Charlie Haden - Rambling Boy
|
List Price: Our Price: $9.77 You Save: $7.21 (42%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $7.00 (click here) Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for Rambling Boy
Free Music Review: Old-Time Country / Bluegrass / Americana At Its Best
Hit: 5 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
This is a very well-executed and well-produced album of old-time music that harkens back to simpler times. Anyone who enjoys the music from O Brother, Where Art Thou? or Charlie Louvin should enjoy this CD immensely.
Standouts on this CD for me are:
Single Girl, Married Girl (w/ Rachel, Petra & Tanya Haden)
A Voice From On High (w/ Rachel, Petra & Tanya Haden)
Seven Year Blues (w/ Rachel, Petra & Tanya Haden)
Oh, Take Me Back (w/ Rachel & Tanya Haden)
Tramp On The Street (w/ Rachel Haden)
Rambling Boy (w/ Vince Gill)
Ocean Of Diamonds (w/ Dan Tyminski - the vocalist on "Man of Constant Sorrows" from "O Brother...")
Road Of Broken Hearts (w/ Ricky Skaggs)
Old Joe Clark (w/ Jack Black)
My very favorite vocal perfromances on the album are by any (or all) of the Hayden triplets Rachel, Petra & Tanya. They all sing together on three tracks, Rachel & Tanya on another, and each solo on three others (as well as providing background vocals on several others). Their singing is sweet & pure like a mountain brook, and they harmonize together wonderfully. When they sing, I feel like I am taken back to an old country social.
Two songs I cared for the least on this disc are "20/20 Vision" and "Is This America? (Katrina 2005)". Like another reviewer said, they seemed out of place in this collection. Not bad songs, just not in the same vein as the others on the album.
All in all, an excellent CD for lovers of old-timey music. The musicianship and vocals are top-notch and the sound quality of the recording is superb. Highly recommended.
Free Music Review: Heartwarming
Hit: 5 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
This is a beautiful album. Beautiful may be an overused word, but it really applies here. This CD is a work of great affection and honesty. Virtuoso Jazz bassist Charlie Haden revisits the sort of music he played with his family's country music act in the 1930's and 40's. There is even a recording of him at age two singing and yodeling on his family's radio show. He follows this with his own rendition of Oh Shenandoah, rendered with great feeling and pathos. One of the great finds of this album is the singing of the Haden women, Petra, Tanya, and Rachel. They sing beautifully individually, and their blend as a trio is hard to beat. They have a terrific sense of the style of this music. As for the guest artists, only Elvis Costello is a real disappointment, in You Win Again. He just can't sing. Besides, I have a live recording of that number with Jerry Lee Lewis that's hard to beat. Roseanne Cash sings touchingly the Carter Family standard, Wildwood Flower, a favorite of her stepmother, June Carter Cash. Vince Gill's solo is effective, but best of all is Ricky Skaggs. There is even a W.B. Yeats lyric, Down by the Salley Gardens, sung lovingly by Ruth Cameron. The band consists of some of the best Nashville players, including Jerry Douglas, dobro, and Stuart Duncan, fiddle. Pat Metheney contributes some beautiful, more contemporary sounding licks on guitar, especially in an instrumental number about Hurricane Katrina. Bruce Hornsby also appears on piano, mainly in the background. Any lover of traditional country music should find much to enjoy in this album, but it really transcends its genre and creates beauty that many people should respond to.Free Music Review: Excellent cd!
Hit: 5 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
I've long been a fan of music. Almost all types of music. While my music collection doesn't boast too much bluegrass music, I am proud to own this cd. A musician who had performed mostly jazz for the last 20 or so years, deciding to make a county/bluegrass album? An excellent idea, and boy does it work! This album is filled with many guest performers, including Charlie's family members, Vince Gill, Bruce Hornsby, Roseanne Cash, Elvis Costello, Ricky Scaggs, and even Jack Black.
To me, the standout tracks are:
Wildwood Flower (with Roseanne Cash -- an excellent choice to perform June Carter Cash's signature song!)
Single Girl, Married Girl (with Petra, Tanya and Rachel Haden -- a great example of modern bluegrass)
Road Of Broken Hearts (with Ricky Scaggs, this is my favorite track off the album and absolutely needs to be serviced as a single to country and bluegrass radio stations)
On this cd you even get an example of the old Haden Family Show which had been on the radio, and the sound quality of this track is certainly worse due to the fact that it comes off of an old laquer that doesn't sound like they cleaned it up, which sounds deliberate, as it was also slightly rechanneled for the cd.
Closing out the cd is Charlie Haden himself singing Oh Shenandoah, one of my most favorite songs of all time. His rendition of this song is excellent though the overall song just seemed a bit slow for my tastes.
Overall, this cd is a definite 5 star album, and I recommend it to all fans of country and bluegrass music.
Free Music Review: Fabulously Folksy
Hit: 5 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Charlie Haden's 'Rambling Boy' lives up to its folksy title. From the spunky start of "Single Girl, Married Girl" to the tender finale of "Oh, Shanendoah," this jazz musician gets downhome with some superb numbers that if anything scotch the reminiscent 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?' soundtrack. Drawing more from folk, country, and bluegrass, Haden showcases a lot of family and friends to truly provide a terrific collection. Rubbing elbows with such illustrious likes as Vince Gill, Bruce Hornsby, and Elvis Costello, the breadth and quality of this collection is hard to beat. There's spare passion on numbers like "Spiritual" to the hodown of "Road to Broken Hearts" (with Ricky Skaggs). Playful story spinning comes from "Joe Clark" (with the expression of Jack Black no less). But the family's also adept. The sweetness of Rachel Haden on "The Fields of Athenry" and the marvelous harmonies of The Haden Triplets are inviting and sweetly supportive. One doesn't have to seek The Grand Ole Opry archives or 'A Prairie Home Companion' to get gems like Dan Tyminski's collaboration on "Ocean of Diamonds" or the rustic simplicity of "Down by Salley Gardens" (with Ruth Cameron). Despite the generous nineteen helpings of music, 'Rambling Boy' never offers a sour cup of cider.Free Music Review: Brilliant bluegrass hybrid!
Hit: 5 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
When the pretensions of celebrity recordings gets stripped away, there's not a lot that I'd buy today. Then, along comes this brilliant gem. It is a wonderful circle of true believers, honed on PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION that delivers the goods like these gorgeous tracks. It takes big talent to step back and cut a simple, small-sounding disc, and by god, they've done it and done it really well.
With the purity that American bluegrass emotes, "Charlie Haden Family and Friends: Rambling Boy" is as pure as a mountain stream and a beautiful reminder of what great, traditional Americana sounds like.
Neatly assembled and brilliantly simple, this collection of tracks brings together A past Decemberist (Petra Haden), an actor (Tanya Haden's husband, Jack Black), a couple of modern country legends (Ricky Skaggs, Vince Gill), a jazz man (Pat Metheny), an indie/FM artist or two (Bruce Hornsby, Elvis Costello) and a better cross-section of talent you'd be hard-pressed to find.
Petra, Tanya and Rachel Haden sound as sweet as cool, fresh cider. A clip from the old Haden Family Radio Show shows the heritage that gave birth to so much diverse talent. It's a better heir to WILL THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN.
I'm totally in love with these recordings and paraphrasing Garrison Keeler, "...and oh, aren't they tasty!"