Steve Stull has been singing around Ithaca for some time. We’ve seen him in the opera (Glimmerglass, Tri-Cities, Ithaca), as soloist in Sage Chapel, and in unusual musical programs. He got the idea of doing this album of 23 classic western songs in 1996, and collected a bunch of friends to do it with him. Almost all the cowpokes are men, the outstanding exception being Phyllis Pancella, best known for powerful performances in recent Glimmerglass productions; her rendition of “Blue Bayou” is one of the album’s highlights.

The CD opens with Stull singing a stormy “Riders in the Sky”; it is quite wonderful, and next comes “Don’t Fence Me In,” sung by baritone Stephen Powell, with an accompaniment of guitar, bass and a marvelous violin wandering around the voice. The accompaniments are mostly traditional, but interesting. Local clarinetist and reviewer Mark Simon did some of the arrangements, the prize being “Home on the Range.” Here we have subtle opera quotations and a totally in-your-face reference to the Brahms first piano concerto. And yes, there is a cowpokes quartet, somewhat uneven in sound and rhythmic performance, and a dramatic “Gunfight at the OK Corral,” complete with former Ithaca Opera director Gary Race as Wyatt Earp.

The album is somewhat uneven, with some routine performances, but many of the songs have real character. Most of them are lively unusually done and sometimes downright fun. And then there is the last “family” gathering. You just have to hear the dog.

Go to: The Pulse of an Irishman, Irish and Scottish Songs arranged by Beethoven

Go to: "I am Prospero" instrumental works by Paul Goldstaub

Go to: Echoes, Moods and Reflections - New works for Trombone Ensemble

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