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- Verified Buyer
I originally purchased this on CD a few years ago. After watching this year's broadcast of the Pops from the Esplanade in Boston (and not being all that impressed with it), I pulled this CD out and decided to give it a listen. In hearing it again for the first time in a few years, I realized how well this material continues to stand up. The Boston Pops have always done an excellent job putting together albums of holiday music; their Christmas CDs are among the most listened to in my collection. Even though this is no longer available on CD, it is still available through MP3 downloads, and it is well worth your money.There were two surprises of this album for me. The first was the inclusion of "The Gettysburg Address." Adapted from the film "Gettysburg," and featuring author David McCullough (the voice of "The Civil War") narrating, this was one of the more surprising tracks. It is also one of the most moving. The music, composed by Randy Edelman, compliments Lincoln's words wonderfully, and McCullough's voice brings out the full beauty of the address, a beauty that is sometimes lost when reading the words on the page (especially in a history class).The second was "The City of New Orleans." I kind of ignored this song when I first listened to this album. But on subsequent listens, I paid more attention to the words and understood better what the song was about. The song tells of a ride on the City of New Orleans train line from Chicago to New Orleans. The lyrics perfectly capture a bygone (or at least quickly disappearing) part of American life. When folks traveled by train years ago, it may have taken longer, but they got to see some of the true majesty of our land. Can you really do that on a plane, thousands of feet in the air? How about on a concrete highway, going by at 70 MPH? One of the most patriotic acts one can do in America is to actually see America. Hopefully, this song will remind you to do that one day...it does for me.Some other highlights here include "Liberty Fanfare," a fantastic composition from John Williams, written for the centennial of the Statue of Liberty. Yolanda Adams also offers a soulful rendition of "America The Beautiful" (the lyrics of which, by the way, were also written on a train ride). "The Doodletown Fifers" is a great tune to finally have a recording of (if only I could stop thinking every time I hear it about that cartoon where the wolf whistles it). There is also a nice, although slightly musak-like, version of Paul Simon's "America" which ends up being the only drag on this album, although only slightly so.While some of the tracks included here were new recordings, others were not. Several tracks for the "America" album are "borrowed" from another Pops recording, "A Splash of Pops." If you're really looking to make a great collection of American music, you might want to consider downloading a few tracks from this latter album to include with the tracks from "America." There is a nice recording of the much overlooked overture to "State Fair" along with different versions of "America The Beautiful" (a different vocalist) and "Stars and Stripes Forever" (with a chorus at the end...yes, that song has words to it). But the absolute highlights of "Splash" though are two vocal works. The first is "Lift Every Voice and Sing," a powerful hymn that deserves a place in the pantheon of our traditional patriotic songs. The other is "With Voices Raised," a phenomenal blend of music and history, featuring quotes from such luminaries as Abigail Adams, Sojourner Truth, and Martin Luther King. The quotes and lyrics outline the struggles faced by America over the centuries, and the song does a good job spotlighting those who spoke out about these injustices when it was otherwise unpopular to have done so. It also includes a quote from JFK that, in hindsight, is truly an inspired choice now given our current political state.The music of America has been an enduring quality that has contributed to our nation's culture in enumerable ways. The Boston Pops knows how to showcase this best. The musicianship from the orchestra is flawless, the selection of material is outstanding, and contributions from singers (and even an author) add some real weight to what otherwise might have been another disposable instrumental collection. The songs here are full of pride and love for our nation, and they are a pleasure to listen to. These works have endured for generations, and these particular performances of them will likewise stand the test of time too.
