[rating=3.00]
Whether Boris Garcia’s band name is an albatross is officially a moot point with Today We Sail. This recording is the work of a band well grounded in their roots and fully into the process of transcending them.
Boris sounds comfortable right from the get-go with a round of healthy solos shortly into the initial track “Walking Barefoot”(this group is not so transparent as their name might suggest). The band wouldn’t be so confident to do so in the past, but the unit can now savor the presence of two distinct vocalists in Jeff Otto and Bob Stirner as they take turns upfront.
The material usually mixes electric and acoustic instruments throughout, but the arrangement of “Mighty High” is a distinct exception with the beefy electric rhythm guitar hook. Layered in there along with electric piano is the pedal steel of Chris Denoyer, which usually boasts traditional, sweet textures, but can also assume effects such as those on “Good Home,” favorably reminiscent of Sneaky Pete Kleinow.
It’s tempting to compare Boris Garcia almost endlessly with forebears such as that man’s home, The Flying Burrito Brothers, or Grateful Dead spinoff The New Riders of the Purple Sage, but that serves no useful purpose. Rather such facile comparisons diminish the unique quality of “Song Dog,” as a composition, a chart and an authoritative performance. Meantime, such glib parallels deny the timeless quality at the heart of “Long Black Hair:” this tune sounds like an age-old folk standard.
The antique quality there resides largely within the unity of Boris Garcia as a band. Were the five men not so bonded–and Railroad Earth’s Tim Carbone as producer not so empathetic–the virtues so evident elsewhere would not carry such resonance. The material usually mixes electric and acoustic instruments throughout, but the arrangement of “Mighty High” is a distinct exception with the beefy electric rhythm guitar hook. Layered in there along with electric piano is the pedal steel of Chris Denoyer, which usually boasts traditional, sweet textures, but can also assume effects such as those on “Good Home,” favorably reminiscent of Sneaky Pete Kleinow.
It’s tempting to compare Boris Garcia almost endlessly with forebears such as that man’s home, The Flying Burrito Brothers, or Grateful Dead spinoff The New Riders of the Purple Sage, but that serves no useful purpose. Rather such facile comparisons diminish the unique quality of “Song Dog,” as a composition, a chart and an authoritative performance. Meantime, such glib parallels deny the timeless quality at the heart of “Long Black Hair:” this tune sounds like an age-old folk standard. The antique quality there resides largely within the unity of Boris Garcia as a band. Were the five men not so bonded–and Railroad Earth’s Tim Carbone as producer not so empathetic–the virtues so evident elsewhere would not carry such resonance.
