Over the Rhine - Snow Angels (2006) [FLAC/320]

[mcmenace]

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Over the Rhine - Snow Angels
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Artist.................: Over the Rhine
Album................: Snow Angels
Genre................: Folk
Source...............: CD
Year..................: 2006
Ripper................: Sum1 & Asus DRW-24B1ST

(FLAC)
Codec................: Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC)
Version...............: FLAC 1.2.1 20070917
Quality...............: Lossless, (avg. bitrate: 898kb/s)
Channels............: Stereo / 44100 HZ / 16 Bit
Tags..................: VorbisComment
Included.............: Log, Cue, M3U
Covers...............: Front Back CD Booklet




(MP3)
Codec................: LAME 3.98
Version..............: MPEG 1 Layer III
Quality..............: Insane, (avg. bitrate: 320kbps)
Channels............: Joint Stereo / 44100 hz / 16 Bit
Tags.................: .ID3 v2.3
Included............: M3U
Covers...............: Front Back CD Booklet

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Finally, the perfect CD for music lovers who appreciate a great song, and are
burnt out on typical holiday fare. Over The Rhine's Snow Angels is unlike any
holiday record you've ever heard. This collection of ten, brand new, original
songs, many of which feel destined to become modern Christmas classics,
conjures the Joni Mitchell's "The River" or John Lennon's "The War is Over,"
and yet the recordings embodied in Snow Angels have a unique groove all
their own.

Over the Rhine has released holiday records before -- make that Christmas
records -- with Darkest Night of the Year, a recording of a live performance
done in a public theater in Cincinnati in 1997. But Snow Angels is different. It
amounts to the second full-length recording OTR has released in 2007. First
came the flawed but nonetheless compelling Trumpet Child. Snow Angels, set
in the coming winter, deals with seasonal themes of death and rebirth, with
the time of the lowest of depressions and the greatest of joys, and results in
a profound meditation on the season, on winter, and on what it allows to
happen both inside the individual and for the land. It was recorded at a home
studio set up in the barn of the pre-Civil War farmhouse that OTR's two
permanent members, Karin Bergquist and Linford Detweiler, live in.
Detweiler's piano has become the central aspect of OTR's instrumental sound,
and it is especially so here, which is good and proper as it nostalgically recalls
notions of family and friends gathering around an upright and singing
together. There are few singalongs, though. Most of the songs here are
jazzy, introspective tunes framed in Bergquist's ever more astonishing voice.
It's because she's an unusually gifted vocalist. Her range is limited and reedy
at the top, but that's because she has become a true stylist in her own right.
She has studied the greats and it shows. There isn't anything extra in her
delivery; her clipped lines on the gorgeous "All I Ever Get for Christmas Is
Blue" recall Billie Holiday and Betty Carter in their phrasing, but she doesn't
have those voices, making it all the more remarkable. Thank God she doesn't
give in to the contemporary temptation to sing like Norah Jones or Tierney
Sutton -- we have enough of those clones already. What's beautiful in this
tune is that pervasive feeling of "blue" as this retro-jazz number moves
through its paces with simply a piano trio backing her. When she sings gospel
on "New Redemption Song," and Detweiler's piano resonates in its middle and
lower registers, the band kicks in behind them as if to underscore the places
she's been by the time she opens her mouth. Brad Jones plays bass and
electric guitar, and Detweiler dubs in a B-3 as well.

Detweiler's "Goodbye Charlie" is a wonderful elegy for Charles M. Shultz,
creator of Charlie Brown and the entire Peanuts crew. How do we know?
Because the song's imitation of Vince Guaraldi is so utterly complete, even in
the trills followed by bass notes; Detweiler has them down cold -- at least
mechanically. It's derivative but fun, and he's becoming a better pianist all
the time. Perhaps one day we'll here Red Garland and Ray Bryant in his
playing as well as Guaraldi and Erroll Garner. Another fine jazz moment is in
"Snowed in with You," again starred by Bergquist's poetic and gently swinging
vocal performance (she really reaches for her higher register here and pulls it
off because she lets the volume rise); she's supported by a brilliant upright
bassline from Byron House and a taut little violin solo by the great multi-
instrumentalist Fats Kaplin. "North Pole Man" is a blues that is a little too
sparse to hold with the rest of what's here, but it's a small complaint. Those
longing for OTR's particular brand of country-rock will not be disappointed, as
"Here It Is" is a full-blown rocker with electric guitars, acoustic guitars, a B-3,
bells, and some nice kit work by Mickey Grimm; and Bergquist's lyrics, as over
the top as they are, are among her best (truth be told, Bruce Springsteen will
be jealous if he ever hears this song, though Patti Scialfa will know exactly
where a song like this comes from). House's undulating bassline is infectious
here.

The set closes with the sparse "We're Gonna Pull Through." It's a strange and
haunting way to end a recording that is, for the most part, jaunty with an
even tempo. While the message in Bergquist's lyric is redemptive, it comes by
way of difficulty, love-worn and tested, yet absolutely affirmative in how
necessary that message is that gets through. Detweiler's acoustic guitar and
piano skeletally frame the vocal and David Henry's cello plays serpentine-like
through and around it. The bottom line is simple: this is perhaps the only
"Christmas" record to have -- other than Guaraldi's, of course -- even if you
are sick to death of Christmas records. Beyond that, however, and despite
Detweiler's usual pretentious liner notes, which feel patronizing to the casual
listener (though surely not to the rabid roots fan base OTR has developed
over the decades -- put them on your website, put them in a blog, but leave
them out of the booklet and save some trees), this happens to be among the
most enjoyable, and sophisticated and quirky records in OTR's catalog. It
doesn't have the tension and drama some of the others do, but it feels
genuine, heartfelt, and full of a kind of gratitude that can only be called joy.
Highly recommended.

Personnel:
Karin Bergquist (vocals);
Linford Detweiler (acoustic guitar, accordion, piano, Hammond b-3 organ,
bells, background ocals);
Brad Jones (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, mandolin, organ, bass guitar);
Mickey Grimm (drums, drum set, percussion);
Fats Kaplin (violin);
David Henry (cello);
Byron House (upright bass).
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1. (00:04:24) Over the Rhine - All I Ever Get for Christmas is Blue
2. (00:03:34) Over the Rhine - Darlin' (Christmas is Coming)
3. (00:04:14) Over the Rhine - White Horse
4. (00:03:23) Over the Rhine - Little Town
5. (00:02:25) Over the Rhine - New Redemption Song
6. (00:02:18) Over the Rhine - Goodbye Charles
7. (00:05:08) Over the Rhine - Snowed In With You
8. (00:03:08) Over the Rhine - North Pole Man
9. (00:03:26) Over the Rhine - Here it is
10. (00:03:59) Over the Rhine - One Olive Jingle
11. (00:04:26) Over the Rhine - Snow Angel
12. (00:02:46) Over the Rhine - We're Gonna Pull Through

Playing Time.........: 00:43:11
Total Size...........: 295.00 MB (FLAC)
Total Size...........: 115.000 MB (MP3)



(FLAC)

http://rapidshare.com/files/409909474/OTR-AngelsF.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/409909410/OTR-AngelsF.part2.rar

(MP3)

http://rapidshare.com/files/409908010/OTR-AngelsM.rar