True Vine

True Vine

Editorial Reviews
Product Description
Mountain music legend Ralph Stanley said of six-time Grammy nominee Mike Seeger, "He's got his own style. He's an old-timer, and he does his style just fine." From the fertile ground of American folk music, through the roots of field recordings, vintage discs, and personal encounters with traditional artists, Seeger's creative spirit finds flower again on this solo album. True Vine reflects his connection to deep musical roots and represents the latest blossoming of his life-long exploration of diverse traditional musical styles.

Tracks:

Introduction: Ad Libitum - Ode I: 'O Jesus The Son Of God, Have Mercy Upon Us'
Ode II: 'O Most Holy Birth-giver Of God, Save Us'
Ode III: 'O Holy Saint Nicholas, pray To God For Us' Coda: Ad Libtitum
Tribute To Caesa, St. Matthew 22, 15-22
Nunc Dimittis, St. Luke 2, 29-32
Ode VII (Memento)
I Am The True Vine
The Woman With The Alabaster Box, St. Matthew 26, 6-13
After The Victory
Mother Of God And Virgin

Customer Reviews:

harkens back to classics.......2007-01-10

I am overwhelmed the beautiful melodic tones of his work. The coral sections are so beautiful and have a feel of meloncholy but with a sense of traditional classic choral music. I recommend his work to those who love Bill Douglas.

Exquisite A Cappella Choral Music Exquisitely Sung.......2006-10-25

It really is extraordinary these days for the music of a living composer to have multiple recordings and for those recordings to become best-sellers, but that is precisely what has happened with the music of Arvo Pärt, the 71-year-old Estonian composer whose choral music on sacred texts has become wildly popular, even among non-classical-music fans. There is something ethereally attractive about the music. It helps that it is unfailingly tonal, has a serenity that is sorely needed in these troubled days, and that it has attracted performances by such marvelous groups as the Elora Festival Singers on the present disc. The Elora singers are surely one of the best professional choral groups in North American, not to say the world. It is made up of singers drawn from the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and has been singing together for twenty-five years under its founder, Noel Edison. I raved about their previous recording, also on Naxos, of Pärt's 'Berliner Messe.' And this review is also a rave. It is rare that someone comes into my home, hears a snippet of a recording and wants not only to know who and what it is but wants to get a copy for themselves. That has happened with this recording and I notice that although the CD has been available at Amazon for less than a month, it is already one of their classical bestsellers. No surprise, really, since this is immediately attractive music sung exquisitely, impeccably, sensitively by the Elora Singers.

Most of the works recorded here have been recorded before, but never better. They are pieces written in the decade between 1990 (Triodion) and 2001 (Bogoróditse Djévo [Mother of God and Virgin]). All the texts are religious, most of them in English or church Latin; the non-English texts are translated and the English texts supplied in the accompanying booklet. All have a radiantly reverential quality accomplished at least partly by Pärt's use of melodies influenced by Gregorian chant and accompanied by what he calls 'tintinnabuli', the simple bell-like triadic harmonies underlying them. This approach has a trance-like or meditative quality that many people, even non-religious types (myself included), find irresistible.

One last comment: on the basis of the inclusion of Ode VII (Memento) from Pärt's 1994 'Kanon Pokajanen', his longest extended work since the St. John Passion, I would love to find that the Elora Festival Singers intend to record the whole thing.

Strong recommendation.

Scott Morrison

Average customer rating:

Simple Greatness
True, indeed
lovely, mysterious sounds from the lost America

True Vine
Mike Seeger
Manufacturer: Smithsonian Folkways
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Old-Time Country | Traditional Country | Country | Styles | Music

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Close To Home: Old Time Music From Mike Seeger's Collection 1952-1967
Southern Banjo Sounds
The Early Years (1958-1962)
DVD-Old-Time Banjo Styles Taught By Mike Seeger
Solo: Old Time Music

ASIN: B00008XES0
Release Date: 2003-05-20

Tracks:

Breaking Up Ice In The Allegheny
Coo Coo Bird
Johnson Jinkson
Little Rabbit, Where's Your Mammy?
The Raftsman's Song
Honeycutt's Holler
Did you Ever See The Devil, Uncle Joe?
Blow The Horn, Blow
Old Man
Spoonful
Shouting In Jerusalem
When Sorrows Encompass Me Round
Calico
Early In The Spring
Freight Train
Goodbye, My Little Darling
Don't Let Your Deal Go Down
I'm Gonna Go Huntin' For The Buffalo
Grandad Jim's Waltz
The Golden Willow Tree
California Cotillion
Young Johnnie
Sail Away Ladies

