Review: The Rankin Family

Subject: The Rankin Family
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 03 Jun 02 - 06:12 PM

Is it just me...

Or would the Rankin Family be at least tolerable if the girls sang EVERYTHING at least one octave lower???

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From:
Date: 03 Jun 02 - 08:46 PM

Why? Gives us lower range voices lots of room to place ourselves.

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: ciarili
Date: 03 Jun 02 - 08:59 PM

And all us high voices have a great time singing along!

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From:
Date: 03 Jun 02 - 10:15 PM

Some times we can get there too!

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: InOBU
Date: 03 Jun 02 - 10:40 PM

I dunno... I really like em... Cheers Larry

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 03 Jun 02 - 11:31 PM

Ug...

I think they should be sub-titled Nasal Shrill...

Pass...

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: DonMeixner
Date: 03 Jun 02 - 11:50 PM

I'm with Clinton on this one. Just cuz they can sing up there is reason to do it all the time.

Don

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 04 Jun 02 - 03:17 PM

Especially offensive, is the end of "Rise Again"...

No... that whole SONG is horrible...

I seem to recall that their first CD wasn't especially bad... anybody got a track list off that... I have no idea where my copy is...

;-)

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From:
Date: 04 Jun 02 - 07:24 PM

As it happens, Rise Again is one of my favourite songs. What is objectionable?

I can't take the expression that Mariah Carey does. It's just a controlled scream.

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: michaelr
Date: 04 Jun 02 - 07:33 PM

Have to agree with you, Clinton. I own their "Collection", and I can't listen to the whole thing in one sitting. They're up there in Chipmunks territory...

They've written some OK songs, though.

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Jun 02 - 07:43 PM

LOL Clinton

Forget the octave lower, they should sing outside of the range of human hearing.

A terrible, terrible band

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: raredance
Date: 04 Jun 02 - 08:37 PM

It's all personal taste. I've gotten 4 of their CDs (North Country, Fare Thee Well Love, Endless Summer, and Collection) in the past 9 months and enjoy them all. I hadn't ever heard them before. Best thing is they sing most every song and do very few boring instrumentals. It's relatively easy to sing two octaves below.

rich r

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: wysiwyg
Date: 04 Jun 02 - 10:18 PM

Aren't you all nice, to gratuitously slam some folks who probably work pretty hard. Good going, CH. Excellent time management on your part, too. What pressing world issue will you be tackling next?

~Susan

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: DonMeixner
Date: 04 Jun 02 - 10:51 PM

Susan,

I have spent a good amount of time downloading from KaZa a raft of Rankin tunes. They are well done, very tight vocally, harmonically, and instrumentally. Just what I have come to expect from a family of Maritime Canadians which I assume they are. And as good as they are I can't listen to the girls all that long. Their instrumentals are just great but vocally it's just too much high end. I'd like to hear more of the male voices in the mix to take off some of the top end.

And I like "Rise Again" but without that last atmospheric tone.

I hope I don't sound like I'm attacking them, I'm not.

Don

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: wysiwyg
Date: 04 Jun 02 - 11:02 PM

Don, THAT's a review. Thanks.

~S~

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: ciarili
Date: 04 Jun 02 - 11:13 PM

Yep, they're Canadians from Mabou, Cape Breton.

One thing you gotta understand about voices too - you don't get to choose your range. It is a natural consequence of the shape and size of your vocal apparatus. I could barely growl out middle c when I was 20, and I still don't like to go below the under that at the ripe old age of 33! And I can still sing notes that aren't on the harpsichord, they're so high (when my voice is in shape). With women, the chords nearly always follow the body type. I'm a wee little 5', 95# woman. I ain't never gonna sound like Dolores Keane (but I can dream....).

As far as sounding nasal, well, Gaelic, at least the Irish/Scottish/Manx branch, is a nasal language. If you pronounce a word like the name Dòmhnaill, the mh is right up your nose!

I betcha they'll grow on you over time, if you think about all that while you're listening to them. You'll like Cookie Rankin best - she's got the best, most mellow voice, and she typically does the low harmonies when the lot of them sing together.

