Customer Reviews:

Avg. Customer Rating: 3.7 / 5.0

Great CD, but singing along may hurt...:

Anonymous 4 sing this collection of American Folk songs beautifully. Many of these tunes will be very familiar to anyone interested in American music before the last century (even "O Brother Whereart Thou" fans' ears may perk up). The harmonies couldn't be more sonically perfect; the melodies no more impeccably sung. It is, overall, a great collection of American Folk songs from the 18th to the early 20th century.

That said, this CD lacks one vital thing: intimacy. Bathing the quartet's voices in... more info

Well, it's pretty, but....:

I'm sorry to disagree with virtually everyone but I found this CD a great disappointment. This ensemble does marvelous work with early music and I find all of their other albums a delight. Not this one. The singers are so caught up with their harmonies that they lose the melodies. It takes real effort to make a dozen of these wonderfully various folk songs and hymns sound pretty much the same but the Anonymous 4 accomplishes that in this album. Musically, these songs have always been ABOUT melody.... more info

heritage harmony:

I love vocal harmonies like this. The experimentation with "Amazing Grace" captured my imagination. Yet they also included a more traditional version as well. My favorite tracks also include: "Blooming Vale" and "Shall We Gather at the River". These voices are genuine and lovely. Listen first to a couple of tracks to be sure you'll take to this early American music because it is different, but if you have an ear for time-honored music and female vocal harmonies you'll find it very enjoyable.

Tracks:

1. Holy Manna
2. Abbeville
3. Wondrous Love
4. Sweet Hour Of Prayer
5. Jewett
6. Dunlap's Creek
7. New Britain
8. The Morning Trumpet
9. Resignation
10. Poland
11. Wayfaring Stranger
12. Sweet By And By
13. Blooming Vale
14. Idumea (I)/Idumea (II)
15. Sweet Prospect
16. Shall We Gather At The River

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