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| What people are saying about Happy Land... |
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| “...Maggie is re-reading Little House because of the CD, she stops reading when she gets to the mention of a song and sings along with text in hand. We've learned about Highland Mary and Robert Burns and all that, you've found a real devotee in Maggie. She's been glued to it all. I'm certainly going to give this CD as birthday present whenever I need to get one, maybe together with the book even....I adore watching our Maggie so moved by this.” --Agnes H. |
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| “...Wonderful and amazing! ...Deborah Packard ...What a voice! ...she goes right to the heart of that song! ...I love it.” --George Todd Middlebury College Middlebury VT |
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“Happy Land moves far beyond a mere sound recording. It actively engages the listener with memories of some of this country's most beloved, most treasured texts--the works of Laura Ingalls Wilder. As I sat listening to track after track, my two children listened attentively as they pretended to do other things. My son (age 9) explained and interpreted each track to my daughter (age 5) as he recalled references to each musical example in the [Wilder] texts. At one point during "Sweet By and By" my son burst out ‘Dad, that's Laura singing. That's exactly how I imagined Laura's voice!’ Happy Land accomplishes something very few recordings of American classics achieve—it gives new resonance to treasured texts and embellishes memories of childhood and youth. ‘There is a happy land’—and now we can add this recording to our family’s cherished artifacts!” |
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| “Wow! The performance quality on all levels, from every artist is excellent. It is beautifully packaged and the music is moving, uplifting, informative, funny and very entertaining.” --Odessa S. Nashville TN |
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"Having grown up (at least since the age of 20) with many of the styles on this recording, from shape note to old-time fiddle to church hymn singing and Stephen Foster, this feels like the music of my life.
The virtues are many: the instrumental ensembles are rock solid, a special joy to hear; the soloists are amazing, in such appealing styles and such wonderful variety of approaches; and what a great touch to feature recordings of Pa's fiddling neighbor! Happy Land is a beautifully complete package, wedding scholarship with appealing performances, for the education and entertainment and enlightenment of all, topped by something truly ineffable—a sense of completeness and fulfillment. I've been yearning for this for more than 20 years, since we first starting reading Laura Ingalls Wilder to our oldest daughter. No, make that for 52 years, since my first-grade teacher, Miss Good, at Southside Elementary School in Richland Center, Wisconsin, read us one chapter each day of The Long Winter, and I wondered how anyone survived those blizzards and what those songs might have sounded like. With deepest gratitude for the gift that carries me back to my childhood." --Deane L. Root Professor and Chair Department of Music Director and Curator Center for American Music University of Pittsburgh |
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| "Happy Land really completes the Little House Books! So many times I have read the books to my two children and said “Oh, this is the part where Pa sings a song and plays a tune” but I won’t have to do that anymore! Happy Land can pop the words that Laura wrote to life and fill our reading experiences with wonderful music just like Laura must have imagined it when she wrote her memories of pioneer life! My ten year old daughter’s favorite songs from the CD are “Highland Mary” and “Barbara Allen” and my six year old son loves “Roll the Old Chariot Along”, I even heard them singing parts of the songs when they were playing and hanging out in their rooms! Thanks!" -- Keri S. La Center, Kentucky |
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| "What a terrific way to bring the songs of the Ingalls family to life! Now everyone who enjoys the 'Little House' stories has the chance to hear and enjoy the music that played such a big part in the family’s life. Happy Land opens the doors to a musical world that has long been a part of the fabric of American culture, but which--until now--has been largely unknown to today’s young readers. First-rate performances and a solid production all the way around--Bravo!!" --Paul F. Wells, Director Center for Popular Music Middle Tennessee State University |
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| "Vanderbilt University's Blair School of Music underwrote parts of Happy Land: Musical Tributes to Laura Ingalls Wilder (Pa's Fiddle Recordings/Sound art), a fine 18-track collection co-produced by Butch Baldassari and Dale Cockrell. The set includes contributions from Riders in The Sky, Dave Olney, Andrea Zonn and others covering vintage hymns, classic Americana like Stephen Foster's "Oh! Susanna" and "Nelly Was A Lady," comic/novelty pieces, and many other numbers crafted during the nation's formative period. It also doesn't ignore some of the more controversial pieces from that era, particularly "The Big Sunflower," a tune taken from the minstrel era that features Douglas B. Green's vocal that accurately conveys the period's tragic/comic tone, aided by a spoken word interlude from pianist Karen Krieger and excellent contributions from Baldassari on four-string mandolin-banjo, fiddler Casey Driessen and percussionist John Mock. These songs highlight an author whose work was a bit more diversified and emotionally tough than sometimes depicted through The Little House on the Prairie show. It also demonstrates how much her work was influenced by the music of the period." --Ron Wynn, City Paper Online (Nashville) June 17, 05 |
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Comments?
pasfriends@NDXpress.com |
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HarperCollins Publishers, which owns the trademark to Little House®,
has not been involved, either implicitly or explicitly, in the production of this recording. |
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