A Reference Recording....

My pleasure. On the surface, this would appear to be nothing more than a run of the mill indie CD. Nothing could be further from the truth. You can listen to some of their music at the site. Try 'Only Love'...this is the first track on "Rising"...and the one that made me say 'man, this is something very special'. They're mp3s of course, but you'll get the idea.

> we seem to get lost in the quest for better gear

I couldn't agree more. And I'm just as guilty as many.

OK you got me. I just ordered "Rising" and "Live at the Backstage Gate" from cdbaby.com for $27. One of my favorite things about cdbaby is I can pay with paypal.
I've rarely been steered wrong with music recommendations here.

Timrhu,

As long as you liked the music itself, you won't be steered wrong. I can guarantee you'll be happy with the engineering side of things. Enjoy!

Mike

I too have recommended this group in the past. They performed live at CES 2005, attracted my attention, and caused me to purchase their CDs. They combine Folk, Country, and Bluegrass in a most unusual way, and while they might not be everyone's taste, there are a few cuts that are worth owning.

The "Live at the Backgate Stage" has phenominal presense and the vocal clarity, harmony, instrumental accuracy, and sound staging is way above average. Cut 11 is accapella and the 4 voices nit together beautifully with great focus and separation. Cut 12 is instrumental and captures the attacks and harmonics again with great focus and separation.

These 2 cuts alone would be sufficient as reference recordings to reveal a great deal about a system.

Me Toooooo!
I love Northwest artists, got to support the home region, my wife loves good christmas music so I got Rising and the Christmas album. Vito gonna break-a-youse legs iften dees records no good :)
Along the same lines Anonamous Fours' Welcome Yule is a winner if you like celtic christmas music. First I ever heard of CD Baby, nice site.