Search - Various Artists :: Voyager: Scottish Melodies

Not Scottish at all

jecondon | 04/23/2003

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I bought this CD on sale figuring it had about a 50/50 chance of being worth owning. I'm always wary of a recording that doesn't list the artists anywhere (including in the liner), but the price was right so I took the chance - bad idea. I swear, I would almost pay someone to take the thing off my hands now! (I thought about donating it to Goodwill, but then some other unfortunate person would end up with it, and that would hardly be fair.)The first few tracks (that you can listen to here) are, sadly enough, the best part of the CD. It only goes downhill from there, so don't be fooled into thinking that this recording is merely mediocre - in its totality, it's downright awful.I'm not sure how to describe the singing on this CD. The tone is reminiscent of Sinatra, maybe (but with less style), with most of the songs performed by (a) male tenor(s) who really should have stayed behind in the 50s - and never, ever have even CONSIDERED singing folk music. There are some great songs, here, but the rendition is one you would hear in an elevator in Florida. The melodies and the words may be Scottish - and there's even a hint of a traditional instrument here and there, although within that there's a strong over-reliance on the accordion - but the singer(s) belong in old reruns of the Lawrence Welk Show. If I were a betting person, I'd wager that none of them had ever studied anything about performing any sort of traditional music, but most especially Scottish (or anything else Celtic/Gaelic).In short, this CD is titled precisely correctly: "Scottish Melodies." The melodies are, indeed, the only thing that's Scottish about this recording. There are plenty of recordings out there that are performed in the true Scottish tradition; pick one of them instead of this drivel."