Mark Clairmont
MuskokaTODAILY.com – April 25, 2017

​To help the city below the Severn celebrate its sesquicentennial – along with Canada’s 150th – Barlow took..[the band]..into the studio (at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church) for two days last October to record a compact disc whose sum is worth more than the price of individually streaming  each of the 14 tracks. It’s on sale now. www.muskokatodaily.com

John Swartz’ Review of Mariposa Sketches
Orillia Packet and Times – December 8, 2016

I got a hold of the Orillia Silver Band’s new CD. Mariposa Sketches, last Wednesday. Wow! This is the best recorded performance of any group with an Orillia address I’ve heard. Forget that you might not like brass bands, forget that you might not think to play instrumental music as a first choice at home. Once you’ve heard this, you understand what fantastic musicianship is.

There are nine tunes on the disc, including the five-part Mariposa Sketches. Marshall Martin plays the St. Andrew’s organ (where the disc was recorded) on Festmusik der Stadt Wien and with the bass cranked up, it’s moving. My favourites are Amazonia and Dark Side of the Moon. Paul Rayment is stellar with his euphonium soloing on The Star.

Mariposa Sketches was written just for the OSB. It’s based on Sunshine Sketches and Len Ballantine created a very interesting piece of music that is easy to digest. The band, especially the percussion section is excellent here. Oh, and The OSB’s Canadian Railroad Trilogy is on the disc. Neil Barlow made a few minor changes to the score and the result is now the band sails with it.