Hello!
Today we'd like to share a fantastic interview with reviewer Billy Sheppard.

Billy, who reviews music on his site "Billy's Bunker," was gracious enough to answer some of our questions about Pale Imperfect Diamond. You can also read his review of the album here. His sentiments about the record are truly beautiful! We'd love to hear what you think about the interview and review!

Have a wonderful weekend!

1) How did you first learn about the album Pale Imperfect Diamond? What were your thoughts about the project before you were able to give Pale Imperfect Diamond a listen?

I found Jadoo on myspace.  I must have added them as a friend of another band.  The images and music interested me immediately.  I wrote them on myspace, and they responded.  They notified Jack Clift, and Jack had an album sent to me from the record company in Nashville.  I gave a copy of the album to David Harrington, violin and lead for The Kronos Quartet when I met him for an interview since he had expressed an interest after hearing my description of Jadoo and this project.  This music moves me, so I wrote about it.

2) What is your favorite track on the record, and why?

There several great cuts on the album.  I think it would be meaningless to choose a favorite.  I must say the spirit of the title cut knocks me out.  It has unvarnished Eastern music, and bluegrass flavor mixed beautifully.  And it has a pace and nationless soul that gives me hope for the world.  The Carter Family Archive treasures are deep and beautiful, and I wouldn't want the album to lose any of them.  But the new song has a perfect blend of cultures, and makes me want to shout praises of some sort.  It's full of hope.

3) Did you know Jack Clift prior to this project? How did you first tell him how you felt about the record?

No.  We talked for about three hours the first time we spoke on the telephone.  Just liked the guy immediately.  He lives for music.  

4) From your review, have you received feedback from your readers about the project? What are some of the best responses you've received?

Readership increased for this album.  I will check to see what responses I have received in comments, but the best response is often increased readership.  People like what they hear on my page and read about it.  So the best response was an increased interest expressed in an increase of readership.

5) In your review, you opened with a Flannery O'Connor quote. How did that statement seem aligned with the music of Cedar Hill Refugees for you? Is the quote something that you thought of when first hearing Pale Imperfect Diamond?

That quote is the title of a collection of short stories by Flannery O'Connor.  I thought it fit the review because music of a high quality has converged in the Cedar Hill Refugees.  While Uzbek and Appalachian culture arguably developed separately and differently, the music brings the differences in tonality and rhythm together seamlessly into an interpretation of Appalachian and American music with a different window on the heart of the song.  Great musicians have tapped into a universal language that reaches the human heart across cultural, national, and even religious boundaries.  

6) You've grown to become friends with Jack Clift since first reviewing the album,; has learning more about the project's inception made the album more interesting to you? What do you think is the most intriguing part of the blending of this music?

I've come to believe in a practical way that sharing music between cultures makes the world a more human place.  If I hear of an earthquake in Uzbekistan, or a tornado on Clinch Mountain in Appalachia, I now know there are people  there I'm personally concerned about.  I have some contact with those people through myspace, but it's the music that brings me to them.  "When I've heard a man's music, I've heard that man." ~ John Coltrane

Uzbekistan is a real place for me now.  Appalachia is more familiar to me.  It's as though I have family there.  I've sung along with their music.  Distance isn't what it used to be.