This is a superlative collection of very good songs beautifully arranged.  The quality and variety of performers is outstanding.  The charitable purpose of this recording is very nice, but musically speaking it is entirely beside the point.  This album is competitive with any regular release out there.  A magazine review said "there's not a bad cut on the record", but to me that is to damn it with faint praise.  The music is much better than that with a lot of style and some hauntingly beautiful cuts.  I've bought three of them so far (for myself and gifts), and may not be done yet.  Once this album is gone it's gone.  My recommendation is not to let it slip through your hands.
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I was unfamilar with most of rachel's music when I first bought the cd, but now she is one of the biggest influences because of this compliation, it is quite langthy, so give it time to marinate in your head, trust me a more beautiful cd was never made
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I only got to know Rachel briefly from talking to her each time I caught her gigs at Charley B’s bar in Stowe. I felt a connection with her and her songs right away. 

I like the CDs’ art and liner notes and the songs are moving and very well played. I read an interview once in which Bob Dylan was asked about Jimi Hendrix’s affinity and genius for Dylan’s songs. He said: "He took my songs and he made them his. But then, they always were." That’s a good description of what the musicians do on "Remembering Rachel." 

It must have been hard for the artists to avoid imitating Rachel, especially for The Dreamsicles and the New Hicks on the song "Gravity’s Gone," which has so much of Rachel’s sexy and wryly intelligent singing, phrasing, voice slides and inflections, guitar style and little rhythm-shaker sounds.  Instead, they use drone and pedal steel to evoke Uillean pipes and resolute songs in waltz time (like the Celtic song "When I Was on Horseback"). With whispers, they sound like conscience or hushed guardian angels. When they repeat "gone, gone, gone" and hold the final chord through fadeout, they convey a sense of finality. Steel pedal ends the song on a rising note - like a spirit ascending - played as if meant for Rachel to hear. The whole song feels to me like a deeply felt after-death communication. 

The musicians’ talents can’t hide their grief. But I think the results are moving and earnest – characteristics I saw in Rachel’s approach too.

Rachel played "In the Middle" for me and my wife at the Stoweflake on Valentine’s night a few years ago because she knew I liked it. In explaining to the rest of the crowd why she was playing it, she smiled and said, "It’s not exactly a Valentine’s song, but don’t worry, it’s not sad."  Fine players, great songs and deft production are combined so that with these CD’s, you don’t have to worry about that either.
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A beautiful CD. I first heard Rachel at First Night in Burlington, VT, a few years ago, when she was playing bald and brave, and I'll be going to the tribute concert at First Night this year and crying all over again.
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