Amazing Grace

This video introduces viewers to the magic of Scottish music and the traditions that infuse it. Many different performers in many different formats are featured, from massed and solo pipers, to dancers performing traditional steps. Many of the most prominent figures from the world of Celtic music are featured, including Tommy Scott, Stuart Liddell, Eric Rigler, Caledonian Heritage Pipes & Drums, Bill Garden's Scottish Orchestra, Denny & Dunnipace Pipe Band, and Massed Bands.

You were either on the Mountain Bus, or you were not. Those who did like Gear Fab's 1998 reissue of the Chicago band's sole album - and perhaps even some of those who did not - should find the even more satisfying Amazing Grace, which collects the various recordings made by the post-Mountain Bus communal band Sky Farmer, to be a welcome treat. From the time the original band was litigated out of existence until its reshuffling and re-emergence with the music found on this archival release, the members of Sky Farmer discovered an even more liberating range of stylistic eclecticism…

For most genre fans John Elefante needs no introduction. But for the youngsters out there … Vocalist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer John Elefante is the guy who replaced the guy, Steve Walsh, in Kansas in 1981. (Elefante beat out, among others, Sammy Hagar and Doug Pinnick for the job.) He would record two albums with Kansas, Vinyl Confessions and Drastic Measures. To the former, he was the vocalist on the mega-hit, Play The Game Tonight; to the latter, he wrote Fight Fire With Fire, Kansas' biggest single to date.

World Premiere recording of BEN JOHNSTON’S last composition – OCTET: “Ashokan Farewell” featuring Lyris Quartet, who also plays his Quartet #9 and the world’s favorite, Quartet #4: Amazing Grace.

The veterans of the Canadian Brass here show why the group continues to attract big audiences despite a good deal of competition they themselves have inspired. By now their seamless blend, made possible by the way each individual instrumentalist polishes his attack down to a seductive gentleness, is familiar to almost everyone who listens to over-the-air or Internet classical radio.

Hymn singing is fundamental in protestant churches, but not normally the subject of an album released worldwide. The musicianship presented here is singular, sung by two volunteer choirs with power and emotion. The inspired arrangements heard on this recording have developed over decades of working with wonderful choirs and congregations, as well as by singing with, and listening to, many inspired colleagues. Some of the descants were conceived for particular services, while other arrangements grew further for special occasions. Several of the brass arrangements were composed for the ordination and consecration of the Rt. Rev. Alan Gates as Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts in 2014.

The Bible has been written, recorded and presented in a number of ways in a multitude of formats. It’s difficult to choose a selection of passages from the Bible to create a ‘Greatest Hits’ vibe, without offending someone by missing out passages they believe to be key or that speak to them on a personal level. Do you give both the Old and New Testaments the same air time or do you lean, with your own bias, on the Testament that resonates with you?