Summary: Music bridges the language barrier as a group of cowboy musicians trek across the Mongolian steppe on horseback, making friends and singing songs with the nomadic herdsmen of this vast country.
A musical journey that takes the most-West to the most-East. Not since Paul Pena's journey to Central Asia (Genghis Blues) has a documentary captured the universality of music so vividly. A group of American cowboys travel to Mongolia and find themselves speechless by performing artists who demonstrate versatility in both Eastern and Western music. Music cannot be separated from the lifestyle of cowboys in Mongolia and the spirituality is shared in different aspects of it. The piece ends with a tune, sung both in English and Mongolian, where the message is quite clear; you can't measure friendship in miles or meters. A must listen!
At first I thought the premise sounded too simple, almost cheesy - cowboys encountering each other across a cultural divide and discovering their similarities through the simple joys of music. That's been done before, I thought. Well to my delight I was wonderfully, remarkably wrong. This piece has definitely NEVER been done before and the narrator has a true gift for tackling complex issues like cultural difference from a simple (but not simplistic), genuine perspective. Unlike many public radio pieces which have a distant narrator, this piece has a warm involved, thoughtful narrator who pulls us inside the story without making the story about him. (That's a hard balance to pull off). I've been thinking all day about the questions raised by this story - what role does art/should art play in our society? how is the art we produce connected to the landscape we live in? what are the different languages we use to communicate with other people?
And, most importantly, you haven't lived until you've heard a rendition of John Denver's "take me home country road" involving tuvan throat singers!
This fascinating cross-cultural journey made me wish I'd been there for the whole trip! It's easy to imagine Yo Yo Ma on the Silk Road, but American cowboys in Mongolia? And yet Hal Cannon recreates his unique experience in such beautifully aural fashion, not only is it easy to imagine - I felt like I was sitting there with him. The recordings are fantastic, the narration thoughtful and the mixing just right. Be sure not to fade out the music at the end too early and miss the Mongolian throat singer joining in with the American musicians. Cowboys seem to be enjoying a cultural renaissance at the moment - so treat your listeners to this warm-hearted and unusual story. It's still making me smile right now just thinking about it.
Comments for From Sagebrush to Steppe
Produced by Hal Cannon and Taki Telonidis of the Western Folklife Center
Other pieces by Western Folklife Center Media
Rating Summary
3 comments
Emon Hassan
Posted on March 23, 2006 at 07:55 PM | Permalink
Review of From Sagebrush to Steppe
A musical journey that takes the most-West to the most-East. Not since Paul Pena's journey to Central Asia (Genghis Blues) has a documentary captured the universality of music so vividly. A group of American cowboys travel to Mongolia and find themselves speechless by performing artists who demonstrate versatility in both Eastern and Western music. Music cannot be separated from the lifestyle of cowboys in Mongolia and the spirituality is shared in different aspects of it. The piece ends with a tune, sung both in English and Mongolian, where the message is quite clear; you can't measure friendship in miles or meters. A must listen!
Sarah Yahm
Posted on January 17, 2006 at 05:51 PM | Permalink
Review of From Sagebrush to Steppe
At first I thought the premise sounded too simple, almost cheesy - cowboys encountering each other across a cultural divide and discovering their similarities through the simple joys of music. That's been done before, I thought. Well to my delight I was wonderfully, remarkably wrong. This piece has definitely NEVER been done before and the narrator has a true gift for tackling complex issues like cultural difference from a simple (but not simplistic), genuine perspective. Unlike many public radio pieces which have a distant narrator, this piece has a warm involved, thoughtful narrator who pulls us inside the story without making the story about him. (That's a hard balance to pull off). I've been thinking all day about the questions raised by this story - what role does art/should art play in our society? how is the art we produce connected to the landscape we live in? what are the different languages we use to communicate with other people?
And, most importantly, you haven't lived until you've heard a rendition of John Denver's "take me home country road" involving tuvan throat singers!
David Swatling
Posted on January 17, 2006 at 01:22 PM | Permalink
Review of From Sagebrush to Steppe
This fascinating cross-cultural journey made me wish I'd been there for the whole trip! It's easy to imagine Yo Yo Ma on the Silk Road, but American cowboys in Mongolia? And yet Hal Cannon recreates his unique experience in such beautifully aural fashion, not only is it easy to imagine - I felt like I was sitting there with him. The recordings are fantastic, the narration thoughtful and the mixing just right. Be sure not to fade out the music at the end too early and miss the Mongolian throat singer joining in with the American musicians. Cowboys seem to be enjoying a cultural renaissance at the moment - so treat your listeners to this warm-hearted and unusual story. It's still making me smile right now just thinking about it.