Reviews (3)

Not What I Expected
A major disappointment for anyone hungering for the skirl of the pipes, as it's almost entirely either the regimental band, or the combined bands. Only a few selections by the pipes and drums alone. A good choice only if you like the regimental sound.

The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards
The Pipes and Drums of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, are continuing in their tradition of excellence and succeed in keeping up to date with popular music and maintaining their status as a pipe band - future recordings are well worth listening to and buying.

Vintage Royal Scots Dragoon Guards
Lovers of Amazing Grace should know who the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards are. These bands recorded that tune in 1972 when the Royal Scots Greys and 3rd Carabiniers combined to form the current regiment which is aprt of the British Army's Royal Armoured Corps. Both regiments can trace their origins back to the 1670s. In this way they combine the old with the new in their music. After their hit making 6 million selling records of "Amazing Grace" the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards went on with the business of being military band musicans and soldiers. They continued to release a number of recordings in response to demand, demonstrating their versatitilty in combining old and new, scottish with popular. In this recording we have a fine example of that. No bands are better than the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards when it comes to that unique combination of band and pipe music. We have some fine scots medleys for combined bands, as well as some interesting arrangements of more popular pieces which show the true imagination and energy which these two bands had in their heyday. In their solo medleys the pipes and drums of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards amply demonstrate why they continue to be one of the best British army pipe bands out there. Sadly the regimental band is no more and only the pipe band lives on today. Therefor, the listener has a great opportunity to hear some interesting music played by two excellent bands from Scotlands only cavalry regiemt, who live on today as the elite of the Royal armoured Corps. It is the cavalry spirit which lives on in this fine regiment and its excellent bands ... Read more

Amazon.com

Michael Feldman, host of Public Radio International's audience-participation show "Whad 'Ya Know?" is as astute as he is funny in hisobservations in the liner notes to this disc. "Copland became the greatchronicler of the pastoral Golden West: he was country before country was cool,"he says. The music is performed by several different English ensembles; the onlyAmerican group featured is the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein andthat cut happens to be by far the best on the record--especially if you likeyour open fifths really open, not through the nose. --Gwendolyn Freed ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Renneau Garmon's Review of "God Bless America"
On hearing the broadcast of Frank Patterson and his Irish musicians in the program "God Bless America" one realizes that one has had a rare and important experience. Frank Patterson's voice caresses each note bringing the full beauty of the melody to flower with perfect diction seldom heard. He needs no other voices to back him up; his versatility is astonishing as displayed from the "Poignant Grace" through the delightful and flip "The Miller's Daughter" to the full voiced and exhuberant "O Solo Mio."

The stirring "csardas" of Geraldine O'Grady and her accomplished daughter, Oonagh O'Grady, brought a lovely interlude excitingly performed drawing the audience to participate at the innovative introduction of some Irish Folk Music known to all as the finisher. Eily Patterson and her orchestra of 50 Irish Harps was a rarely heard and delightful experience. Hearing the family, Eily, Frank and Eanan was inspirational!

This is an outstanding example of Irish music at its best.

Sincerely,

Renneau M. Garmon ... Read more

Reviews (3)

No Name album to protect the guilty
Mislabeled tracks and no notes make me sorry that I bought this CD. If I could find out who made it I would send it to them and never buy anything they made.

Poor quality sound due to lack of a quality size ensemble.
Diversity of titles were quite good however selection #2 National Emblem is missing although listed on the back of CD case and on front of disc. Sound quality of most selections was poor, i.e. tinny, brassy and with no depth due to lack of full complement of instruments (baritnone horns, tuba, bass woodwinds etc.). Sound quality is "ZERO". My guess is that tere were no more than 10 - 15 musicians playing on most cuts.

No-name band plays some popular and some obscure marches.
What this CD lacks in musical virtuosity and recording quality it makes up for in enthusiasm. If you're looking for the old favorites such as 'Stars and Stripes Forever' and 'National Emblem', they're here, but you're better off getting an Arthur Fiedler album. Buy this album for the more obscure and hard to find marches ('American Patrol' and 'River Kwai March' are my favorites). ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Vintage Welsh Guards
These are a collection of recordings by the Welsh Guards spanning the 1930s. As such they have great historic value. This was the heyday of British military bands in terms of size and appreciation of listening public. The Welsh Guards had a fine reputation as being among the finest of the guards bands in those days. A word of caution to the modern listener. Although these old 78 RPM recordings have been enhanced for the CD format, the sound quality is still not up to date. In my opinion this provides some of the charm to these recordings as we get to hear how they must have sounded over the radio back then. But the modern listener may be taken a little aback by it. The programme of music is also interesting. The discerning band listener will note the different kinds of selections played by the bands during the 1930s. We have a few standard marches like "Under the Double Eagle" and "Children of the Regiment" which remain favorites to this day. In addition we also have many interesting novelty pieces reflecting the kind of music that was popular on the bandstand in those days. Alot of the this music may seem somewhat dated, but it has a charming quality to it, reflecting a slower, bygone era. Bands just don't sound like this anymore. With close to 70 musicians, the musical resources were also more impresive then they are today. The Welsh Guards comprise only 48 players currently, in keeping with the general down-sizing of army music these days. Still, the listener should compare the way the Welsh Guards sounded then and now. This wonderful CD provides the means for one to do so, and to imagine sitting back in another time in Hyde park and listening to the Band of HM Welsh Guards playing on a Sunday afternoon. What could be better than this? I highly recommend this CD for music historians and band music lovers. ... Read more