The Days Gone By: Songs of the American Poets, Vol. 1

EDITORIAL REVIEWS
The Days Gone By: Songs of the American Poets, Vol. 1

AMAZON
It couldn't have been an easy assignment, to marry a smattering of much-loved poems by classic American authors to music. That Ted Jacobs tackled the task so handily on The Days Gone By, a country- and bluegrass-leaning collection that expertly evokes the image-rich landscapes and fanciful musings of five great American poets, is one more reason to appreciate this project. Six solo vocalists of widely varied inclinations interpret the child-friendly works by Emily Dickinson, Eugene Field, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Edgar Allan Poe, and James Whitcomb Riley. Michael Sherwood performs the sentiment-stirring opening and closing tracks (Riley's "The Days Gone By" and Field's "Some Time"); he could pass for Peter Gabriel with a paternal bent. Tahkus Ekedal, singer of both Dickinson selections ("Will There Really Be a Morning?" and "Hope Is the Thing with Feathers"), besets her songs with an appropriate sense of wonderment in an unadorned child's voice. And David Vidal takes listeners deep into the American heartland of days gone by on Riley's "When the Frost Is on the Punkin" and Poe's "Eldorado," his Dobro-accented, harp-heavy numbers. Besides the poetry, whose every last syllable could easily be committed to memory by careful repeat listeners, what's really worth celebrating here is the music. Jacobs didn't skimp on instruments, throwing in everything from congas to clay shakers to djembe to bodhran, all the while keeping each track uncluttered. It's a shame to say so, but American poetry enthusiasts with a sure distaste for even the occasional twang ought to pass on The Days Gone By. On the other hand, those whose love of Americana extends beyond poetry to bluegrass, with its plucky, apple-pure, down-homey punch, are apt to be doubly delighted. --Tammy La Gorce

REVIEW
Turning 19th century poetry into music for kids? What a concept. And how beautifully, even breathtakingly executed.

Producer, composer, musician Ted Jacobs has followed up his lovely album, "A Child's Garden of Song," the poetry of Robert Louis Stevenson, with absolutely inspired musical renditions of poetic visions by James Whitcomb Riley, Poe, Longfellow, Emily Dickinson, and Eugene Field. Jacobs' matches singers' voices and folk, country and classical ballad styles to poems carefully selected for the way they speak directly to the emotional colors of children, to parents, and to any adult who remembers childhood.

The title is from Riley's poignant reminiscence of "when life was like a story"; Field's "Some Time" speaks to a parent's piercing love for new life, and his "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod" is a magical lullaby adventure. Longfellow's "The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls" paints a gentle picture of "the little waves, with their soft, white hands." Poe's "Alone" "from childhood's hour I have not been as others were"-is both haunting and proud, and Emily Dickinson's "Hope is the Thing With Feathers" soars in the simplicity of a pure, sweet melody. A 2000 Parents' Choice® Gold Award.

Reviewed by Lynne Heffley, Parents' Choice® 2000 -- From Parents' Choice®







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Number of Discs: 1

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