Album Description

Mountain music legend Ralph Stanley said of six-time Grammy nominee Mike Seeger, "He's got his own style. He's an old-timer, and he does his style just fine." From the fertile ground of American folk music, through the roots of field recordings, vintage discs, and personal encounters with traditional artists, Seeger's creative spirit finds flower again on this solo album. True Vine reflects his connection to deep musical roots and represents the latest blossoming of his life-long exploration of diverse traditional musical styles.

Customer Reviews:

Simple Greatness.......2005-01-28

Mike Seeger is a great man. He's also a modest, almost quiet spoken man. I was lucky enough to buy this CD directly from him.

All along the nearly 50 years he has been playing, recording, training, inspiring, collecting, writing, and gathering people around this music, he's had a simple dedication to the real people who created this music, to white and Black working people of the South and places therabouts. Mike has used the term, home made music, front porch music, back porch music to describe the music he heard and later captured with his tape recorder in teh 1950s and early 60s. That is what this is, though the person making it at home is a master.

This is music made at home and that has what he has always tried to capture in his field recordings, in the collections he put out, in his work with the New Lost City Ramblers and the Strange Creek Singers, but above all on his solo albums. Sometimes his choice and variety of instruments leads us to renditions that are not as much of a performance as we become sadly used to even on old time music cds, but an iteration of the song being played in the old traditions as it might have been in somebody's living room or front porch 50 60 70 years ago.

Indeed some of the renditions here like "Did You Ever See the Devil Uncle Joe" done on the Jews Harp or Sail Away done with autoharp contrast with versions Mike recorded decades ago with the NLCR gives us a more personal, more home made sound than even the string band music.

Once of the more interesting things on the album are the Coo Coo Bird, Spoonful, and Shout in Jerusalem, where Mike shows his growing interest in African American banjo styles as well as his ability to bring gourd banjo playing to life.

Vonnegut once wrote about how television eliminated the recognition of the fellow in the neighborhood who could whistle or do a card trick, or could sing a few old country songs as someone who got listened to, celebrated, and taken around. This album is a celebration of when that person is an old time musician with a guitar, a fiddle, an autoharp, a quill, a banjo or a jews harp.

True, indeed.......2004-09-16

This one was on my Christmas list last year and I have been enjoying it ever since. At first I felt it wasn't as good as his other recent solo Smithsonian/Folkways disc, Southern Banjo Sounds, but I think that was due to my being in such a banjo mood all the time for a while there, and True Vine not being all banjos. From banjo to quills & shakers, fiddle, fiddle & harmonica, solo vocals (just one track), guitar, auto-harp, etc... pretty much everything from the Mike Seeger universe is represented here. Represented very well, I might add.

I have to give special thanks to Mr. Seeger for making mention in the liner-notes of who inspired this version of Spoonful. If you have (or even if you don't) the excellent Black Banjo Songsters of North Carolina and Virginia disc and want to hear more of the various unfortunately-not-often-recorded black styles of banjo playing, I have to recommend the disc mentioned in the liner-notes. Will Slayden: African-American Banjo Songs from West Tennessee. This disc is great but it has almost no distribution and is not available here. If you want to hear it for yourself, go to www.middleenglish.org/tennfolk/. That is the site for the Tennessee Folklore Society. They released it. I don't know why they have never listed the disc on their site but trust me, it is still for sale. It wasn't listed on the site when I bought it, either. Just e-mail the address given lower down on that main page and ask about it. It's very well worth your time.

I should think most any old-timey music fan will love True Vine, as it is packed full of great tunes and masterful performances. Even when Mike plays an arrangement or combines two instruments you probably wouldn't have thought of yourself, he still always manages to make it sound and feel as if it's 150-years-old.

lovely, mysterious sounds from the lost America.......2003-05-26

Mike Seeger has been immersed in traditional Southern music for so long that you can hardly call him a "revivalist" anymore. His role in the history of the music is by now so large that he is, no doubt about it, a significant link in the tradition. It has become mere detail that he was city-born and -bred, raised in a family of urban intellectuals.

