Fiddlers 4

Artist: Fiddlers 4 , Bruce Molsky , Michael Doucet , Darol Anger , and Rushad Eggleston
Label: Compass Records
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 766397433424
EAN: 0766397433424
ASIN: B000060P8H

Release Date: 2002-03-12

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Listmania:

Favorite Fiddle Albums

Tracks:

Pickin' the Devil's Eye
You Little Wild Thing (La Bitaille)
E. St. Louis Todalo
Hidirassirifo
Just a Closer Walk with Thee/I Know
Chez Seychelles
I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free
African Solstice
Man of Constant Sorrow
Mazurka/Acadian Two-Step
Greek Medley/Polly Put the Kettle On
Danse Caribe
Atchafalaya Pipeline

Similar Items:

Republic of Strings
Fire & Grace
Diary of a Fiddler
Soon Be Time
Generation Nation

Customer Reviews:

Fine playing, great interpretations.......2005-12-23

The musicians on this CD really work well together. They come from very different backgrounds, but created a marvelously cohesive sound. The tunes selected for this album are also from different musical traditions. Some are cajun melodies, while others are on the bluegrass side of things. These fellows brought them all together in a really wonderful, consistently enjoyable set of songs that I can listen to over and over without ever tiring of it. Great CD.

This one really hit me today.......2004-05-05

Okay, so I was getting antsy waiting for my copy of Darol Anger's American Fiddle Ensemble - Republic of Strings (his newest release) to arrive, so I revisited this one. It's been quite some time since I listened to this release and I have always thought of it as an album that is uneven, but with great moments. Well, I'm not sure what I was thinking, but I was wrong. Aside from really just two tracks, this disc is excellent! I don't know how I ever thought of this as anything less than a fantastic disc. I listened to it today and literally had to get up off the couch and dance in the living room.

Lots could be said about the three legends on this disc, but I want to also give a moment to Rushad (cello). This isn't just some young guy who got lucky and knew someone who knew someone and ended up getting a prime gig. Rushad is utterly brilliant! His cello playing changes the whole feel and movement of everything on which he plays. This could have been called Fiddlers 3 (just the legends) and it still would have been great, but it would have been a completely different album. Rushad's playing, and the sonority of the cello, just gives all these tunes a certain depth and a certain body that they could not have achieved without him.

As was said in a previous review, yes, this is the best, most emotionally powerful Man Of Constant Sorrow I have ever heard.

The number of stars to give a disc is usually the toughest part of the review. The other day I reviewed the new Garcia/Grisman album (Been All Around This World) and gave it three. I'm giving this one four, but that seems unfair to Fiddlers 4. It is head-and-shoulders better than Been All Around This World, in every possible way. I guess if I were to be more accurate, I would consider Been All Around to be a 2.7-star album, and this to be a 4.3.

This disc is a must-have classic, and just one more reason to believe that Darol Anger is still the most forward-thinking "new acoustic musician" of his generation. Thank you, Darol! Keep the classics coming!

A Grammy Nominee.......2003-01-25

I saw Darol playing with a whole crew of string players in San Francisco and had never been so entertained. That Rushad kid ROCKED! What presence, what a beat, Rythmn too! Somewhere Darol trimmed the group to this 4. They played at the Skirball center here in Los Angeles and I haven't stopped hearing great stuff about the show (also an over the top review in the LA Times). This CD is just irresistible. And although it almost doesn't say much being a Grammy nominee anymore this one stands out..

SIMPLY THE BEST AMERICAN MUSIC OUT THERE!!!!.......2002-04-28

OK. This one's a winner!!! The Fiddlers 4 are doing great things for American vernacular music. What makes this CD so outstanding is the fiddle masters themselves and the arrangements they have collectively created from (and the original compositions like Anger's "African Solstice" and Doucet's "Danse Caribe" they've added to) the wide, wonderful spectrum of our American fiddle repertoire. (American means it comes from diverse places!) The CD unfolds so nicely from the opening Mississippi sharecropper's tune, "Pickin' The Devil's Eye," to its ending Doucet-original Cajun tune. What a JOY listening to this new quatuor's vivid musical imagination, its primal groove-based string sound, and its well-placed musical jokes (listen for "Atchafalaya Pipeline"'s finale). Thanks to Darol for just being DAROL and an unassuming genius; Bruce for just being BRUCE and for his touching tribute to Dr. Billy Taylor, "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free;" Michael for singing, composing, and playing in Cajun French (a most beautiful language); and Rushad for the host of amazing characters that climb out of his cello! This CD gets my very highest recommendation -- VIVE American vernacular music! VIVE these 4 musical musketeers!!!! (pioneers!!!!)

wonderful fusion.......2002-04-24

Shortly after buying the CD, I saw the group perform in Somerville, MA. They are an energetic and highly entertaining ensemble (very funny on stage), and their musicianship is superb. I can highly recommend the CD, which roams around bluegrass, Cajun, jazz, African, and Caribbean with equal facility. There's so much to admire on this disc, like Bruce Molsky's riveting "Man of Constant Sorrow" (the best version I've ever heard), the gorgeous textures of "Chez Seychelles," or the hypnotic "African Solstice." It's all quite irresistible.

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