Decoration Day

Amazon.com
They earned wide acclaim with the double-disc Southern Rock Opera, a sprawling concept album about Lynyrd Skynyrd. Their three-guitar lineup and greasy look signify big, dumb rock in the minds of many, but their songwriting is relentlessly whip-smart. And what may be their greatest song, "The Living Bubba," is an ode to a righteous, hard-rocking redneck felled by AIDS. No, the Drive-By Truckers never do anything by the book, so it's no surprise that with Decoration Day, the band's first release for indie New West Records, Patterson Hood and his mates take another rewarding left turn. The album boasts a handful of crowd-pleasing, party-starting cuts, like the brash, cranky rocker "Hell No, I Ain't Happy" and the Stones ringer "Marry Me." Yet more common are moments of startling beauty (the steel solos on "The Deeper In" and "Loaded Gun in the Closet" and the jangling guitars, rolling melodies, and soulful fiddle breaks of "Heathens" and "My Sweet Annette") and heavy doses of recrimination and regret, as in the back-to-back suicide tunes "When the Pin Hits the Shell" and "Do It Yourself." --Anders Smith Lindall

Decoration Day,Drive By Truckers,New West Records,Alternative Country-Rock,Hard Rock,Indie Rock,Pop,Rock,Rock/Pop,Southern Rock,United States of America

Decoration Day

Average customer rating:

Add to your collection immediately
Must Have
The best band out there...Meet the DBTs
One Of Their Best...
The Masterpiece ****1/2

Decoration Day
Drive By Truckers
Manufacturer: New West Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

General | American Alternative | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Indie Rock | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Alt-Country & Americana | Country | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Country Rock | Rock | Styles | Music

General | Hard Rock & Metal | Styles | Music

Hard Rock | Hard Rock & Metal | Styles | Music

Southern Rock | Classic Rock | Styles | Music

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

The Dirty South
Southern Rock Opera (Dig)
A Blessing And A Curse
Pizza Deliverance
Gangstabilly

ASIN: B00009M8IA
Release Date: 2003-06-17

Tracks:

The Deeper In
Sink Hole
Hell No, I Aint Happy
Marry Me
My Sweet Annette
Outfit
Heathens
Sounds Better In The Song
(Something's Got To) Give Pretty Soon
Your Daddy Hates Me
Careless
When The Pin Hits The Shell
Do It Yourself
Decoration Day
Loaded Gun In The Closet

Amazon.com

They earned wide acclaim with the double-disc Southern Rock Opera, a sprawling concept album about Lynyrd Skynyrd. Their three-guitar lineup and greasy look signify big, dumb rock in the minds of many, but their songwriting is relentlessly whip-smart. And what may be their greatest song, "The Living Bubba," is an ode to a righteous, hard-rocking redneck felled by AIDS. No, the Drive-By Truckers never do anything by the book, so it's no surprise that with Decoration Day, the band's first release for indie New West Records, Patterson Hood and his mates take another rewarding left turn. The album boasts a handful of crowd-pleasing, party-starting cuts, like the brash, cranky rocker "Hell No, I Ain't Happy" and the Stones ringer "Marry Me." Yet more common are moments of startling beauty (the steel solos on "The Deeper In" and "Loaded Gun in the Closet" and the jangling guitars, rolling melodies, and soulful fiddle breaks of "Heathens" and "My Sweet Annette") and heavy doses of recrimination and regret, as in the back-to-back suicide tunes "When the Pin Hits the Shell" and "Do It Yourself." --Anders Smith Lindall

Customer Reviews:

Add to your collection immediately.......2007-01-06

I just learned of the DBT's within the last 6 months, now they are one of my favorite bands. Combine Marshall Tucker, Asleep at the Wheel, maybe Jerry Jeff & you get the Drive-by's.

Awesome lyrics, some very powerful songs mixed with some foot-stompers.

Must Have.......2006-12-26

If Southern Rock Opera was a turn in direction, this is the fine-tuning of said turn. Just an excellent disc full of piss and fury that gets better like fine wine. This was actually the first one that I bought, and now that I own all six of 'em, I have returned to this disc to find more gems that I somehow overlooked in my rush to purchase the entire DBT catalog.