Most artists with this background turn to folk music and try to modernize it. Seeger does the opposite. In his singing, playing, and arranging, he makes old songs seem even older. In his performance, for example, the venerable blues tune "Spoonful," probably created in the early 20th Century, sounds early 19th Century; even if, strictly speaking, we don't really know how American folk music sounded then, Seeger's reading is surely a good approximation. Seeger reimagines "Sail Away, Ladies," a fiddle-and-banjo song from middle Tennessee usually associated with Uncle Dave Macon, as an autoharp-and-quills piece. The effect is almost eerie, and almost unbearably beautiful.

Even if you think you know American folk music, Seeger always surprises you with obscure songs and tunes, or familiar ones with unexpected lyrics and melodies, often played on antique instruments set to unusual (or forgotten) tunings. As you hear it, you're taken away to a lost America of strange but weirdly compelling music. True Vine is a stunning achievement -- brilliant, deeply moving, and not quite like anything you've ever heard.

R. Nathaniel Dett: Piano Works
Average customer rating:

Great Composer, Great Pianist

R. Nathaniel Dett: Piano Works

Manufacturer: New World Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Suites | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music
Chamber Music | Forms & Genres | Classical (c.1770-1830) | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
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Music of R Nathaniel Dett

ASIN: B0000030E9
Release Date: 1992-12-08

Tracks:

Magnolia Suite: No.1 Magnolias
Magnolia Suite: No.2 Deserted Cabin
Magnolia Suite: No.3 My Lady Love
Magnolia Suite: No.4 Mammy
Magnolia Suite: No.5 The Place Where The Rainbow Ends
In The Bottoms: Prelude: Night
In The Bottoms: His Song
In The Bottoms: Honey: Humoresque
In The Bottoms: Barcarolle: Morning
In The Bottoms: Dance: Juba
Eight Bible Vignettes: Father Abraham
Eight Bible Vignettes: Desert Interlude
Eight Bible Vignettes: As His Own Soul
Eight Bible Vignettes: Barcarolle Of Tears
Eight Bible Vignettes: I Am The True Vine
Eight Bible Vignettes: Martha Complained
Eight Bible Vignettes: Other Sheep
Eight Bible Vignettes: Madrigal Divine

Customer Reviews:

Great Composer, Great Pianist.......2005-03-31

This album contains a masterful interpretation by the spectacular pianist Denver Oldham of the beautiful, important, and often forgotten piano works of R. Nathaniel Dett. Perfection of expression is the most accurate way I can think to describe Oldham's performances both recorded and live.

Average customer rating:

Colourful Choral Collection

Arvo Pärt: Triodion

Manufacturer: Hyperion UK
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Sacred & Religious | Classical | Styles | Music

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Orient & Occident
Arvo Pärt: De Profundis
Miserere
Litany
Part: Summa

ASIN: B0000ARNEZ
Release Date: 2003-10-14

Tracks:

Dopo La Vittoria
Nunc Dimittis
...Which Was The Son Of...
I Am The True Vine
Littlemore Tractus
Triodion
My Heart's In The Highlands
Salve Regina

Customer Reviews:

Colourful Choral Collection.......2007-07-19

How has no one reviewed this album yet? Is it that overlooked? If it is, it's a sad fact, because this disc, while perhaps not the greatest collection of Pärt pieces, is wonderful, to say the least.

First, let's get something out of the way: The packaging was nice, and the recording is top-notch. There.

As for the music itself, it, as is almost always the case with Pärt, I find, never ceases to stir and inspire. "Dopo la vittoria" is a diverse piece, with a surprisingly light and bouncy beginning. "Nunc dimittis", while a little on the forgettable side, is nice. "...which was the son of..." can seem a little repetitive at first, but one notices more and more layers upon each listening. "I am the True Vine" is very even and restrained, but is moving all the same. "Littlemore Tractus" is the shortest selection, but is nice. "Triodion", on the other hand, is the longest, and, to me, the most interesting; parts of it reminded me of another Pärt piece, "Te Deum", my all-time favourite of Arvo's. "My Heart's in the Highlands" is a gloomy but deep piece, and the counter-tenor's voice is downright haunting. The last selection, "Salve Regina", has some good music, but is also a little forgettable.

Overall, a great album...and, once again, it shocks me that no one has reviewed this one yet. If you're new to Pärt, or looking for a place to begin, I might suggest something else, but this is definitely essential to the collection of any fan of this brilliant composer.

