THE SPEAKERS: Yeats Is Greats: The Speakers Sing the Poems of William Butler Yeats (and more)

The Speakers

Yeats Is Greats: The Speakers Sing the Poems of William Butler Yeats (and more)

© 2005 The Speakers (634479134296)

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quiet experimental folk-pop songs--seven of the songs are Yeats poems set to music

tracks

1 Oh! Hello There (I didn't see you come in)
2 He wishes his Beloved Were Dead
3 A Cradle Song
4 The Mountain Tomb
5 It Goes
6 Hey Little Rat
7 Music for Concertina, Violin, & Russia
8 Lost in a Crowd
9 The Delicate Conversation
10 The Fool by the Roadside
11 Nothing Ever Dies
12 To a Man Young and Old
13 The Temp Worker
14 To a Child Dancing in the Wind/Two Years Later
15 An Irish Airman foresees his Death
16 It Looks Like Pete has fallen Fast Asleep

notes

"...These songs are beautiful, fragile comforts. They're not joycore, no. They're just things to lean up against on these long midwinter days. Or in the nights. Trifles, I guess, in the same way that streetlamps are trifles. Or cherry trees. Or stars.

Voices fall across each-other, whispers blossoming into smiling song, folk that's crisscrossed just enough with foreign sound, shadows of accordion or clarinet, horns and drone. Hear a bit of Iron & Wine, but better. Maybe Sufjan circa Seven Swans. Grizzly Bear without the fear, Elliott Smith with a gang of kindly friends. Like Mt. Eerie, maybe, or The Robot Ate Me. But different.
Oh fuck it - just listen."

Sean from Said the Gramophone, January 5, 2006


"The Speakers are a lo-fi, new-folk duo from California. Their latest CD is a collection of songs with lyrics by William Butler Yeats. Brian Miller and Peter Musselman say they were inspired by the Irish poet's turn-of-the-century work because it sounded like country songs.

Miller and Musselman have been playing together since they were in middle school in Lancaster, Pa. They continued to play into college and later moved to California where they formed The Speakers in 1999.

For their new CD they sang and played accordion, guitar, bass, banjo, drums, violins, piano, organ, spaced-out keyboards and threw in some whistling.

Miller has also been the guitarist for Jolie Holland for the last five years and has appeared on her last two albums, Catalpa and Escondida, and her upcoming third album, Springtime Can Kill You."

--NPR Open Mic, November 9, 2005


Special guests on Yeats is Greats are:

Chris Arnold - claves, Keyboard & co-producer (4)
Dave Mihaly - drums & percussion (1, 13, 15)
Jolie Holland - fiddle (4) co-composer (13)
Nancy Mitchell - voice, whistling (4)
David Kovenetsky - spiritual advisor
Phoebe Wayne - hand claps (13)
Ara Anderson - trumpet (13)
Nicole Russo - clarinet (4)
Polly Stone - voice (10)

and all the artwork was done by New York artist Lisa Sanditz

reviews

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  • author: Hiller

    This album was phenomenal. It's a CD you can listen to all the way though, without ever thinking about fast forwarding through tracks. Seamless and wonderful.

  • Candy for the ears!
    author: Stereo Box

    This CD blends the beautiful words of William Butler Yeats, with the beautiful sound of the Speakers. If you have any taste at all, then this is the CD for you.

  • Great Album. Must have for anyone with taste.
    author: R Florence

    Yeats is Greats was a very pleasant find. The artistic range makes the album an interesting listen over and over again. It plays like a letter from an old friend, each time more is understood, always enjoyable and deeply personal. Immediately endearing music, like all good music should be.

  • Superb!
    author: Ben Johnson

    This is the first cd by The Speakers that I've bought and I love it. The mood is mellow but it's not boring. The music is lush and full. It comes highly recommended from me. Thanks Speakers; Yeats would be proud!

  • I feel like I've had a brush with magic...
    author: Julia

    This is a cd to spend some time with. Deep and multilayered, if you take the time to listen carefully it is an experience approaching magic. Like walking in a new country for the first time, you must pay attention and words become audible in the fabric of the songs. Everything seems a little strange, surprising, delightful. The scoring has an emotional power that lingers in memory long after that hidden piece in the last track.

  • I feel like I've had a brush with magic...
    author: Julia

    This is a cd to spend some time with. Deep and multilayered, if you take the time to listen carefully it is an experience approaching magic. Like walking in a new country for the first time, you must pay attention and words become audible in the fabric of the songs. Everything seems a little strange, surprising, delightful. The scoring has an emotional power that lingers in memory long after that hidden piece in the last track.

  • i feel the water of my tears rise from my belly
    author: kate

    music is what has always penetrated my insides when nothing else could. yeats is greats cuts to the quick and gets me high, all the while making me wonder why i am melancholy. thanks speakers! thanks for letting me feel so deep!

  • Beautiful
    author: Andrew

    Great work! I've been looking forward to this release by The Speakers for a few years now, and it was worth the wait. Some of their best work is on this record. If you want to hear music like no other music, try this record out. The Speakers make music like they're painters and writers in addition to being two of the best musicians the world has known. No joke.

  • Perfectly modern & delightful tribute
    author: Maureen

    Yeats is Greats is a great modern complement to the poet's work. At once dark and playful, these guys have captured a 21st century musical mood for W.B. The CD as a whole almost acts as a play with a beginning & end. The unusual arrangements, so virtuostically performed, are often surprising but always just right! This is my first Speakers CD, but I'll now be buying more of their work & purchasing this CD for friends

  • REALLY lovely album! Quiet, but interesting. Great concept. Sophisticated, but simple. For once, I'm grateful that I found it and bought it. Go forth and multiply!

  • author: CD Baby

    Almost half of the songs on "Yeats Is Greats" are set with poetry of the evocative poet, while the others rise from today's muse and the contemporary worlds of verbal experience. Both the old and new are set to a smoky, atmospheric hush that curls together a sleepy ambient electronic backdrop with a quiet americana, almost lo-fi folk dripping with secrets. It is a delicious combination of the bitter and the succulent, the poetry exquisite and colored with contemporary context. There's a steadiness to be found even in the questioning harmonies and doubtful melodies. This one is a beauty.

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