So Long of a Journey

List price: $15.00
Our price: $5.00

Hot Rize
Music CD

This past year in the Saenz household has been one devoted to immersing ourselves in bluegrass and old-time music. Dad is now playing autoharp and bass, Chris is continuing to develop his skills on guitar and banjo, Maggie has taken to clogging, and we all take a try at singing. And there have been lots and lots of CDs acquired and studied, many of them excellent, some of them we would enthusiastically endorse.

Still, an enthusiastic endorsement does not merit a Cumberland Books catalog entry. So we were beside ourselves with excitement when we first heard So Long of a Journey by the bluegrass band Hot Rize; we hadn't finished listening before we knew it would be the next musical CD we offered. It was all there—technical excellence, depth, innovation, accessibility, lightheartedness, energy.

The musicians in Hot Rize are: Tim O'Brien, a fine fiddler, excellent mandolin player, and even better lead vocalist; the late Charles Sawtelle, whose percussive and bluesy acoustic guitar leads are so idiosyncratic that they had to build the band's sound around them (this is a good thing); Pete Wernick, a.k.a. Dr. Banjo, who supplies rock-solid banjo accompaniments and the occasional top-notch breakdown (note: when Pete Wernick is the third best musician in the group, the collection of talent is daunting); and Nick Forster, humble enough to play bass for these guys while supplying wonderful harmonies for O'Brien.

Hot Rize toured and recorded actively from the late 70s to the early 90s, and now they regroup occasionally for short tours. So Long of a Journey was recorded in 1995, in their home town of Boulder, Colorado, in the middle of one of those reunion tours. The recording was arranged for on the sly by Nick Forster, unknown to the rest of the band, and so it stands as a fairly pure example of how Hot Rize sounded on a particularly good night. All their best songs are here, and their best songs are awfully good. The tapes were digital, and the sound is remarkably clear and up-front. The playing and singing is as good as can be.

Around our house we've made ourselves hoarse singing along with this album. We hope you enjoy it as well.