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Reviews

We have the Christmas Revels CD and loved that, but I can't stand Christmas music in February, so I bought this CD. My family adores it -- my kids, 4 and 6, love to sing along to it. There are a few drinking songs that praise alcoholic beverages (Good Ale, Jone's Ale), but I'm not sure my kids get the gist and it doesn't bother me. I felt this was well worth the cost -- there are a lot of songs on here. I love that we can sing along to music that isn't sacchrine, dumb-downed, kids music and I like the historical nature of the tunes (the liner notes are great -- they give background on the May festival and each song has a few sentences of background, as well as providing the lyrics. There are a few songs that are instrumental, but most have singing). Another album my family is enjoying is Dean Shostack Davy Crockett's Fiddle - they are instrumental early American fiddle tunes.

I defy you to not sing along with this album. The songs are catcy without being tiring, folksy without being simple, nostalgic without being sentimental. The Revel Singers make you feel like you're in the midst of a big party full of boisterous people having a great time. I was introduced to this album via my local eclectic radio station that played "Jones's Ale" one morning and I was hooked.

Probably taken from one of the delightful annual Revels Christmas/holiday musicals, the sound is Christmas-y without being cloying. It's joyful, fresh and charming.

Reviews

Being one of the two musicians on this album, I can assure the listeners that this music is purely original. I improvised all flute tracks while Michael improvised the underlying strings and piano tracks. Certain bass lines and added background instruments were added in post-production. However, all melody lines are 100% original improvisations. I believe this album will provide you a listening experience unlike any other. The Native American Flutes are truly magical instruments and provided a peaceful transport of my feelings into music. I hope you enjoy.

another author wrot some of these songs

"Balance of Nature" is a soothing collaboration by Chuck Offutt on Native American flutes and Michael Dulin on piano and keyboards. The inspiration for the album came from a week Dulin spent in the mountains of North Carolina. Retreating from the noise of the city and a hectic recording schedule, Dulin returned with a new mission - "to create music that could flow wordlessly into the heart of the listener as naturally as the peace and power of the mountains had flowed into me." The music was not intended to be representative of Native American culture, but the wooden flutes were the perfect medium to express the beauty of the untouched world. All of the pieces are played at a leisurely tempo which gives the album a consistent flow from start to finish. The flutes have a rather limited range, and Dulin keeps the individual pieces distinctive by varying the keyboard and piano sounds. Dulin's work on this album is more or less in the background, but it is his sensitivity and expressive playing that bring out the beauty of the flute's haunting and evocative quality. No rhythm tracks are used, and if I had to classify it, I would call `Balance of Nature" ambient" because of the floating quality and lack of distinct melody lines. Listening to this album can melt away the stresses of the day and provide a musical massage for the mind. Very nicely done!

Reviews

If you heard the Coast2Coast George Noory Interview, you were probably dissapointed by the "your waisting my air time" type attitude displayed by Mr. Noory. This is a taped interview with Ghost Wolf on an assortment of Prophecy that was not covered on that show. The Camera work is amatuer, but the message is what you should be listening to anyway. Some interesting comments about Hale Bopp (I already knew from other Native American Elders), and the coming "Great Shaking". Some of the work is also covered in some of his books which I highly recommend to New Age types, those who have an interest in future events, (this was taped in 1997 or 98-and some of the prophecies have been fufilled), and those interested in increasing their inner intuition, ect. The whole interview is about 60 mins. Ghost Wolf does tell of specific times of events-one thing he states he does not like to do (all real shamans and elders say this), which makes it look as some of what he speaks is inaccurate. Audio could have been cleaned up a bit too (you hear a phone ringing and a receptionist at the front desk pickup the phone). I like the part about the Star-People too for they should get a little bit of credit....

Reviews

This book is incredible. The lessons are non-denominational, and they are laid out in a way just about anyone can understand, based on the simplicity of his teaching style. I wasn't a huge "self-help" guy, and this really isn't a self-help book, but it definitely allows you to try a different way of behavior in life that just makes you feel good about everything, from yourself, to your friends and family, to your work. It is an easy read, and you will feel almost energized after reading it, if you actually try out the suggestions even for one day. It is a great book that I bought twice, and suggested to at least 3 different people by now.

Let me first start off by saying I have not read the book, but have seen the four agreements in reviews here as well as on a video. I am, however, commenting on what I understand to be the basic premise of this book (based on various extensive reviews here and elsewhere), and on the source of this premise. The 4 agreements, I have to say, are reasonable, even pretty good (as another reviewer has pointed out, they are: Be Impeccable With Your Words; Don't Take Anything Personally; Don't Make Assumptions; Always Do Your Best). However, don't you people feel that these are almost secondary good traits for humans to have, and that some more fundamental and important good traits are missing from this list? Missing from this list are the much more important virtues of the golden rule (do unto others as you would want others to do unto you), doing not harm, being compassionate, just, fair and kind, and helping people whenever you have the ability. And I started to wonder, why is the author espousing these secondary virtues only in this book, why are the aforementioned primary virtues missing, and what is this so-called Toltec wisdom. So I looked up info about the Toltecs on the web, and was aghast. The Toltec civilization was a Mesoamerican civilization the preceded the Mayan and Aztec that, while having built some impressive pyramids, performed horrific human sacrifices in which the beating heart was cut out of the sacrificial victim (for the record, even the Aztecs and Mayans had similarly barbaric, cruel and evil practices). So no wonder that these people did not espouse any of the primary human virtues that I have mentioned above. No wonder compassion and humane behavior was (apparently) not part of their cultural lexicon. Thank God that these cruel, evil and dark civilizations were destroyed by the Spaniards (who of course, had their own brand of cruelty and evil in the form of the Inquisition, but it was on a lower scale of bloodiness and cruelty, I think, than those of the Mesoamerican civilizations), though it took too much time for this to happen. And it is the "wisdom" of these people that the author Don Miguel Ruiz is espousing??!! How amazingly hollow and misguided (if not downright manipulative and dishonest) of him! And how stupid, moronic and gullible of all of you fair readers who have praised this book not to realize this. Even if you did not know of the Toltecs or were too lazy to look up their civilization on the web, at least the espousing of only secondary virtues and the complete lack of primary ones of humane behavior should have clued you all to the possibility that something is amiss. But no, you swallow this book hook, line and sinker with nary a critical or analytical thought. There is indeed much to despair about the human race (though of course we have spiritually evolved a great deal since those cruel ancient times--which btw are not limited to Mesoamerican civilizations, though they were probably the worst offenders in this regard). Finally, I am not a right-wing nut and I am not a Christian (though I think Jesus Christ's original teachings were good, beautiful and humane, as I also think were Lord Krishna's teachings codified in the Gita, and were Buddha's teachings). Nor am I against new age wisdom (in fact, I agree with many of new age wisdom, especially those emanating from Hinduism and Buddhism). So those of you who may be ready to pounce on me and brand me as a right-wing religious nut, give it a rest. Instead try to logically and spiritually understand my serious misgivings about this book that I have described above.

Thanks for your excellent service re: this product. It was a birthday gift to my sister who lives in another state, and she let me know that she recieved the product by her birthday, and when she began to listen to the product it was in great shape. I really apprecitate the speed and reliablity to that you put into your customer service.

A great compostion of spiritual concepts,combined with a captivating narrative by Peter Coyote.Magnificent piece of work,thoroughly enjoyed it.Thank you!

It could just be the sophomoric writing style, but I didn't find anything remarkable in this book. There's nothing that I particularly DISagree with, but there's certainly nothing unique and profound. This was a waste of my time and money.