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Critic's Review
Eugene Chadbourne, All Music Guide
It is amazing that some 30 songs basically about one subject, stylistically ranging from classical to bluegrass to new wave, would barely even make a splash on the surface. Such is the nature of rivers, the theme of a musical production entitled Of Time and Rivers Flowing which Mason Williams has produced as both a 1984 album and a series of live performances. This DVD is an "archive" release apparently filmed by author Ken Kesey's son Zane Kesey; the great writer himself participates in several spoken word interludes. There is much about this tribute to tributaries, so to speak, that is typical of Williams' work: among them a great degree of intelligence and taste in the selection of material as well as the participation of very talented performers from the environs of Eugene, Oregon, among them Kesey. To describe the video documentation as archival is being polite, a nicety the performers certainly earned with the quality of their work. Indeed, to realize that this group of musicians is actually going to pull off superb interpretations of "Shenandoah" and "The Beautiful Blue Danube" is the equivalent of watching nature carve a river bed out of solid granite. That doesn't mean this ensemble of nine musicians is fun to watch on DVD, however. They all seem tense: Williams hunched over his classical guitar, almost consistently inaudible on the soundtrack, while a mandolinist whose level in the mix lies at the other extreme looks like he is trying to squirm out of a wet sleeping bag. Frequently the camera focuses on a player whose instrument either cannot be heard or is simply accompanying while a soloist wails away out of visual range. This and many other typical "guy on-stage with camera" video problems are the norm for this kind of thing; surely the young Kesey was not expecting a detailed review of his efforts when he agreed to be that guy on-stage with a camera. From the cinematic point of view, the introductory short promoting an environmental organization unintentionally demonstrates that the real power of a DVD release in connection with this project would be so the audience can watch footage of the world's beautiful rivers while listening to different masterworks of music on the subject. Documentation of the Williams ensemble in turn might at least inspire a producer to go further with this ambitious project.
