{"id":38638,"date":"2005-12-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2005-12-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/the-hard-and-the-easy\/"},"modified":"2005-12-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2005-12-01T00:00:00","slug":"the-hard-and-the-easy","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/the-hard-and-the-easy\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hard And The Easy"},"content":{"rendered":"

At some point this summer, I was drinking around a campfire. (I
\nknow, you’re all shocked. I’m sure my sterling reputation won’t
\nstand the strain.) At any rate, the people I was drinking with were
\na motley collection of Celtic musicians, performers, and general
\nall-purpose opinionated artist folks. I recall getting into an
\ninteresting discussion on the direction Great Big Sea had gone over
\ntheir last two or three CDs. Dave, the guy I was talking with,
\nthought that they’d really lost their roots on the last three CDs;
\nI, as regular readers of the DV know,
\nreally liked the last few CDs<\/a>. We
\npicked this apart for a while, then moved on to other
\nearthshattering topics (at least they seemed earthshattering after
\na few mugs of Gluhwein).<\/p>\n

I thought of Dave when I heard the new CD by Great Big Sea,
\nThe Hard And The Easy<\/i>. I’ll bet Dave really likes this CD. I
\ndon’t think it’s so bad myself.<\/p>\n

\nThe Hard And The Easy<\/i> is GBS returning to their roots, a CD
\nof traditional Newfoundland music mostly culled from the collection
\nof Newfie musicologists Gerald S. Doyle and Kenneth Peacock. It’s
\ncompletely acoustic, with several guest musicians filling out the
\nhouse party sound. The songs are a varied selection of
\nNewfoundland’s musical traditions, each explained in great detail
\nin the exhaustive liner notes. The production and engineering are
\ngorgeous, clean, and clear; on tracks like “The River Driver” the
\nharmonies are right in your face, bright and breathtaking.
\nMusicianship, as always, is excellent; most of the CD is dedicated
\nto the vocal sound, but there are some moments that left me in awe
\nat the skill involved.<\/p>\n

The songs are, as with most traditional CDs, a mixed bag. While
\nsome of them didn’t grab me as intensely as others (I admit to not
\nbeing overwhelmed by “Come And I Will Sing You” and “Harbour
\nLecou”) all of them are performed with skill and enthusiasm, and
\nmost of the CD is just plain fun. I challenge you — no, I defy you
\n— to not at least smile at “The Mermaid” and “French Shore.”
\n“Captain Kidd,” a traditional ballad about the great and dread
\npirate, is sung with fervor and more than a bit of defiance. “Old
\nPolina” made me want to get up and dance, and that’s quite a trick
\nfor me. “Concerning Charlie Horse” is a driving, thumping song
\nabout, of all things, a horse who falls through the ice, and it’s
\nstill worth a reel or two.<\/p>\n

In short,
\nThe Hard And The Easy<\/i> is a danceable, enjoyable, and loving
\npiece of traditional music. Yes, it may not all be to your taste.
\nBut I’ll bet Dave likes it, and I think I do too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":27278,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6007],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-38638","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-great-big-sea","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38638"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}