Decoration Day should simply be the next one that you buy!

The best band out there...Meet the DBTs.......2006-07-04

There are all sorts of reasons why I shouldn't think the DBTs are the best band out there. For instance, I don't listen to rock anymore except for the odd excursion down memory lane listening to early Little Feat or Don Van Vliet or whatever....

But these guys have tapped the motherlode of everything that is non-stupid about rock.

I have never heard a band be so relentlessly high-quality, intelligent, thought-provoking, fun and just wonderful to hear, musically solid, and never-ever boring.

As somebody once said about the blues, if you don't like the Drive-By Truckers, you've got a hole in your soul.

One Of Their Best..........2005-05-17

Decoration Day is an awesome rekkid from start to finish, not a dud track to be found just killer songwriting/storytelling & playing until the end...
Patterson Hood,Mike Cooley & Jason Isbell are some of the finest songwriters & guitar players I have heard & they're all in the one band, makin everybody else jealous I guess
I wanna see DBT live desperately but I'll have to make do w/ DBT-Dirty South:Live At The 40 Watt for now

The Masterpiece ****1/2.......2005-03-31

Most breakthrough albums are a surprise to most bands, if it isn't their debut. And while the Drive By Truckers and the world at large were certainly stunned at the success of "Southern Rock Opera," it was still a calculated move. So, who would have expected "Decoration Day" to take them a step further despite the odds? Unlike "SRO," "D Day" isn't soaked in preperation - the band had only a year to turn out these 15 songs, and many of them were written on the road. In short, if "Southern Rock Opera" put people in the seats, "Decoration Day" kept them there.

Unlike 2004's "The Dirty South," Patterson Hood is the unequivical leader. His name is attached to all but a select few of the songs here. His songwriting has never been better - his tunes for "SRO" sound like they were discovered before they were ready, and "Dirty South's" Patterson songs sound a bit tired. Here they reach a DIY perfection; "My Sweet Annete," "Careless," "Heathens," and "The Deeper In" are Southern Rock classics. Mike Cooley and Jason Isbell (who would shine on "Dirty South") pitch in with "Outfit" and "Mary me," among others. Southern Rock could be on a rebound, spearheaded by DBT. The band as a whole haven't to this day risen so high. Maybe they never will.

Overall: 9 out of 10.

Average customer rating:

Just great, that's it
"Thanksgiving and Forefathers' Day": It's what's for today.
An fiery introduction to Ives
My vote for the finest Ives orchestral recording ever made
Ouch

Ives: Holidays Symphony

Manufacturer: Sony
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

Modern & 20th Century | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Ives: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 4/Hymns
Ives: The Symphonies / Orchestral Sets 1 & 2
Ives: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 3
Ives: An American Journey
Ives: Violin Sonatas Nos. 1-4

ASIN: B0000026G7
Release Date: 1990-10-25

Tracks:

Washington's Birthday
Decoration Day
The Fourth Of July
Thanksgiving And Forefathers' Day
The Unanswered Question (revised version)
Central Park In The Dark
The Unanswered Question (original version)

Amazon.com essential recording

Ives never really intended his four holiday symphonic poems to be played together, and they are very seldom performed that way live. But it makes so much sense to group them on a recording that the Holidays Symphony has become the standard way to refer to the music. In any event, all four pieces offer some of Ives'ss finest, most imaginative work. The Fourth of July is the second most complex and crazy piece that he ever wrote--right up there with the second movement of the Fourth Symphony. Tilson Thomas is very much a specialist in this music, and he directs performances of almost supernatural accuracy. Simply the best. --David Hurwitz

Customer Reviews:

Just great, that's it.......2005-05-25

This is a "must" album. Altho' I personallly object to some of the finer editorial work in the "original" version of "UnQ" (very esoteric stuff--ask me) I'd stilll recommend this album as a "must have." -- D.G. Porter, Editorial Coordinator, The Charles Ives Society

"Thanksgiving and Forefathers' Day": It's what's for today........2003-11-28

The "Holidays Symphony" of Charles Ives, comprised of four movements to symbolize the passing of the four seasons by connecting them to important American holidays, was originally intended to be four standalone works, each of which could be performed separately in conjunction with its respective holiday.

