In setting the poetry of Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology to music, Richard Buckner has created a work of stark beauty, as personal and intimate as if he had written the words himself. The album flows continuously (one track, thirty-four minutes), sometimes trickling delicately on the strings of acoustic guitar and cello, sometimes roiling with waves of organ and electric guitar. But it is Buckner's voice that brings these tales to life --whispering and wailing of passion and sorrow-- from beyond the graves that lie on The Hill.

Tony Peltier