Tiaridh,

ciarili

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: ciarili
Date: 04 Jun 02 - 11:14 PM

Oh, and George, it'd be a hoot to hear you squeakin' out some countertenor!

ciarili

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: GUEST,Lisa Brown
Date: 05 Jun 02 - 08:03 AM

Is it just me...

...or does Clinton Hammond have some sort of agenda here?

The Rankins disbanded three years ago. Since then, John Morris Rankin was killed in a tragic car accident and Raylene Rankin is battling breast cancer. Only Jimmy Rankin is now pursuing a performing career.

Clinton Hammond is just a TROLL with a Mudcat cookie.

Lisa Brown

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: GUEST,Pete
Date: 05 Jun 02 - 08:10 AM

No, Lisa

Clinton was merely putting forward an opinion about a band he doesn't much like.

You don't know what troll means, do you?

WYSIWYG, you seem to manage critical comments from time to time.

Or are you the only one allowed to do that?

Pete

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: wysiwyg
Date: 05 Jun 02 - 08:50 AM

Yes, Pete, indeed, and what a lovely forum it will be when each of us indulges our urge to get up in the morning and start a thread specifying what we do not like, in such highly technical and well-informed terms, following CH's wonderful example.

Or-- just a dim idea-- we could give a thought to what the people thus criticized will think and feel, when they stumble along to the place and see how they are reviewed. There is a way to convey feedback that isn't asinine and immature and bratty. Of course I'm not up to that this AM myself-- I'm following CH's example today. (I know he can take it, too; we've been a round or two.)

~Susan

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 05 Jun 02 - 11:07 AM

A) I think the Rankins have better things to do than post at this place...

b) If they did post here, I suspect they wouldn't give a rats patoot what I thought of them...

c) I have no adgenda... all kinds of people are dead or dying all the time, and ya know what, I just don't care one way or the other... that's got nothing to do with this thread... It is just opinion about a band... and so what? Isn't eveything just opinion...

Michael is right... I suppose they have done some pretty cool song-writing... but that whole nasal shrill garbage is not for me at all... I'd use their CDs for attracting the neighbourhood dogs...

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: GUEST,The Ayatollah of Rock and Rolla
Date: 05 Jun 02 - 11:11 AM

According to Clinton Hammond, "all kinds of people are dead or dying all the time, and ya know what, I just don't care one way or the other."

Is is just me, or does it take a real fucking asshole to say something like that.

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Jun 02 - 11:14 AM

It's not just you, Clinton Hammond is a fucking asshole.

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 05 Jun 02 - 11:15 AM

Fneaaah...

Death is a natural part of life...

Why is it such a big deal...

We're all terminal cases... ain't no one getting out of this life alive...

Can you imagine how crowded this place would be if no one ever died...

thanks for the thread drift eh...

.-)

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From:
Date: 05 Jun 02 - 11:15 AM

Lisa, just to update you. Raylene is currently in remission and looks wonderful. Apparently she's considering some options in solo work.

She'll be around for the long haul, I expect.

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From:
Date: 05 Jun 02 - 11:17 AM

Oh yes, Cookie is married and living in the Nashville area.

Heather, (If I remember rightly) working in Toronto in a stage production whose name I don't remember.

Jimmy, of course, is in the beginnings of a solo career. Hope he does as well as he writes songs.

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: MAG
Date: 05 Jun 02 - 12:46 PM

I love my Rankin recordings, I love the sibling resonance, I find the highs clear and focused if not where I sing myself. Clinton, you can appear negative a lot(which doesn't excuse the trolling against you).

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Jun 02 - 12:50 PM

Thanks George, they are a wonderfull family of musicians. I cant remember which one it was, but i had reason to call them and got a bilingual answering machine Gaelic and English ;-)

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 05 Jun 02 - 04:21 PM

Ta fer the update on Raylene BTW...

Mag... Negative? I absolutely am not! LOL!!!

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: gnu
Date: 05 Jun 02 - 04:57 PM

Gee, CH, I can only ask you this : do you own each and every Rankin recording ? If you do, perhaps you could arrange your listening so that you don't get the "shrillies" because they have so MANY good tunes that you don't have to hear a shrilly every time.

