Search - Hot Rize :: Take It Home

A Great Band in Full Stride.....

Mark J. Fowler | Okinawa, Japan | 12/08/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Hot Rize avoided many traditional Bluegrass paradigms, but their music was delightfully refreshing and just plain good. This album may very well be their best. Never known as THE hottest pickers of their era, O'Brien, Wernick and Sawtelle provide perfect instrumental framing for some of the best vocals ever put onto ANY record. Colleen Malone. Lamplighting Time in the Valley. Tenderly Calling. Bending Blades. Tim O'Brien's lead vocals on this record are as near-perfect as a Bluegrass singer could make them. I would consider Mr. O'Brien to be in an EXCEEDINGLY small group of Bluegrass lead vocalists which would only include the likes of Alison Krauss, Dan Tyminski and Russell Moore. The harmonies provided by the other Hot Rizers complement perfectly. This is not the album to get if you like your bluegrass hot enough to singe your eyebrows. This is the album to get if you like your bluegrass stunningly beautiful. Easily one of the 5 best Bluegrass albums ever recorded."

Bringing It All Back Home

H. F. Corbin | ATLANTA, GA USA | 02/20/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Like all really fine music or paintings or literature, this incredibly beautiful CD by Hot Rize defies description. The best thing I can say about it is that you should just listen to it-- again and again. Unfortunately this outstanding group of musicians (Nick Forster, Tim O'Brien, Charles Sawtelle and Pete Wernick) no longer exists as a group, but we can be glad that we have their recordings.



All the cuts are superb. One of my favorites is "Lamplighting Time In The Valley" as it takes me back to my childhood when my dad would sometimes sit on our front porch in East Tennessee at twilight as the lightning bugs came out and sing this song while he strummed a Gene Autry guitar. I had not heard this song since then until I heard it here. The other is Jan Garrett's "Tenderly Calling (Home, Come On Home"). This amazing song will get you right where you are living. I had never heard it before although I understand that both the composer and John Denver have recorded it. The words are so simple that they would have been trite if someone with a lesser talent had written them: "Sometimes when I'm feeling lonesome/And no one on earth seems to care. . . I hear the voices of angels/tenderly calling me home." My brother told me recently that one of the young men from the Frontline PBS production of "Country Boys" sings this fantastic song a capella. It obviously speaks to the hearts of a lot of people. It will speak to you as well. I'm not sure why the Garrison Keillors and Doyle Lawsons of the world have not recorded this moving song.



Of course the photograph on this CD is of a house with a light in the window, always the symbol of warmth and love and family.



This CD will quickly become one of your favorites."

Soothing Bluegrass!

Terry C. Conner | Mercer, PA United States | 05/12/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This CD was almost played to destruction during my honeymoon in Puerto Villarta, Mexico! If you're a fan of Bluegrass music, you'll love this CD!"