Dogs of Desire & David Alan Mill - Michael Daugherty - This Land Sings (2020) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

In This Land Sings, GRAMMY Award-winning composer Michael Daugherty has created an original musical tribute to the singer-songwriter and political activist Woody Guthrie (1912–1967). Traveling the backroads of America from coast to coast with a guitar and harmonica, Woody Guthrie performed folk songs of love, wandering and social justice during the Great Depression and the Second World War. Daugherty has composed his own original songs and instrumental interludes that give haunting expression, ironic wit and contemporary relevance to political, social and environmental themes from Guthrie’s era. Under the baton of GRAMMY Award-winning conductor David Alan Miller, the Albany Symphony’s new music ensemble Dogs of Desire, joined by soprano Annika Socolofsky and baritone John Daugherty, give a poignant and rousing performance.

"Is it a chamber opera, a song cycle, or funky music? This Land Sings is the latest in Naxos’s ongoing cycle of works by the American composer, Michael Daugherty. Composing in a style that retains its roots in the melodic world of previous generations, yet, at the same time, looking to present a new sound stage for today’s concert-going audiences. Maybe this newcomer goes as far as he has yet ventured, the work seeking to mark the ‘Life and Times of Woody Guthrie’. Travelling around America with his guitar and harmonica, he captured and promoted, in his all too short life, the essence of folk music in the first half of the twentieth century. Michael Daugherty also travelled around the dust bowl of the United States before commencing the work, savouring the backdrop to Guthrie’s life as a writer and performer. It has resulted in an overture and sixteen vocal and instrumental tracks, the words for the songs written mostly by Daugherty. They are funny; they question life and our existence; suffering and love, all expressed in a mix of classical, folk and jazzy rhythms using a soprano, baritone and an eclectic group of instruments to form the instrumental forces. Having reviewed most of Daugherty’s music on Naxos, and having greatly enjoyed the experience, this one I have to leave to you for a personal repost. It is certainly a different experience that takes the composer down a new road, particularly so in the early part of the score. It is performed by the very individual soprano voice of Annika Socolofsky, and an excellent baritone, John Daugherty, more often seen on the opera stage, but here perfectly adapting to Daugherty’s music, Dogs of Desire is an enterprising group of seven instrumentalists drawn from the Albany Symphony, and conducted by their Music Director, David Alan Miller. Excellent punchy sound ideal for the work. Do listen to it." David’s Review Corner)

TRACKLIST

1. Dogs Of Desire - No. 1, Overture
2. Annika Socolofsky - No. 2, The Ghost and Will of Joe Hill
3. Annika Socolofsky - No. 3, Perpetual Motion Man
4. Dogs Of Desire - No. 4, Marfa Lights
5. Annika Socolofsky - No. 5, Hear the Dust Blow
6. John Daugherty - No. 6, Graceland
7. Annika Socolofsky - No. 7, Forbidden Fruit
8. John Daugherty - No. 8, Hot Air
9. Annika Socolofsky - No. 9, Bread and Roses
10. Dogs Of Desire - No. 10, This Land Sings
11. John Daugherty - No. 11, Silver Bullet
12. Greg Spiridopoulos - No. 12, This Trombone Kills Fascists
13. Annika Socolofsky - No. 13, Don't Sing Me a Love Song
14. Michael Daugherty - No. 14, My Heart Is Burning
15. John Daugherty - No. 15, I'm Gonna Walk That Lonesome Valley
16. Dogs Of Desire - No. 16, Mermaid Avenue
17. Annika Socolofsky - No. 17, Wayfaring Stranger [900 Miles]



Thanks to the Original customer.