The Petersens - Home Concerts 1, Branson, MO, 4-7-2020 to 7-17-2020

I was looking for something on YouTube the other day and stumbled across the Petersens. I liked them enough to post this album. One way they came up was because they've performed with the Reina del Cid and Toni Lundgren duo. If you like that duo, this is very much in the same vein. Technically, the Petersens are considered bluegrass, but I generally am not a fan of bluegrass yet I'm a fan of this. It's more like they play roots music in the folk, country, singer-songwriter type genres, with some bluegrass touches, such as banjo, mandolin, and fiddle.

The Petersens are very much a family band. As far as I can tell, the band consists of a mother, son, three daughters, plus one non-family member. So you get a fuller sound than Reina del Cid and Toni Lundgren, though they generally play the same kind of songs. The Petersens are based in Branson, Missouri, which is kind of a country music entertainment mecca, and seem to spend most of their time playing concerts there. But they've put up some home concert videos during the coronavirus lockdown, with some of them getting millions of hits. I'm sure there are oodles of family bands playing music like this all over the US and beyond, but the Petersens stand out due to their talent.

As I write this, they've done three home concerts of 20 to 30 minutes each that have been posted on YouTube, plus various single songs posted there as well. This album gathers one of the home concerts and all of the stray single songs into an album that hopefully sounds like one coherent concert. I plan on posting another album by them that consists of the other two home concerts combined. I've arranged things so that both albums end up being between 45 and 50 minutes long.

I have to admit that I'm not a fan of most gospel music. The Petersens are a Christian band and play a fair number of gospel/religious songs. But because I'm not a fan of that kind of stuff, I left off a few songs of that type. None of the songs on this album are gospel songs. Here's what you get instead, by the original artists:

01 When You Say Nothing at All - Keith Whitley / Alison Krauss
02 If I Needed You - Townes Van Zandt / Emmylou Harris & Don Williams
03 You Can't Make Old Friends - Kenny Rogers
05 Southern Nights - Glen Campbell
07 Amarillo by Morning - George Strait
09 She's Got You - Patsy Cline
11 Swallowtail Jig [Instrumental] - Irish traditional
13 Moments - Petersens original
15 Take Me Home, Country Roads - John Denver
16 I Feel the Blues Moving In - Del McCoury
17 Carolina in My Mind - James Taylor
18 Landslide - Fleetwood Mac

As you can see, most of the songs are classic hits, especially country classics. The Petersens do occasionally write their own songs, but only one of them appears on this album. I have a couple more originals on the other album of theirs I plan on posting. I've found their originals generally hold up to the high standards of the covers they do.

Here's the usual song list:

01 When You Say Nothing at All (Petersens)
02 If I Needed You (Petersens)
03 You Can't Make Old Friends (Petersens)
04 talk (Petersens)
05 Southern Nights (Petersens)
06 talk (Petersens)
07 Amarillo by Morning (Petersens)
08 talk (Petersens)
09 She's Got You (Petersens)
10 talk (Petersens)
11 Swallowtail Jig [Instrumental] (Petersens)
12 talk (Petersens)
13 Moments (Petersens)
14 talk (Petersens)
15 Take Me Home, Country Roads (Petersens)
16 I Feel the Blues Moving In (Petersens)
17 Carolina in My Mind (Petersens)
18 Landslide (Petersens)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15635016/TPetersns_2020_HmeConcrts1BransnMO__4-7-2020_to_7-17-2020_atse.zip.html

Although there the Petersens have six members in their band, the cover art photo only shows three of them, the three daughters. I watched their video of "Landslide," and I thought it looked really nice with the flowers in their hair and the river in the background, so I took a screenshot of that. For the cover art of the other album I plan on posting, I'll include the other band members as well.