Customer Reviews

Up Close And Alone

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Cummings, a Steinway and an acoustically ambient venue. WYHIWYG. The world class sound of the acoustic piano is half the show, but the 2nd band member working with Cummings is the Glenn Gould concert theater. The audio recording engineer did a marvelous job of capturing the ambient sound of this venue. Cummings songs are familiar toe tappers from back in the day brought new life by the acoustics provided by Cummings' virtuoso, a great concert hall and a great concert piano. The sound alone is worth the price of the album.

As for Cummings, he puts in a solid performance. His repertoire may be a bit dated but fans will like this record - and the sound is worth the effort to play it right through the 18 tracks. I make a habit of putting this album on in the car as I drive across the prairies. The sounds give meaning to the passing country side as the birth place of these tunes so long ago - and of Cummings and his band mates who put in the grinding road tour work to hone their skill and imprint their songs on the pop landscape.

If you only have one Burton Cummings album, this is the one to have.

Anyone who likes the Guess Who, will definitely love this offering from Burton Cummings. It's Burton at his best! Him and his electric piano pump out some of the Guess Who's greatest hits as well as some of his solo stuff as well. You won't be disappointed in what this CD offers. Buy it now!

Most people don't realize that Burton Cummings has been singing professionally since the early sixties. His first success was with a Canadian band called the "Deverons". A few years later, he was the front-man and main songwriter for "The Guess Who". In the middle of the seventies, Cummings went on a solo career and never looked back - kind of.

This performance at the Glenn Gold Theater in Toronto is a no frills evening with Cummings voice and his piano. The sound is impeccable. He manages to capture the magic and immediacy of each some with some truly fanciful playing and clever vocal tricks. Most songs are interspersed with great stories about the time period of the song or a meaningful event, but mostly the album is just great listening.

Burton Cummings manages to rock the house with, "Albert Flasher" and some of his other oldies like, "Clap For The Wolfman" and "No Sugar Tonight". Those Cummings ballads are real tear-jerkers, like, "Timeless Love", "Break It To Them Gently" and the insurmountable, "Stand Tall". Of course, no concert is quite like a one man show that ends with a rousing "These Eyes" and a hearty goodnight to all.

This is a great show. I saw this show at Bourbon Street north in Quebec awhile ago and it has stuck in my mind as one of the better concerts I've seen. Burton has pipes of steel. The guy came out and sang for one and a half hours in a smoke filled bar and then came out again to applause with a beer and cigarette in is hand and proceeded to sing for another 20 mins without cracking his voice. Unbelievable. This concert distills the songs down to the way they were probably written at the time of their conception. "These eyes" solo is astounding !! Enjoy !!

Here's a good idea, invite one of rocks most interesting and polished singers/pianists and have him perform in a wonderful hall for a small crowd and record the show as if everybody was over at Burton's house for a cookout. Bring your own Yukon Gold and you're all set. The recording is warm and EQed so all of BC's voice inflections and "soul" comes through and you can here how good a singer and player Burton still is. Being a long time fan and a professional musician myself it was refreshing hearing the music in a way that reflects how these songs sounded as Burton first wrote them or learned them. I love the "record", The Rod stewert Maggie Mae tune is almost worth the price of the disc by itself.

Burton proves in this compilation that he truly is one of the best at the craft. The man has not had the stateside recognition that he deserves, and I hope he is still writing and willing to record. "Sour Suite" is alone worth the price of admission, a classic which most people have never had the pleasure of hearing. His body of work has "worn the years rather well," as he puts it himself, and his enduring songs contrast with much of the junk which passes for music today. The CD is not flawless; the sound is annoyingly "soft," as others have noted, and "Wolfman" could have been omitted (terrible song), but this is great entertainment. "These Eyes" brings me back to 1968 seeing the Guess Who perform live in North Dakota down the road from Winnipeg, just before they hit the big time. This is a "must-have" for the discriminating rock fan, a most pleasurable listen.

Look, I love Burton as much as anyone, but here his voice just sounds strained. He struggles to hit the high notes. I know, I know, his voice was the best. Ever. Bar none. Unfortunately, here it seems it has diminished.

Burton Cummings has one of the most amazing and individual voices in pop music. This CD captures his vocal agility, interpretation, and power. His piano skills are top-notch, as well. This recording of Burton's voice and piano, captured live in concert, is a fine showcase of a wide range of his best-known material; pre-Guess Who, Guess Who, and post-Guess Who work. "Timeless Love" and "I Will Play a Rhapsody" suffer a bit without the layered harmonies of the original recordings, but the from-the-heart ballads of "Stand Tall," "Dream of a Child," and "Break it To Them Gently" are well-suited to Burton's solo presentation. And Burton doing Gordon Lightfoot singing Rod Stewart's "Maggie May..." is worth a giggle.

If anything is disappointing about this CD, it's that the sound quality isn't the best. I'm not a recording engineer, but the CD is rather "quiet": I need to crank it up really loud to hear all the nuances. It could've been "brighter." But other than that, it's excellent. If you're entranced by this voice, don't pass "Up Close and Alone" by.

Aside from the most back-patting liner notes ever (Burton Cummings is one arrogant SOB), this album stands on its own a good record. But the voice, THE VOICE, as the album so highly touts was somewhat disappointing. While Burton never really rocked it out in his solo work, the voice was still there. No he sounds like his throat was destroyed...really fighting to get some of those higher notes out. Good songs, but I think as a piano player he is limited. Should you buy it? Of course, but just don't hold the bar too high.

It's amazing how Burton's voice keeps getting better and better. Check out his vocals in the second chorus of "Dream Of A Child" - amazing! And this is the first time I've really been able to tell what a talented pianist he is. All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable CD. One complaint, however. Where's "One and Only"? Murray, if you read this - Farrah still thinks you're awesome!