Search - Chesapeake :: Rising Tide

Bridget S. (Vassar) from PLYMOUTH, IN
Reviewed on 5/31/2009...

The newest album by Chesapeake, this is very similar to Jimmy Gaudreau and Moondi Klien's album 2:10 train. The tunes are very good on here. By the way Tony Rice is on guitar-not Tony Rico

A truly great recording

03/11/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have over 700 CDs in my collection and this one is definitely in my top twenty. Great bluegrass sound with both fast and slow tempo songs. I never seem to get tired of these guys."

Bluegrass Giants Stretch their Wings

Mark J. Fowler | Okinawa, Japan | 05/08/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Chesapeake began as a friendly little jam in the D.C. area during those dark months that stretch through the winter - when most Big-Time Bluegrass Bands are waiting for summer festival season to start back up.



Moondi Klein, T. Michael Coleman and Mike Auldridge were all members in good standing of one of the most famous of all Bluegrass Bands - the Seldom Scene. Jimmy Gaudreau was lending his fine mandolin work and angelic tenor harmony to Tony Rice at the end of Tony's ability to perform as a vocalist. (Vocal Chord maladies have since left Master Rice as guitarist, producer - basically everything but singer after inspiring a generation of bluegrass singers including Alison Krauss.)



Anyway - these gents had little to do after the touring festival season died down, and they all had more than a few ideas for original music. They would meet at each other's homes, bringing their axes and voices and over a few of these meetings magic began to emerge.



The immediately identifiable ring of the banjo and saw of the fiddle is nowhere to be found within their instrumentation of guitar, mandolin, bass and resonator guitar. Master Auldridge's long, bluesy dobro lines are alternated with Gaudreau's fluid and staccatto mandolin phrases. Moondi Klein's wonderful lead vocals are met on harmonies by Gaudreaus heavenly tenor and either Coleman or Auldridge's baritone.



The result was startlingly original in 1994, and other than Nickel Creek, no other band in the loosely-defined genre of Bluegrass has attempted anything nearly as original.



Wonderful uptempto tunes like "Always on a Mountain When I Fall" and "Blackjack Davey" are alternated with beautiful slow ballads like "Darcey Farrow" and "High Sierras". Van Morrison's "Moondance" gets a great workout by this group.



Sadly - they've all gone other directions, but they left two additional recordings: Pier Pressure and Full Sail. This first CD would be the ONE to start with - it's the first and their best."