EXCELLET
Bill Your 'Free Form FM Handi Cyber | Mahwah, NJ USA | 08/04/2009
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Earth Opera made an album a year in 1968 and 1969. This is their self titled first.
This band combigned small combo orchectrations with mandolin. There is vibraphone, milkshake smooth acustic guitar, and jazzy drumming. The songs are compact--but Earth Opera is no pop group. Their sound is elegent, working ornate dynamics within convental stong structre.
Peter Rowan made this great band brilliant. He had a bluegrass backround-- did the mandolin work here--but it was more jazz grass, so he is ampley able to handle these arrangements.
More important, he is a singer who could make the Boston Phone Book sound good over a Letterman backing track. He has an authoratative, operatic voice. (Hence the groups name? I don't know.) When he sings, you perk to attention. His voice is high, but can be thick with sadness, even doom.
This fits perfectly here, since this 1968 disc is filled with songs about Vietnam and the cultural devide then englufing the U.S. The lyrics don't mention King, RFK or Chicago directly, but listening, to both words and music, you feel the thick air of that long, hot, terrible year.
The next year, this group made The Great American Eagle Tragedy. Click, and I'll tell you that story.
"
Best of Bosstown --
JNagarya | Boston, MA | 05/06/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"
I recall hearing the anti-war "Red Sox are Winning" on local Boston radio -- among of the better of that category. And during Summer, 1968, saw them every Sunday, for free, on Cambridge (MA) Common.
This (and their "American Eagle Tragedy") are the best of the "Bosstown Sound" grab bag, though those were on MGM, and Earth Opera on Elektra -- itself a worthy distinction. And are exceptional artifacts of the era, and then some. Rock? Jazzy blugrass? Folk? Yes.
There are many favorites on this, but the spirit in which I heard them all those years ago is best embodied in "When You Were Full of Wonder". I still wonder, but it's not so pristine as then. Or insecure.
Buy this, and "American Eagle Tragedy," before they go out of print again.
"
Track Listings (10) - Disc #1
