It’s Saturday and that means I want to start my day off gently, so I reached for this Opus 3 hybrid stereo SACD that I sincerely doubt many of even heard of, much less heard, “Sticks & Stones” (both the album title and the groups name.) A beautiful mix of folk/bluegrass/country made by a group of Swedish musicians who use this album to show how universal music has truly become. If you heard this album, and didn’t know what I’ve just told you, you’d never (and I mean, NEVER) guess where this band hails from. Sticks & Stones is made up of Rebecca Sjöberg on lead vocals, Alexander Bergström on guitar, dobro, mandolin, saw and vocals, Erik Berggren on guitar, mandolin, banjo and vocals, Emma Salmonsson on guitar and vocals, Jonas Lindberg on bass, mandolin and vocals, and special guest Jim Van Cleve on fiddle. Thus, vocals, and vocal harmony in particular, play a major role on this album. But don’t sleep on the all acoustic instrumentation. Both are important aspects of this disc. Toss in that’s its an Opus 3 recording and you get a sonic spectacular with superb music. The soundstage is both wide, deep and airy. The tone and timbre of the acoustic instruments is spot on. Vocals have a sense of three dimensionalness to them. I wish this group would reform and that Opus 3 would record them on SACD again, that’s how much I enjoy their work. I don’t hear a bad song on this album. I’m sure it’ll hold your attention, like it does mine, from first to last. Most highly recommended. #SACD #digital #bluegrass #folk #country #music #album #disc #stereo #audio #highend #opus3 #audiophile #audioproduction