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: mousethief
Date: 06 Jun 02 - 03:22 PM

Susan, by your argument one should NEVER say one doesn't like any work by any given artist, lest one might hurt their widdow feewings. Clinton posted his dislike for a given sound that the Rankins sometimes make, and everyone jumps down his throat like he's a criminal or a drug-smuggler or something. Is he not allowed to form an opinion about nasally screetchy music? Is he not allowed to express that opinion on a site dedicated to opinions about folk and blues music? You're asking too much.

Alex

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: wysiwyg
Date: 06 Jun 02 - 03:32 PM

Alex, it's never asking too much that people THINK, although expecting them to do it is not necessarily realistic. But asking-- this is after all an open forum. To state an opinion in connection with an overall review is one thing. This was something else, IMO-- just casually tossing a bit of negativity out there with no context at all. Clintoin has a fairly tough hide and I doubt seriously whether he is suffering over any of this at all.

People around here comment on (critically) each others' posting on a regular basis. I rarely do. This time I did. Big deal. You just commented on mine. Big deal. If one wants to use Mudcat to look for things to be upset about, there are plenty of them, but making it one's whole diet here causes belly aches. I hope you will have a positive experience here now that you're back.

~Susan

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Jun 02 - 03:32 PM

Well said Alex.

You have to remember that WYSIWYG is always right, though (Jesus told her)

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: mousethief
Date: 06 Jun 02 - 03:42 PM

I didn't think Clinton had his feelings hurt. I wasn't really speaking about him, but about you.

Alex

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: wysiwyg
Date: 06 Jun 02 - 04:48 PM

Well whoopie sh*t, then.

~S~

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: GUEST,MAG at work
Date: 06 Jun 02 - 07:10 PM

I once mentioned that I found one of Andrew Calhoun's songs - boring, and some friend of his jumped down my throat. I blew it off. We're all gonna have different ideas about when to and when not to. I do think Clinton's original post was just asking Rankin Family fans to react.

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: greg stephens
Date: 06 Jun 02 - 07:23 PM

I think Clinton Hammonds attack may have been counter productive. I've never heard of them, and I think I might get a CD. Sounds rivetting.

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 06 Jun 02 - 09:20 PM

No attack... Just observation and opinion...

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: mousethief
Date: 07 Jun 02 - 01:30 AM

Oh, sorry. I didn't realize it was a whoopie shit thing. I take it all back.

Alex

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: wysiwyg
Date: 07 Jun 02 - 01:34 AM

So much in life IS a w.s. thing! *G*

~S~

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 07 Jun 02 - 03:31 AM

Everything in life is a w.s. thing...

Anybody who says differently is selling something

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: mousethief
Date: 07 Jun 02 - 12:05 PM

You've misspellt "life is pain, highness."

Alex

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: GUEST,Spelling Bee
Date: 07 Jun 02 - 02:20 PM

misspellt

Perhaps Mousie should learn to spell before commenting on others spelling.

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: mousethief
Date: 07 Jun 02 - 02:33 PM

That was done intentionally as a joke, O nameless guest. Perhaps you should learn to have a sense of humor before commenting on anyone's post at all.

Alex

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: mousethief
Date: 07 Jun 02 - 02:40 PM

Oh, also there's an apostrophe on others'.

Alex

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: Aodh
Date: 07 Jun 02 - 03:15 PM

I'm not here to belittle the Rankin Family, but, there is something of the Organ Mice from Bag Puss about them! (UK target audience soreey!)

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: GUEST,Riggleface
Date: 07 Jun 02 - 03:24 PM

Just like the old days, mousethief can still dish it out. Too bad he still can't take it.

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 07 Jun 02 - 03:26 PM

Wasn't the Mouse Organ a Monty Python skit?

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: Aodh
Date: 07 Jun 02 - 03:46 PM

"We will fix it!, we will mend it!"

Subject: RE: Review: The Rankin Family
From: mousethief
Date: 07 Jun 02 - 04:02 PM

At least people know who I am, coward.

Alex