When a group of artists like the ones who made this album come together, the results have to be impressive, but this album is absolutely amazing. An anthology pulled from several earlier albums, this is a musical journey through Appalachia. It swings from the delicate vocals of Alison Krauss and James Taylor (on "Slumber, My Darling" and "Johnny Has Gone For A Soldier," respectively) to the jubliant exuberance of the charmingly named "Death by Triple Fiddle" (the "fiddles" in question being those of Bell, Sam Bush, and Mike Marshall.) Add Mark O'Connor's haunting fiddling on "Amazing Grace" and "Song of the Liberty Bell" and several wonerful trios by O'Connor, Ma, Edgar Meyer, and you have a CD that defies labels and belongs in every collection.
Most of the melodies included in "Heartland" are upbeat and catchy- the kinds of tunes that feel like they've been around for centuries (indeed a few, like "Johnny has Gone for a Soldier" and "College Hornpipe," have). Those who have the original CDs know that they're also quite eclectic- "Contrapunctus XIII from The Art of the Fugue" on a banjo? You won't find the most experimental tunes here. Neither will you find some of the more reflective pieces, which strike me as musical mood swings. As suggested by the title, the compositions in "Heartland" are aimed at the heart, and not the head. It's a dead-on bulls-eye.
I came to these works from a bluegrass-acoustic music perspective, but have found that even diehard classical aficionadoes (especially fans of chamber music) love them also. I'm always tickled by the thought of Sam Bush and Joshua Bell fiddlin' on the same stage- if that ain't fusion I don't know what is! If you like what you hear, then I strongly suggest that you pick up the originals, and then move on to similar works like "Skip, Hop, and Wobble" (Douglas, Barenberg, and Meyer) or "Telluride Sessions" (Bush, Douglas, Fleck, O'Connor, and Meyer).
"Heartland" is NOT "Appalachian" except in minor aspects. It is also not much of an "Anthology" either. (Whose Heartland is it?) What it is is a combination and ensemble get-together of the finest "string" performers across the country. There is the usual violin, cello and bass, but there is also the mandolin, the mandola (what's a mandola?), the banjo, the "fiddle" (a violin in the right hands). They strum, they pick, they pizzicato -- there are fugues and there are ballads. A couple of the numbers have vocalists but not many.
All of the collective performers on this album have a profound sense of the acoustics of a "string" and they blend them beautifully. GO FOR IT!!!