Only later did Ives combine them as a four-movement "symphony." So, on this Thanksgiving Day of 2003, I chose to "deconstruct" them, just so that I might concentrate - for the occasion - on "Thanksgiving and Forefathers' Day."

This movement should, in my opinion, be numbered among the finest Ives compositions of all. It is brilliantly written and scored, with many original instrumental touches, particularly for percussion, where Ives calls upon low church bells, tubular bells and celesta, as well as an offstage ensemble of 4 horns, trombone and contrabassoon, all to marvelous effect. The ending, where the chorus enters singing to the words of the hymn tune "Duke Street," is simply breathtaking in its spirituality; truly transcendent and sublime.

But there are aspects to this movement that I've not seen anyone else mention, aspects that are startling in a prescient way, and therefore worth some mention. There is a quiet interlude, at about midpoint, scored for a reduced chamber ensemble of woodwinds, cornet, strings and celesta, that is "proto-Copland" in its sound texture, typical Coplandesque "Americana" yet written decades before "Appalachian Spring," which this section anticipates in a most remarkable way, with nearly identical chamber orchestra textures and, even, thematic ideas. The interlude then is followed by a penultimate section, prior to the choral entry, that has textures - and harmonies for that matter - similar to what William Schuman would, like Copland, write decades later. This brief section provides a perfect transition to the choral entry. And this is precisely where words fail me, because what Ives achieves here simply turns me to jelly. Only at the end of "From Hanover Square North" (from his Orchestral Set No. 2) and in the final movement of his masterpiece, the Symphony No. 4, was Ives able to match this "Holiday" in transcendent beauty.

The other three holidays/seasons ("Washington's Birthday"/Winter, "Decoration Day"/Spring and "The Fourth of July"/Summer) are all of a piece with this Thanksgiving one. Tilson Thomas has this music in his blood, having been an Ivesian from a very young age as conductors go. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, famed for its brass choir, earns kudos for ALL of its choirs in this performance, easily the best available and one not likely to be topped any time soon. And of course it doesn't hurt to have the Margaret Hillis-directed CSO Chorus for the conclusion of "Thanksgiving and Forefathers' Day" (the one movement that I just HAD to listen to, not that I excluded the rest of the work, or the disc for that matter).

The album is nicely rounded out with Ives's two contemplations: "A Contemplation of a Serious Matter" and "A Contemplation of Nothing Serious," more commonly known as "The Unanswered Question" and "Central Park in the Dark." Better yet, "The Unanswered Question" appears in two versions: the original as written in 1906, and a revised version, written some 20-odd years later, in which the trumpet and woodwind phrases are somewhat altered to add to the enigmatic nature of the work. In both versions, the Chicago strings play with an atmospheric perfection rarely heard. The ragtime piano in the foreground of "Central Park in the Dark" is hard to top, also. But for this particular "contemplation" I do have a preference for James Sinclair's (British) Northern Sinfonia Orchestra performance (on Naxos #8559087), for which I had written, "Much of Ives's music is all about space and distance, and the bar-room piano heard very faintly in the background truly gives this sense of space, as well as a sense of evening mist in the park."

The renowned Ives biographer Jan Swafford writes on this page, "My vote for the finest Ives orchestral recording ever made." I'm not of a mind to argue with Swafford, Ives expert that he is, especially on this particular day, and equally especially by virtue of the phenomenal performances that Tilson Thomas elicits from his Chicago orchestral and choral forces throughout.

Cue it up, folks. It's "what's for Thanksgiving."

