With Shall We Gather, baritone Lucas Meachem offers a recital of American songs as his solo debut. Joined by his wife, pianist Irina Meachem, this album is in response to the turmoil of the coronavirus and the associated social distancing and shuttering of communal spaces. The musical familiarity between husband and wife is clear as they traverse the landscape of American songs from the 19th through the 21st centuries. The program contains well-known songs ("Oh, Shenandoah" in an interesting arrangement by Steve White), but many of these works will be less known to many listeners. Gene Scheer is represented here on two works, as the composer of the opening "American Anthem" and as the text author for That Moment On from Jake Heggie's "Songs of 9/11." These are two of the strongest works offered here by Lucas, whose sympathetic voice lends itself especially well to the despair of the Heggie work. Another example of this quality in Meachem's voice is William Grant Still's "Grief," a setting of a LeRoy V. Brant poem by the same name. The recital closes with two of Aaron Copland's arrangements contained in his "Old American Songs," The Boatman's Dance and At the River, the latter of which lends the album its title. Meachem is pitchy at times, generally in the program's quietest moments, but it is not detrimental to the music overall. Proceeds of this album go to the Meachems' Perfect Day Music Foundation, a nonprofit organization with the goal of promoting works of historically neglected composers and poets. ~ Keith Finke
![Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd [Expanded Edition]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0008811272722_p0_v1_s90x140.jpg "Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd [Expanded Edition]")
![Live at the Acropolis [Bonus Track]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0010058212225_p0_v1_s90x140.jpg "Live at the Acropolis [Bonus Track]")
