessly and the effect is spooky and surreal. The end of the work calls for three different Indian singing styles to be super-imposed upon each other, and all can be heard clear as a bell in Chanticleer's spectacular performance. I am deeply proud of both the work and Chanticleer's performance of it. "Un-Covered Wagon," as music and message, urges us to reconsider the seasoned and intelligent tradition of keeping good familial relationships with the earth -- that may in fact suit us better -- and to finally strip that out-dated chuck wagon called progress. Life is for sharing, not controlling. With Respect,
Brent Michael Davids
Mohican Nation
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