Timely music for our changing times
author: JA Thueson
When I stumbled accross their gig listing on HVmusic.com and listened to their web tracks I couldn't get up and off to the gig quickly enough to see if they are for real and sure enough they are, times three! Their haunting harmonies encased my heart and being sending those pure shivers down my spine that signify truth and the connection that makes us believers in life, love and happiness. Perfectly produced and serious to the core, this CD is a must for any folk enthusiast!
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brand new favorite music
author: Laszlo
This record and this musical duo is my bigest discovery in 2006. Michele Rubin and Rick Gedney with Bill Masters who is the album’s arranger, made a high level product in the acoustic folk. So anyone would ask that what new can they say in this acoustic folk music? But if you listen to "The Things We Keep" for the first time, then you can hear a fresh, original new sound on your CD-player. Gorgeous harmonies, amazing electric-acoustic guitar accompaniments, and beautiful lyrics. Michele Rubin’s and Rick Gedney’s voice together are fantastic mixture of the powerful and lyrical vocal tone. I have no doubt, you will melt away by every track, if you like the good music. I am in awe of this first class album and therefore Open Book is the top of my own music collection now. I do think you will enjoy it. Highly recommended....
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intelligent and astute songwriting
author: Mike Jurkovic/Chronogram Magazine
Hot on the heels of their emerging artist showcase gig at this year's Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, singer-guitarists Michelle Rubin and Rick Gedney—Open Book—return with their second solid, folk-filled CD.
Though I find myself preferring their intuitive and organic vocal blend to when either songwriter takes the lead, The Things We Keep, like its tuneful predecessor, 2002's Out of Time, is an engaging amalgam of harmony vocals, tasty folk rock, and, most importantly, intelligent and astute songwriting that fully realizes that whatever the two songwriters are living through, most of their audience has also experienced.
Unlike many contemporaries, the duo and its producer-guitarist, Billy Masters, know not to overproduce the music, and instead let the songs speak not only for themselves but to Open Book's deservedly growing audience. Evidence of this can be heard throughout the disc but radiates especially on the poppy lope of "Sing Me Love"; the evocative immediacy of my favorite
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Rubin's glass-like purity mixes perfectly with Gedney's soft delivery
author: Richard Cuccaro, Acoustic Live Magazine
Following their debut album, "Out of Time," Rick Gedney and Michele Rubin have racheted things up several notches with their second album, "The Things We Keep." Right at home in the middle of a masterful mix of instruments, we hear the finest country/folk/rock harmonies since the Everly Brothers. Rubin's glass-like purity mixes perfectly with Gedney's soft delivery alongside a tastful mix of swirling slide guitar, mandolin, and atmospheric piano and more. The songs range from doubt to devotion, but are handled with conviction throughout.
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