O, Sinners, Let's Go Down

Down To The River To Pray from the motion picture soundtrack of "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" is a deceptively simple trip into hifi gang-vocal heaven. Let your mids shine.

Gang vocals are a production technique evoking a larger-than-life sound with dynamically layered vocalists. This technique differs from backing vocals, often individually recorded and mixed together. Gang vocals record multiple performances on the same track or stem by crowding people around the same microphone and capturing all the performances simultaneously. The effect can be spine-tingling under the right circumstances.

This modern production of a very old song, Down To The River To Pray, represents such circumstances. The recording starts intimately and small with Krauss at center stage, and it grows until the entire soundstage is enveloped in a river of sound, so to speak. It's spine-tinglingly good. It's also worth mentioning that Alison Krauss's voice is a special effect unto itself. The intimate, minimal production puts her vocal talent up close and personal.

Down To The River To Pray is a great test track for evaluating mids. A hundred breaths, lip smacks, and sighs are buried in this track, and they all come out on a great loudspeaker or headphone hifi system. 

Data

Song: Down To The River To Pray
Album: O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Artist: Alison Krauss
Genre: Bluegrass
Year: 2000
Length: 2:55
Composer: Traditional
Producer: T-Bone Burnett