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Holistic Guidance - Still Crooked
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List Price: $17.98
Our Price: $13.99
Your Save: $ 3.99 ( 22% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Signature Sounds
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0701237201320
Label: Signature Sounds
Manufacturer: Signature Sounds
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Signature Sounds
Release Date: 2008-06-24
Studio: Signature Sounds
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Editorial Reviews:
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It takes courage to release the securityof the familiar and embrace change. After five years of touring and establishing themselves as "the most important folk group to emerge from Boston since the early 60's" (Boston Globe) , Crooked Still announced that cellist Rushad Eggleston would leave the group in November of 2007. The band that had been drawing invitations from huge events like the historic Newport and Telluride Folk Festivals, and numerous rave reviews from publications like USA Today and Interview Magazine, was now on the cusp of a new musical chapter. The quintet became five with the addition of fiddler Brittany Haas and Tristan Clarridge on cello and second fiddle. If the first album from the new line-up is any indication, success for this young band will be explosive. Crooked Still continues to perform one of the most compelling forms of alternative bluegrass and string band music today. Still Crooked is an ensemble effort of inspired music making that moves the bands' impossible to pigeonhole style in new directions while honoring their folk roots.Crooked Still's genre bending sound is the combination of five distinctive talents who are not content to limit themselves to any one project or style of music. While Crooked Still is the main band for these talented players, all are involved in other projects including Aoife O'Donovan's work with Solas and Sometymes Why and Gregory Liszt's turn with the Bruce Springsteen's Seeger Sessions Band.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: gorgeous music
Comment: the poignant vocals float over a lively and rhythmic wave of instrumentation. the ballads are lovely and there is good variety in terms of the moods of the different pieces.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great recording from a brilliant band
Comment: OK, imagine, if you will, an old wooden railroad bridge across a deep chasm somewhere in the wilderness. Two trains approach from the opposite directions: one is carrying a brilliant string quartet of the finest young classical musicians from the most demanding music schools. The other train is bearing a fantastic bluegrass band with one of the greatest banjo players of the time.
They collide head-on.
And yet miraculously and mysteriously, out of the inferno strides five young survivors. Somehow spared by a higher power of both darkness and light to create a sound greater than the sum of the parts.
That's Crooked Still.
Think about this-- when The Boss was putting together his Seeger Sessions band, he called Greg Liszt to play banjo. Aoife O'Donovan is the daughter of Brian O'Donovan. Guests include Tim O'Brien and Casey Driessen.
My favorite track is the very VERY scary "Did You Sleep Well?" "Murdergrass" at it's finest (Hmmmn, or is it?)
I grant you, some people won't get it. OK, the title is too precious (It should really be called "Undone in Sorrow" a GREAT song from Olla Belle Reed, a GREAT American musician)
These cats are in the very forefront of the incredible revival of world class stringbands such as the Carolina Chocolate Drops, The Duhks, Uncle Earl and Old Crow medicine Show.
Yes, they recently have some new members, but they didn't rebuild, they reloaded.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Chamber Bluegrass
Comment: Or "Artgrass," as I call it. They have a cello player. Enough said.
This is bluegrass for aesthetes and city slickers who wouldn't be caught dead at a barn dance or revival meeting.
The girl singer is really annoying, too; all breathy and fragile and folky. I could barely understand the lyrics she was singing.
The musicianship is of a high level, but to what end? There seems to be nothing about life that these folks wish to communicate to the listener. The music sounds like an academic exercise.
What really grips these folks? Where does life grab them? This CD offers no clues.
Customer Rating:
Summary: An extraordinary album from a truly original band
Comment: I discovered Crooked Still entirely by accident at the Grey Fox bluegrass festival two years ago. After enjoying a few sets of traditional bluegrass music played by well-established bands that have been together for decades, this ragtag group of 20-somethings came on the stage -- one with a double bass and another with a cello -- and blew the audience away. I've been hooked ever since.
Still Crooked is the perfect name their latest album, since it's the first since the departure of their wildly spectacular (and spectacularly wild) original cellist Rushad Eggleston. As a great fan of their first two CDs -- Hop High and Shaken by a Low Sound -- I know I wasn't the only one who was worried about the future direction and quality of the band. But from the very first track it's clear that there's no need for concern. The new incarnation of Crooked Still is very much Still Crooked and still creating music of the highest order.
While the album has a few fun up-tempo tunes (Poor Ellen Smith is a blast all the way to the very end, with its surprise final violin flourish), overall it's definitely quieter and more intense than their other CDs. It opens with the extraordinary Undone in Sorrow, a heartbreakingly plaintive song that showcases the entire band's strengths, from Aoife O'Donovan's breathy vocals to the fine playing of new cellist Tristan Clarridge and new violinist Brittany Haas. Another real standout is Low Down and Dirty, an original song of painful love, vengeful murder, and a touch of cowardice written by O'Donovan that brings visions of Tim Burton's movies to mind. Two of the finest songs on the CD are almost lullabies -- Captain Captain and Florence -- and honestly, there isn't a weak song on the entire CD.
Highly recommended.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Cconsistently surprised their audience
Comment: Their latest album has pumped up some traditional american music. This time they did it with two new members. A new cellist replacing the old one. And a new fiddler Ms. Haas. She gives the Crooked Still so much more sounds and variations. Her solo part on the tunes are just amazing. Fans love it.
Quality of sound is up to the standard like the previous two albums. The songs that they've chosen on this album is not what i've anticipated. It's always a 'growing' thing. You've to listen to it a few more times to understand the composition of the songs. But it's for sure that the variety of tunes are very limited on this album. I'm giving a four star rating because of that. It's worth listening and a great introduction to the newer generation of bluegrass music!
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