I would've been in tears if I were there seeing this live; Rachel just channel's Keith so, so authentically. Can't explain it. She's amazing. Thanks for the share, Jubal.
Edit: dig her own stuff, too.
Thanks for posting this. Rachel's own music is as interesting to me these days as her Emo covers (though how she can hit some of those fast jumps and intervals toward the end of KE 9 Pt 2 without being able to see the keys is always a-maaaaazing.)
I'm holding out for the Wilson-mixed 5.1 super-duper walletbuster special anniversary extra adjectives edition.
Thanks (again!) Keith!
Do you have any knowledge of when the campaign supporters will get their dvds? If I was younger, I'd be more patient.
"My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician, and to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference"
President Harry S. Truman
progeezer, I wish I knew. I was not able to afford donating to that at the time. While I do tend to promote her more here than most other fans, I'm honestly only on a mailing list and their Facebook page. I was a FB friend with Jeannie for all of two days. Unfortunately, the timing of that led to us both unfriending due to major political and worldview differences.
This is just my opinion, but I suspect the funds were not properly allocated to hold enough money to produce and mail all those DVDs. This could be the fault of the video producer. I believe the funds went to him and not the Flowers, but I can't be sure.
I was shocked last fall when she suddenly released an album while the DVD had still not been released. To be fair, I was very happy for the album. It would be nice, though, if someone would explain what has happened with the DVDs that were supposed to be sent out.
Thanks, Keith. I just emailed Lorenzo & will post his reply if/when I get it, here.
"My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician, and to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference"
President Harry S. Truman
I'm not sure what you were expecting. It doesn't surprise me that someone here was disappointed. There always seem to be some naysayers here. I know some people simply dislike instrumental albums.
I suspect Rachel has some more sophisticated material, but perhaps she did not feel like it would be good on a debut album.
Just out of curiosity, is there an example of something else you have heard recently that was "unique and interesting"? I'm not trying to be difficult. I honestly would love to hear something that is more interesting than this album.
First, I love instrumental albums.
Rachel came to prominence doing ELP/Nice covers and then expanded to Zappa, Mahavishnu, etc.
I was hoping for a prog album. But, failing that, one, to repeat myself, that was interesting, different, but especially, something that showed that she had a unique individual style. Or, at the very least, music that indicated she had started down that path.
Instead, what I hear is something that would not be out of place as background music while drinking coffee at Au Ban Pain.
Is she playing some kind of drum machine with her feet?
What are the odds that she is the mystery VIP performance at Rosfest? Steve and I have been pushing that for a while....
"The woods would be very silent if the only birds that sang were those who sang best..." - Henry David Thoreau
This is the first year of my physically necessary rollback of festival travel (non life-threatening, just debilitating), but if Iggy wants to insert a hook in my mouth with bait for me to rethink that, he better find a way to tell me in advance if it is Rachel, since (really) she is the ONLY act that might do that.
I hate to miss Anglagard & the Moonies (no, not that kind) of Skelleftea, but my priorities have indeed changed.
"My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician, and to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference"
President Harry S. Truman
I don't think this is really fair. If you dislike something that doesn't make you a "naysayer". No piece of music must appeal to everyone, otherwise you're just a sour puss.
For what it's worth, and I really don't want to say anything negative about Rachel as I am a fan.... but I found her CD to be disappointingly pretty boring. I was hoping for something more fun and prog-rock oriented represented in the music she enjoys covering. But still, even though something different is perfectly fine, I wasn't really taken with it. Keep in mind, I bought the CD, I am a fan.
As for an example of something recent that was "unique and interesting"... maybe not too recent, but Hiromi was just a year or so older than Rachel is now when she came out with her first album. Just to keep things in perspective.
Last edited by Man In The Mountain; 02-27-2017 at 10:19 AM.
First, I'll qualify this by saying that I haven't listened to Rachel's CD yet.
On the Internet I see plenty of talented young people who play existing tunes to an outstanding degree. That being said, it begs the question if such talent can be more than just playing off of someone else's work. Can they develop the ability to compose their own stuff and find their own voice. I have a feeling that requires a different set of skills than just being able to play well. It likely isn't for everyone, and the ability to succeed is variable.
Personally, I give a lot of credit to Rachel for putting something out there. Given the amount of pressure that she probably gets from her fan base, it probably isn't easy to do that, particularly when you are still trying to get your feet wet. Certainly I get a lot of feeling from this thread that what she has the ability to play is incongruous from what she has the ability to write at this time. Or, at least what she feels comfortable writing. And, at least to some of her fans here, it is disappointing. That being said, being a talented player doesn't instantly make you a talented composer, and maybe that's something she's just going to need to learn over time. Until then, I'd still encourage her to keep writing and to keep putting music out there, because you only get better by doing and getting feedback for your work. To be honest, there are probably plenty of artists who are not at all happy with their early work, but sometimes you need to start somewhere.
Wonder how Rachel likes those Nords? Love my Lead 2 but the Electro isn't so hot.
The older I get, the better I was.
Music's a funny old thing. Where I hear wonderful melodies and orchestration, great rhythms and harmonies, others are hearing boring music with no personality, and wanting something 'more prog rock'. Some hear unadventurous, I hear refreshing. I loved the album, and it gets considerable airplay in my house.
Full disclosure here - I am a (very!) small backer of the film as are others on this forum. Indeed, despite hovering around here for years, I only joined progressiveears recently as there appeared to be a couple of Rachel threads.
Sure, Rachel likes prog. Also countless other forms of music. As do I (not as wide ranging tastes as her though) and I presume many others. But I had heard nothing whatsoever in any of her live performances with jazz trios, or the couple of originals on Soundcloud, or snippets of what we heard in the background of the film trailer, to suggest her CD would be 'proggy'. Indeed, one mention of mystical journeys or countless noodlings in 19/8 time would have had me emailing Lorenzo and asking for my money back.
But as rminsk said above, to each his own.
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