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| "There's a lot to grapple with here, but the music works to hold it all together. Like a locomotive, This Land gathers steam and momentum, and in the end becomes the finest of tributes to Guthrie's legacy, as well as a handy reminder of the real roots of democracy in the power of ordinary people. And the songs, most of which are given simple, heartfelt renditions, are timelessly beautiful, full of rough-hewn grace. As America sometimes is." ––Richard Morin 9/22/2004 |
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| "This Land fuses theater and meditation. As theater, it is uniquely sophisticated. As meditation, it gives concrete form to abstract concepts such as justice, equality and compassion... This Land is a bit like Japanese butoh theater, which distills anguish. And it is a bit like the guided meditations represented by Tibetan Buddhist tanka paintings. In any event, This Land is a unique ritual celebrating human solidarity." ––Joe Adcock 9/18/2004 |
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"This Land strikingly expresses the nation in the raw, sculpted faces and big, callused hands of the vivid papier-mâché puppets that portray hoboes and farm people, miners and other folk. Several dozen Guthrie songs are performed here with conviction and twangy beauty, under the expert direction of Edd Key... It works best as an illustrated song cycle. One couldn't ask more from the 11-member cast's hoe-down versions of the jaunty anti-fascist anthem "Bound to Lose" and other "hoots," Key's rendering of the masterful protest song "Pastures of Plenty" and Kirsten Hopkins' silvery-voiced singing of plaintive ballads. ..." ––Misha Berson 9/21/2004
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| "An earnest tribute..." ––Annie Wagner 9/23/2004 |
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