Rating 4.5
lyric and beautifulWonderful Celtic tunes along with well done Grateful Dead favorites.
Tasty mandolin and drumming.
A real joy.Wake the DeadLosing the Grateful Dead was hard. After Jerry died, there were a sudden spate of cover albums, and this may be the finest of them. It is both closer to the soul of the original and more original than most. Wake the Dead has created a synergy from traditional "Celtic" music and the songs of the Grateful Dead, an energetic interpretation with no sloppy sentimentalism, nothing nostalgic in tone. The musicianship is as high as the Dead and the melodies and harmonies sweeter and clearer than what Dead ever managed. Wake the Dead play with both precision and passion.The music sings down my nerves, as if it were reverberating through time. Old music, new music, immortal music, all tied together with strings of the fiddle and other instruments, notes speaking of death and rebirth, the music itself seems to make promises for the future while fulfilling some of the promises that Jerry had made. This album is neither an imitation of the original nor a bold new interpretation of known material. It's a brilliant gem, a crystalline piece of music not to be missed. She Didn't "Like" The Dead, Until She Heard ThisMy wife never considered herself a fan of the Dead, didn't really like their music. Then a friend gave us this and it is hard to get anything else on the CD player! Wake the Dead is a bunch of seriously talented Celtic players (I've managed to catch them live a few times now) that also happen to think the Dead's catalogue of original music is something to be treasured. They have put together arrangements that meld Dead with traditional Celtic tunes into some kind of jams that the Dead themselves would smile upon. So . . . acoustic and folky . . . the lyrics and the melodies shine through. Check it out! |