Bob Zeidler

An fiery introduction to Ives.......2002-11-08

With Michael Tilson Thomas and the magnificent Chicago Symphony Orchestra in top form, this collection includes some of the best, most colorful works by this American master. Of the four holidays, "The Fourth of July" is irresistible - about seven minutes of extreme orchestral complexity, flaring up just like the rockets themselves and then expiring in exhaustion. Ives packs more into this score than some composers do in an hour, with colliding rhythms, blaring fortissimos and "Columbia, Gem of the Ocean" sailing above everything else. It is as exhilarating a ride as any composer has ever given us. "Decoration Day" eventually arrives at a somber moment at the cemetery with a touching trumpet solo playing "Taps," then ends with a joyously raucous march back to town. The moody "Washington's Birthday" and the stirring "Thanksgiving" complete the set, and by the end you may be thinking there has never been a composer who has captured the vivid, clashing emotions of the holidays with such accuracy.

Similarly melding the gentle with the explosive is the extraordinarily evocative "Central Park in the Dark," written in 1906. This densely written gem finds time to include the ragtime classic, "Hello, my Baby," among other tunes that make their surprise appearance during the chaotic climax.

Perhaps the most unusual feature of this disc is the inclusion of both versions of "The Unanswered Question," a gentle evocation of some of the sublime mysteries of the universe. The differences between the two versions are small, but
significant - and I won't spoil the thrill of discovery by revealing them here. Suffice to say that the piece is haunting in its quest to define the indefinable, and will likely linger in your mind long afterward.

Michael Tilson Thomas is one of the most exciting and knowledgeable interpreters of this music anywhere, and the Chicago orchestra shows why many people consider it one of the best ensembles in the world. This is perhaps not a recording for a quiet morning, but it is absolutely a candidate for "Top Ten Discs of 20th-Century American Music." A hugely exciting disc.

My vote for the finest Ives orchestral recording ever made.......2002-09-24

Take the insight of Michael Tilson Thomas, who's been conducting Ives throughout his career (his old Boston Symphony "Three Places" is still one of the best around), add one of the finest orchestras in the world and its celebrated brass section (Ives said he conceived all his music as if through "sort of a brass band with wings"), and finish with some genuinely inspired playing, and you've got a recording for the ages. It was a broadcast of the Chicago live performance, heard by chance on the radio, that gave me the idea to write my biography of Ives. Meanwhile the Holidays Symphony is one of Ives's greatest and most communicative works, and the "Decoration Day" movement one of the summits of his music. When Stravinsky was asked to define a masterpiece, he answered with "Decoration Day."

Ouch.......2002-04-24

I bought this disc hoping that it might turn me on to Ives. It was highly recommended by the Penguin Guide, so it should be a safe bet, right? Well, this disc may be an outstanding recording of Ives, but I have learned something very important through listening to this disc...I don't like Ives.

Tracks:

The Unanswered Question
Holidays: Washington's Birthday
Holidays: Decoration Day
Holidays: The Fourth Of July
Holidays: Thanksgiving (Forefathers' Day)
Central Park In The Dark
Concerto for Orchestra

Amazon.com

The music of Charles Ives (1874-1954) draws from two basic sources: American folk songs and an active imagination. He was also the first composer to "characterize" New England in music. His showstopper, The Unanswered Question, is famous for its parallel themes that clash--one tonal, one atonal. This version of Question would be enough to recommend the disc, but what's even more interesting is Elliott Carter's Concerto for Orchestra. It's as if Carter wanted to write a concerto for orchestra as if Ives might have done it had he still been alive. It's a difficult work to both listen to and play. --Paul Cook

Customer Reviews:

Great coupling, but mixed performances.......2003-12-13

This collection in Sony's series reissuing Bernstein recordings is a logical one: taking three works by Charles Ives and one by Elliott Carter, one of the many younger American composers whose style was influenced by Ives.

Ives' Two Contemplations (The Unanswered Question and Central Park in the Dark) are amongst his most famous works. The Unanswered Question features a slowly moving diatonic string backdrop over which a trumpet calls a questioning melody, and dissonant flutes squabble over the result. Central Park in the Dark starts slowly before a playful collage of popular music brings the atmosphere to life. Bernstein recorded both of these pieces multiple times, and he is a good guide to them.

