The flag-bedecked street on the cover of this disc would naturally lead the listener to expect an album of patriotic songs, but in fact the program is American only in nationality; the musicians were moved to assert the Americanness of their efforts when the disc was released in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The St. Martin's Chamber Choir is a group from Denver, CO, and indeed it is justified in asserting that America's regional choirs represent something of the best of the country's culture. Such choirs enjoy little support from government, and they are only loosely tied into America's European-derived system of musical higher education, yet many of them attain remarkably high technical levels. The a cappella selections in the first part of the program here are in a league with any performances in terms of pitch accuracy, and the program itself effectively combines familiar pieces with those that will be new to most listeners. Two short works are the most familiar. Randall Thompson's "Alleluia" has been sung by many if not most Americans who have passed through high school choirs, and such choirs can look to this recording for the smooth momentum the composer must have intended. MacDowell's little "To a Wild Rose" is quietly luminous here. Some of the more extended works have a direct connection with the ensemble. The standout is the opening "Four Pastorales" by Colorado composer Cecil Effinger, a set of tonal pieces that completely eschews the sentimentality of much mass-market choral music and achieves a fine sparseness and clarity that yet owes nothing to minimalism. These pieces are originals in what one likes to think is a real Western American tradition. Two works by German-born composer Jean Berger are also included; the "Skelton Poems" are piano-accompanied settings of fifteenth century English poems. The accompaniment of Tamara Goldstein has a crispness that places it head and shoulders above the piano playing on most choral discs. Less well known still are the "Lamentations of Jeremiah" by T.J. Krueger and the Kyrie by Tim Sarsany, the director and a member of the choir, respectively; the choir imbues these with conviction if not real musical distinctiveness. Listeners who have had contact with the St. Martin's Chamber Choir or any of the composers involved are sure to enjoy this disc.