Average customer rating:

Heavenly lullaby
If you're looking for minimalism...
Impecable recording quality...a recording artists dream.
Brilliant performance, good sound
They can sing this in Heaven

I Am The True Vine: Arvo Part
Paul Hillier , Theatre of Voices , and Pro Arte Singers
Manufacturer: Harmonia Mundi Fr.
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Sacred & Religious | Classical | Styles | Music

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Arvo Pärt: De Profundis
Orient & Occident
Miserere
Arvo Part: Te Deum / Kaljuste, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir
Litany

ASIN: B00003Z9U9
Release Date: 2000-03-14

Tracks:

Bogoroditse Djevo
I Am The True Vine
Ode IX, from Kanon pokajanen
Woman With the Alabaster Box, The
Tribute To Caesar
BERLINER MESSE with Christopher Bowers-Broadbent organ/Kyrie
BERLINER MESSE/Gloria
BERLINER MESSE/Erster Alleluiavers
BERLINER MESSE/Zweiter Alleluiavers
BERLINER MESSE/Veni Sancte Spiritus
BERLINER MESSE/Credo
BERLINER MESSE/Sanctus
BERLINER MESSE/Angus dei

Amazon.com

Contemporary troubador Paul Hillier has been one of the key players behind introducing Arvo Pärt's music to Western audiences, first through recordings with the Hilliard Ensemble and later through his magnificently innovative group Theatre of Voices. I Am the True Vine continues the collaboration by bringing together some truly vintage Pärt compositions from the '90s. Although it exists on disc in a more elaborate version for choir and strings, the 1990 Berlin Mass was originally written for just four solo voices and organ. Pärt later revised the score, returning to that original sonority, which is the version offered here. The consummate preparation of the Theatre of Voices, in which every line is lovingly unfurled, the whole building into a memorable aural sculpture, only heightens a listener's admiration for Pärt's ability to make the seemingly simple profound. We also hear the composer in a more overtly joyful mood than usual in the short first selection, while the title track--a setting of a text from the Gospel of John and one of three world premiere recordings here--is a marvelously organic example of word painting (representing Pärt's choral virtuosity even when it comes to setting English text). --Thomas May

Customer Reviews:

Heavenly lullaby.......2006-08-20

This is the CD on my bedroom CD player that I listen to to "center" myself before going to sleep. It's actually a little intense for lullaby music, stimulating in a profoundly relaxing way.This is the first CD I would take to my desert island.

If you're looking for minimalism..........2003-04-03

I must have been under the false impression that ALL of Arvo Part's work since 1976 (around the time Fur Alina was written) was in the minimalist vein. Well, this recording is certainly not minimalist in any way, shape, or form.

If you are looking for this type of recording, I would recommend you try Part's instrumental works (apart from those written before '76).

This disc sounds more like neo-rennaisance madrigals and motets. If you are looking for a modern composer doing this type of work, look no further. However, if you are expecting another Fur Alina you will be greatly disappointed.

Impecable recording quality...a recording artists dream........2001-01-06

The best choral recording on the market period. So great in fact that I use this CD to test mid-range imagining on high end speakers. The tones are so pure....that you'll agree this is the CD you spent over 600. a speaker for, bar none.

Brilliant performance, good sound.......2000-09-14

The CD "I am the true vine" with works by Arvo Part is my first more thorough encounter with this composer. The sound of his music - even in the more modern parts - is always very pleasing and somewhat "easy" to listen to. In how far, however, is Part's music conveying more than just the full, well set choral sound? In my opinion, Arvo Part delivers a general feeling about the text, but it takes some time to get acquainted to the unusual style where voices join and drop out of the setting during single words, and in some cases, the emphases in the rhythm of the music do not fit the pronounciation needed in the text (that's why there are only 4 stars).

The CD presents various works, from the "Berliner Messe" - a rather advanced arrangement - via some biblical themes in English to nearly folk-style slavic tunes. This variety makes this CD probably a good start for people like me who want to know more about Part's work. The recording is nearly flawless, and the ensembles directed by Paul Hillier do a very good job.

They can sing this in Heaven.......2000-08-24

This disc is my first introduction to Arvo Part, and I was awestruck. This mystical work sounds like chant but informed by a millenium of musical advancement. I won't venture an opinion for people who aren't Christian (though I daresay they'd appreciate the music), but personally the communion of saints can sing this in Heaven. The title track alone brought me to tears. The singers are excellent and courageous and the encoding quality of the disc seems flawless. Incidentally, it's amazing Part could make such a startling and moving modern Mass setting and still make it singable for everyday liturgical use.