More weighty is the 'Holidays' Symphony. Not really a symphony--it is instead a collection of four musical tone poems assembled together after the fact--it still contains some of Ives' best music. Most of the music follows the typical Ives collageistic style, with often slow-moving material at lower musical levels being overlaid with wild dissonances, folk music, hymns and pretty much anything Ives could think of. In the finale, 'Thanksgiving' a choir makes an entrance towards the end, to intentionally sentimental effect. This is a tough work to bring off, and Bernstein is only intermittently successful--though there are some extraordinary moments in this performance (such as the hushed close to Washington's Birthday) it is ultimately less consistently successful than, say, Michael Tilson Thomas' more recent reading. Tilson Thomas also benefits from the results of more recent research on the score that arguably bring it closer to the composer's true conception.

Carter's Concerto for Orchestra can in some ways be regarded as a distillation of some the technical aspects of Ives' music. In it, multiple layers of music coexist at the same time, constantly changing--but typically only one layer will be prominent at any one time. Unlike Ives, though, Carter's music does not incorporate the use of collage and 'found objects', and thus the surface can be less immediately striking--but equally Carter's music has a continuity and dramatic sweep of an extent rarely found in Ives. The concerto is based on St John Perse's poem Vents, which depicts America being swept by great winds of destruction and renewal. Accordingly the work forms a Fall-to-Spring trajectory: a complex introduction leads into a dry, jerky section based on tenor instruments, then a scherzo-like section based on the soprano instruments evokes swirling winds before collapsing into a 'dead of winter' slow section in the deep bass, before the alto section revives the energy and brings the work to a glorious close. This is furiously complex music and difficult listening, but well worth the effort. Unfortunately, Bernstein's recording is somewhat tentative (this is extremely tough music to conduct and perform) and cannot be recommended in comparison to the excellent Michael Gielen on Arte Nova (and at half the price).

Tracks:

I. Allegro
II. Largo
III. Allegro
Decoration Day
Largo
I. Adagio
II. Allegro
III. Adagio (Cantabile)
From 'Night Of Frost In May' (S.309)
Weil' Aur Mir ('Eyes So Dark', S.387)
Karen (S.285)
Feldeinsamkeit ('In Summer Fields', S.250)
Rosamunde (S.337)
Omens And Oracles (S.317)
Berceuse (S.220)

Charles Ives: Holidays Symphony/Central Park in the Dark

Average customer rating:

Charles Ives: Holidays Symphony/Central Park in the Dark

Manufacturer: Berlin Classics
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

Modern & 20th Century | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B0000035R7
Release Date: 1995-02-07

Tracks:

Holidays: 1. Washington's Birthday
Holidays: 2. Decoration Day
Holidays: 3. The Fourth Of July
Holidays: 4. Thanksgiving And Forefather's Day
Central Park In The Dark

Average customer rating:

Good Slim

Decoration Day
Sunnyland Slim Blues Band
Manufacturer: Evidence
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Chicago Blues | Blues | Styles | Music

Delta Blues | Blues | Styles | Music

General | Blues | Styles | Music

Electric Blues Guitar | Blues | Styles | Music

Piano | Blues | Styles | Music
ASIN: B0000014PK
Release Date: 1994-09-20

Tracks:

The Sun Is Going Down
Past Life
Decoration Day
Boogie'n The Blues
Depression Blues
Tired Of Traveling
Canadian Walk
Patience Like Job
Sunnyland Jump
Rock Little Daddy
Everytime I Get To Drinking
Sunnyland's New Orleans Boogie
One Room Country Shack
Tin Pan Alley
Dust My Broom

Customer Reviews:

Good Slim.......2005-03-14

This is a later recording from the legendary pianist made for the German L & R label and now re-released on Evidence. The first nine songs are from a studio set feature Slim with a terrific band including Carey Bell on harmonica, Hubert Sumlin on guitar and Odie Payne on drums. These songs are the best on the CD as Slim and the band run through a set mixing slow blues with up-tempo songs, including several instrumentals. The last six songs are pulled from a series of live recordings that are decent but not spectacular.
Overall, a fine showcase of this legend of blues and at the fairly good price it is worth the purchase.

