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Thread: Bluegrass CD reviews

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    Registered User Rex Hart's Avatar
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    Default Bluegrass CD reviews

    After following a conversation on the Bluegrass Today web site where a reviewer fawns all over Ricky Skaggs and Bruce Hornsby's latest effort, a comment was made that it seems like there are hardly ever any negative reviews when it comes to Bluegrass. I have noticed this as well and really appreciate a good, quality review. I much prefer Amazon's customer reviews if I want a non-biased opinion of someone's latest offering. I don't necessarily feel I am getting that in most Bluegrass publications or websites. On a side note, I am a huge Skaggs/Hornsby fan. This is just a general observation. Anyone else notice this strange phenomenon also?
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    Registered User grassrootphilosopher's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bluegrass CD reviews

    Quote Originally Posted by Rex Hart View Post
    After following a conversation on the Bluegrass Today web site where a reviewer fawns all over Ricky Skaggs and Bruce Hornsby's latest effort, a comment was made that it seems like there are hardly ever any negative reviews when it comes to Bluegrass. I have noticed this as well and really appreciate a good, quality review. I much prefer Amazon's customer reviews if I want a non-biased opinion of someone's latest offering. I don't necessarily feel I am getting that in most Bluegrass publications or websites. On a side note, I am a huge Skaggs/Hornsby fan. This is just a general observation. Anyone else notice this strange phenomenon also?
    I think that Ricky Skaggs got a lot of bashing on the cafe for doing a record with Bruce Hornsby if I am not mistaken. But Ricky Skaggs got a lot of bashing for whatever he did (like "preaching" at his concerts). I have no problem with all of that, and I take citique with a grain of salt anyhow.
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    Default Re: Bluegrass CD reviews

    As your question was not answered, I'll say that Bluegrass Unlimited seems fairly unbiased in its reviews. Favorable and unfavorable, I've read. Not familiar with other pubs/web platforms for bluegrass.

    Mandolin Magazine's reviews seem mostly glowing.

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    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bluegrass CD reviews

    Most magazine reviews of most things are mostly positive. Nobody wants a lawsuit or to lose advertising or readership.

    But I seldom give any weight to reviews, except to get information. No reviewer is going to tell me what I think of something, and I don't need a reviewer to verify or validate what I think.

    It is useful to read a review that talks about musical influences, and relevant historical musical traditions and trends, instrumentation and technical details, and information about the performers. I love that stuff.
    A talent for trivializin' the momentous and complicatin' the obvious.

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    bon vivant jaycat's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bluegrass CD reviews

    Quote Originally Posted by JeffD View Post
    Most magazine reviews of most things are mostly positive. Nobody wants a lawsuit or to lose advertising or readership. . . .
    George Orwell's essay "Confessions of a Book Reviewer" may offer some insight into the world of the critic. A great read:

    http://orwell.ru/library/articles/re...nglish/e_bkrev
    "The paths of experimentation twist and turn through mountains of miscalculations, and often lose themselves in error and darkness!"
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    Howling at the moon Wolfboy's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bluegrass CD reviews

    I haven't read Bluegrass Unlimited for years, but back when I did, they had a habit of bashing anything that didn't conform to a very narrow standard of "traditional" bluegrass. Two of their regular reviewers, John Roemer and George McCeney (not sure of the spelling in either case, it's been a long time) were particularly intolerant of anything that wasn't Bill Monroe or Flatt and Scruggs, and pretty vicious in their attacks - "criticizing something for what it isn't, even if what it isn't isn't what it's trying to be," in the words of Stephen Potter.

    I just bought a CD reissue of "Sandy's Fancy" by Alan Jabbour, Tommy Thompson and Sandy Bradley - absolutely great old-time music, some of the best I've heard, and I still haven't forgotten how badly Roemer trashed it in Bluegrass Unlimited for not being the same sort of thing as Bill Monroe or Ralph Stanley. (Not exaggerating; that's exactly why he hated it, and he referenced those two artists by name.)

    So I can't say I have much use for the editorial standards of Bluegrass Unlimited's review section, even now. Maybe they've improved, but I saw too many unfair and ill-thought reviews there over too many years to trust them again.

    On the other hand, the late lamented Dirty Linen magazine used to say they rarely gave negative reviews simply because they got so many more submissions than they had room to review that they didn't see the point of devoting space to a lesser album that could be used to inform their readers of a good one, which I thought was a commendable policy.

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    Default Re: Bluegrass CD reviews

    Quote Originally Posted by Rex Hart View Post
    After following a conversation on the Bluegrass Today web site where a reviewer fawns all over Ricky Skaggs and Bruce Hornsby's latest effort, a comment was made that it seems like there are hardly ever any negative reviews when it comes to Bluegrass.
    Funny, I've also noted that. I often feel that the idea of BG being about a "community" keeps anyone from ever uttering a disparaging word about anyone who calls themselves a BG musician, or about any album released by a BG band.

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