Search - Garnet Rogers :: Firefly

Not His Best Effort

Deborah Morse-Kahn | Minneapolis, MN USA | 10/20/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The title track "Firefly" is enchantment, and the casting of Ralph McTell's "Girl From the Hiring Fair" is beyond exquisite--Rogers is playing virtually every instrument on the many overlays and sings beautifully as well--but the production values of this album can segue from very good ("Nightfall") to astonishingly poor ("Who Could Have Known") in two consecutive tracks.



Similarly, the quality of Roger's writing, which hs shown steady growth with each new album, runs from the stunningly original (Redwing) and fabulously saucy ("Where'd You'd Get That Little Red Dress") to a sudden failure of courage in the pseudo-folk like "Painted Pony"--any traditional Child Ballad shows how the British form of this kind of material should be done.



Even the voice work is very uneven in quality: Roger's first piece is dedicated to his dear friend Greg Brown and, as if in honor of his friend, Rogers adopts a Brown-ish sort of singing style, abandoning his own elegant clear and beautifully enunciated delivery for Brown's signature slide-and-mumble (particularly bad on "Redwing"), which suits Brown well and Rogers not at all.



Altogether, this album is an unhappy jumble, and I am a fan who does not like saying that. I own most of Roger's CD's, and this one I will probably save for just a few outstanding cuts."

My first Garnet Rogers CD and it won't be my last

Hap Mullenneaux | Iowa | 04/14/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Garnet came out to Iowa early this year and rearranged my musical map. It was an incredible concert with hilarious stories and amazing music. Garnet's songs and delivery remind you what matters most in life. His music is more than moving. It is transforming. He comes from the great storyteller tradition of Canada, but it would an injustice to catagorize him. He's too good for that. I bought this album off the table in the back of the coffee house along with an album he made with Archie Fisher. I picked this one because it had two of my favorite tunes from the concert, Firefly and Better Days. Since then Redwing, Underpass and Where'd You Get that Little Dress have become some of my all time favorites. Yeah, I'm hooked."