Kate Rusby - Hourglass
|
List Price: Our Price: $8.65 You Save: $9.34 (52%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $5.66 (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 Hourglass
Free Music Review: A Fine Achievement
Hit: 5 Stars
British folkie Kate Rusby has created a fine disc, bucking all of the problems that plague so many modern folk artists.
Actually, there is little that is modern about Hourglass. Most of the songs from this disc are from Medieval England, and they are performed exceptionally well, with feeling and grace.
Standouts include the traditional Annan Waters (listen to the way the piano is introduced about 30 secondes into this one) and Kate's own A Rose in April (if this doesn't bring tears to your eyes, then the following song, Radio Sweethearts (a beautiful, beautiful number about what can only be described as a true love relationship), certainly will.)
Listen to the pristine, undoctored beauty of Kate's voice. I simply have never heard an instrument of such beauty and purity. The sadness in Kate's voice is also readily apparent (and appropriate for most of the songs). I once read a reviewer's comment that Kate's voice is not unlike June Tabor's. When I first listended to Kate, I thought nothing could be further from the truth. But I now agree with the reviewer. Kate's voice, per se, sounds nothing like June's. However, her emotion, her sadness, and her phrasing are very similar. June and Kate are the two greatest folk singers in the world, maybe of all time.
Listen to Hourglass. It is timeless, and it is true art.
-- Michael J. Shogi
Free Music Review: Best I've heard in Decades
Hit: 5 Stars
I live in Australia but first heard Kate when visiting England. I bought hourglass after hearing one song and this album has become my number one alltime favourite. The first six or seven times I listened to Hourglass I could not stop the tears, the songs were just so full of emotion and simply touched something inside. "Annan Waters" particularly evokes feelings that go way beyond the words and the music, it will bring tears to your eyes. "Jolly Ploughboys" will make you laugh. Listen to "Bold Riley", a sea shanty, and you can almost smell the salt. "I am Stretched on your Grave" will make you cry with anger at the injustice of olde worlde England. Many of my friends have never listened to folk music before but everyone of them has been touched by this CD. My 15 year old son is into heavy metal and Rap music but Kate Rusby has touched him too. He will often put "Hourglass" on instead of his usual choices. Kate is not very well known here in Australia yet, but I think it is only a matter of time and exposure. How can such a huge talent fail to become world famous.Free Music Review: Yes, folk music can be (and should be) fun.
Hit: 5 Stars
Ever since the canonization of Dylan we seem to have forgotten that folk music can convey humour and warmth just as well as social protest or internal strife. Kate Rusby delves back into traditional music and comes up with songs both sad ("Drowned Lovers") and happy ("Sir Eglamore"). Her voice is a marvel of expression, sensual one minute but innocently gleeful in another. This is interpretation par excellence, not to mention the conviction with which she adapts the songwriting mode and comes up with her originals -- "A Rose in April" being one impressive example. Rusby is like the perfect companion to Gillian Welch, her colourful performances providing yin to the dark narratives of Welch's yang.Free Music Review: drowned lovers, slain dragons
Hit: 5 Stars
Since its release a couple of years back, Kate Rusby's solo debut has been a permanent fixture in my stereo, proving as difficult to dislodge as a gang of wellie-wearing crusties in an airport tunnel with nooses. Fans of her awesome 1995 collaboration with Kathryn Roberts will be pleased to hear that the bodycount remains satisfying high - the songs are littered with the bodies of drowned lovers, slain dragons and, well, more drowned lovers (very few people survive a traditional English folk song, you'll notice) - and that the carnage is once again wrapped in Rusby's seductive husky tones: you will not hear a more beautifully performed collection. If you buy just one more album before you die......Free Music Review: Excellent Rusby Record of English Folk Music
Hit: 5 Stars
"Hourglass" by Kate Rusby presents a wonderful collection of English folk music both new and traditional.
This young lady manages to make the traditional songs come to life and sounds contemporary, and the new songs sound like they were written hundreds of years ago. Her voice is beautifully unadorned without unnecessarily unaffected.
On songs like "Sir Eglamore," ""Jolly Ploughboys," "I Am Stretched Out On Your Grave," "Drowned Lovers," and " Bold Riley" Rusby charms, delights, and even haunts. "Hourglass" is a wonderful record and a start to a wonderful recording career.