Firefly Soundtrack CD

Composer: Greg Edmondson.
Personnel: Greg Edmonson (piano, synthesizer); Sonny Rhodes (vocals); Craig Stull (guitar, bouzouki, oud); Candy Lerman, Nancy Roth, Charlie Bisharat (violin, fiddle); Chris Bleth (clarinet, oboe); Alan Steinberger (piano, synthesizer); Brad Dutz (percussion).
Audio Mixers: David Appelt; Les Brockman.
Liner Note Authors: Greg Edmonson; Joss Whedon.
Recording information: Rancho Gato Loco (Studio City).
Unknown Contributor Role: Brad Dutz.
Fans of the insular Joss Whedon sci-fi Western Firefly have been clamoring for a soundtrack since the series premiered in 2002. Composer Greg Edmonson's genre-bending experiment in orchestral country music struck a chord with audiences and critics alike. It was a maverick score for an even more maverick television show. Ironically, Firefly gained the majority of its momentum in the wake of its cancellation. Fueled in part by an extremely vocal fan base, Whedon took the good ship Serenity to the big screen in 2005, but tapped composer David Newman to replace Edmonson. Newman's rich score hinted at the renegade sprit of the series, but its ten-gallon hat was perpetually tipped toward the kind of big, brassy Hollywood bombast that permeates the action/adventure genre. Edmonson's vision for the show mirrored Whedon's, as evidenced by the twangy theme song, written by Whedon and sung by Sonny Rhodes. Firefly's fiddles, dobros, and banjos gave outer space the kind of regional familiarity usually reserved for golden mesas and tumbleweed-adorned juke joints. The fact that it was supposed to occur 500 years into the future just made it all the more exotic. Edmonson found endless ways to work American, Irish, and even Middle Eastern folk music into a show about galactic outlaws, and now, thanks to the fans and the folks at Varese Sarabande, the rest of the world can go along for the ride. ~ James Christopher Monger