Prairie In The Sky by Mary McCaslin (Vinyl record album review)

Record basics

Album name: Prairie In The Sky

Artist name: Mary McCaslin

Year: 1975

Number of discs: one

Label: Philo Records

Collection: Brenner / Gessner

Who owned it: my parents may have bought this together

Buy it on Amazon: $11.45

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I listened to Old Friends by Mary McCaslin a couple of weeks ago, and thought it was great, but that’s the only time I’ve ever heard of her.

What I expected

Country and folk.

What it was actually like

The album self-described as “western,” and that was quite right: it was country, but less country and more western. As before, I thought McCaslin’s voice was good and the songs were also very consistently good, with maybe one exception.

Ballad Of Weaverville was more folk than country, with more of a falk style guitar, and It’s My Time was more folk rock.

Prairie In The Sky had sort of a plodding, thumping rhythm and was probably the song I liked the least – but wasn’t really bad.

Ghost Riders In The Sky was the only cover that I recognized. I’ve probably heard ten different versions of this song, and with some changes to the lyrics, they’re all basically the same song, and this was no exception. It was strong, but lacked some of the eerie sound of some other versions that make them corny but entertaining.

Grade

5/5: love it