Average customer rating:

Decoration Day
Town & Country
Manufacturer: Tokum
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Experimental Music | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000051T7C

Album Details

Japanese Version featuring Two Bonus Track.

Ives: Three Places in New England/New England Holidays/They are There!

Average customer rating:

Patriotic Fervor

Ives: Three Places in New England/New England Holidays/They are There!

Manufacturer: Polygram Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

Modern & 20th Century | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

Tracks:

They Are There!
Three Places in New England: I. The St Gaudens in Boston Common
Three Places in New England: II. Putnam's Camp, Redding, Connecticut
Three Places in New England: III. From the Housatonic at Stockbridge
A Sym: New England Holidays: I. Washington's Birthday
A Sym: New England Holidays: II. Decoration Day
A Sym: New England Holidays: III. The Fourth of July
A Sym: New England Holidays: IV. Thanksgiving and Forefathers' Day - Baltimore Sym Chor

Amazon.com

Charles Ives (1874-1954) was doing things with his music that was decades ahead of the rest of the world, especially Europe. He wrote works that were almost unplayable, works that intentionally forced keys, rhythm structures, even melodies to intermix. This collection of orchestral music opens with "There They Are!"--a snappy bit of American patriotism if ever there was one. The masterpiece here is an excellent performance of "Three Places in New England" which is riddled with familiar and not-so-familiar folk songs and melodies from the 19th century. Plus, there's the famous clash of the two marching bands. Excellent. --Paul Cook

Customer Reviews:

Patriotic Fervor.......2000-05-22

David Zinman along with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra provide a convincing recording of three works by American composer Charles Ives. The sound and performance are top notch.

If you are unfamiliar with the works of Charles Ives, be fore-warned that his music is rittled with a-tonality, poly-tonality (a result of cross rhythms and melodies) and unusual sounds. His music is not pretty and melodic, it is intense and drammatic; not for the weak at heart.

Nevertheless, the performers have unrelentlessly taken strides to keeping Ive's terribly difficult rhythms tight without giving way to de-musicality. In the liner notes, an interview with David Zinamn is printed, giving details into his studies of Charles Ives; a very interesting account of Ives intentions in his music and a glimpse into his view of society and music.

Decoration Day
Average customer rating:

Subtle, evocative, powerful

Decoration Day
Town and Country
Manufacturer: Thrill Jockey
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
Experimental Rock | Rock | Alternative Styles | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
General | Rock | Styles | Music
Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
Experimental Music | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00004S2AA
Release Date: 2001-10-30

Tracks:

Give Your Baby A Standing Ovation
Spicer
Off Season

Amazon.com

Decoration Day is the second release from Town and Country, a Chicago quartet with connections to many of the city's free-improv, postrock, and other experimental notables. The group plays what might loosely be called "chamber rock," which places them in a broadly eclectic tradition ranging from the Brecht-Weillian art-song of the Art Bears to the lush neoromanticism of Rachel's and even the populist oddity of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra. Using acoustic instruments, including guitar, contrabass, piano, harmonium, and accordion, Town and Country's take on the art-music tradition centers around the dissonant miniaturism of Morton Feldman, and the EP's opening track neatly captures the Japanese-rock-garden quality of his style. The second track is even more restrained and ascetic. The third track, "Off Season," blossoms a bit more melodically, with two distinct sections, both structured around each instrument playing looping figures of different lengths that wend their way around one another and sync up at different spots with quite mesmerizing results. --Bob Bannister

Customer Reviews:

Subtle, evocative, powerful.......2000-09-12

Town and Country's first record on BoxMedia ("Town and Country") showcased a acoustic quartet utilizing doublebass, piano, harmonium, guitar and trumpet. "Decoration Day" has an expanded palette of doublebass, piano, kalimba, snare drum, guitar, harmonium, celeste and accordian. The quartet utilizes drones and repetition in a way reminiscent of John Fahey and Morton Feldman but with results that are entirely fresh. Fans of Jim O'Rourke's acoustic recordings ("Bad Timing" in particular) will find this a welcome addition to their collection.