Green Pastures

Anonymous 4 (Marsha Genensky, Susan Hellauer, Jacqueline Horner, Johanna Maria Rose); Darol Angel, fiddles; Mike Marshall, mandolins

I have to confess that I’m usually wary of projects like Anonymous 4’s Gloryland. A group of four women celebrated for their pure-voiced interpretations of medieval European classical music taking on such core Americana as shape-note hymns with bluegrass/newgrass journeymen Darol Anger and Mike Marshall would seem doomed to failure. I love them all separately but put the gang together and I smell crossover, NPR promotion, and all that other manufactured industry stuff that makes me alternately yawn or puke. But boy was I wrong. Somehow they make it work. And, while I won’t be casting aside my field recordings of this material for these more polished interpretations, they offer a very interesting alternative, proving that old traditions can morph into some very interesting new musical directions.

—FJO