Average customer rating:

Great!

Arvo Pärt - A Tribute

Manufacturer: Harmonia Mundi Fr.
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Lamentate
Arvo Pärt: A Portrait
Arvo Part: 24 Preludes for a Fugue
Arvo Part: Kanon Pokajanen
Arvo Pärt: De Profundis

ASIN: B0009QXWZU
Release Date: 2005-08-09

Tracks:

Dopo La Vittoria
The Woman With The Alabaster Box
Kyrie
Gloria
First Alleluia Verse
Second Alleluia Verse
Veni Sancte Spiritus
Credo
Sanctus
Agnus Dei
Solfeggio
Magnificat
Bogoroditse Djevo
I Am The True Vine
Which Was The Son Of...

Amazon.com

Those who aren't familiar with the music of Arvo Pärt are, to put it mildly, missing out on great beauty in their lives. His choral music is particularly moving. The pieces use what he refers to as a "tintinnabuli" style, a bell-like series of triads seemingly always in motion. This CD, a tribute to him on his 70th birthday, is comprised of some of his finest and most popular works: The Berliner Messes, Magnificat, "Which Was the Son of..." and others. It also presents a world-premiere recording of "Dopo la vittoria" (Following the Victory), which concerns St Ambrose's Te Deum Laudamus, written after a victory against the Arians. It's stunning, filled with changing textures and telling a good story. The performances, by the finest exponents of Pärt's music in the world, are ideal, and the sound is glorious. Pärt's music is a spiritual experience as well, but even putting that aspect aside, this CD is a feast for the ears. --Robert Levine

Customer Reviews:

Great!.......2005-10-22

If you're an Arvo Pärt then there is nothing new. However, the organ orchestration of the Berliner Messe is still impressive. Personally I perfer the Berliner Messe done in his Te Deum cd.

Average customer rating:

Too Good to Be True
St. Petersburg Ska Jazz Review
Manufacturer: P-Vine
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B000NVTHFU
Release Date: 2007-05-14

Tracks:

Skatana
Mr. Big Stuff
Skokiaan
Policy of Truth
Too Good to Be True
Last Warning
Under the Big Top
Old Devil Moon
Baby I'm Glad You're Mine
My Little Cloud
4.70
Only Today
Babysitter Stomp
Wounded Lion
Juzzt Waltz

Album Details

Includes the Bonus Track "st Thomas".

Average customer rating:

I Am the True Vine
Reverend Gary Davis
Manufacturer: Catfish UK
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Delta Blues | Blues | Styles | Music

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ASIN: B00004SC6M
Release Date: 2000-06-06

Tracks:

Twelve Gates To The City
The Great Change In Me
You Got To Go Down
Cross And Evil Woman Blues
I Belong To The Band - Hallelujah
I Am The True Vine
You Can Go Home
The Angel's Message To Me
I'm Throwin' Up My Hands
I Am The Light Of The World
I'm Gonna Meet You At The Station
Lord Stand By Me
O Lord Search My Heart
Have More Faith In Jesus
I Cannot Bear My Burden By Myself
Civil War March

Average customer rating:

I Am a True Vine
Rev. Gary Davis
Manufacturer: Gospel Heritage
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Delta Blues | Blues | Styles | Music

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ASIN: B000001BHT
Release Date: 1997-07-17

Tracks:

I Am A True Vine
Lord, Stand By Me
Won't You Hush
Mean Old World
Moon Is Goin' Down
Sportin' Life Blues
God's Gonna Separate
Soon My Work Will All Be Done
Oh, Glory, How Happy I Am
Blow Gabriel
Slippin' 'Til My Gal Comes In Partner
Cocaine Blues
Candyman
Wall Hollow Blues
Blues In E
Piece Without Words
Whoppin' Blues
Get Right Church
I Want To Be Saved

I Owe God Praise!! The 2nd Phase of Praise

Average customer rating:

I Owe God Praise!! The 2nd Phase of Praise
True Vine Ministries
Manufacturer: True Vine Ministries
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Christian & Gospel | Styles | Music

Gospel | Christian & Gospel | Styles | Music
ASIN: B0009N7Q2I
Release Date: 2004-04-20

Tracks: