The Hot Buttered Rum String Band has made a CD I’m sure they feel proud to release, and in many ways I agree that it’s a solid work. But the technical skills and instrumental variety the guys bring to their music cannot compensate for the antiseptic quality of the tunes, nor for the distance the band maintains between itself and its subjects.
With The Good Life, its third CD release, Railroad Earth may have revealed itself as the best acoustic jam band of its generation.
Reviewing Songs From the Tin Shed, a collaboration between The Big Wu’s Chris Castino and Jeff Austin of the Yonder Mountain String Band, promised to be a no-brainer, a work by representatives of two of today’s hottest jambands. I expected pure acoustic gold with this record. Unfortunately, the chaff prevails.
Nickel Creek held true to their bluegrass roots throughout their two hour performance at the Pageant, covering and conquering the likes of Nirvana, Carrie Newcomer, Beck and Gillian Welch, while also cruising through traditional folk and country instrumentals within their growing catalog of original material.
In the same vein as the Pickin
Tim O’Brien has spent most of his life on the road. Thankfully, when he sets his hand to writing about travel, the result is a wonderful montage that captures both giddy fun and personal costs the road extracts.
With a handful of new musicians added since their last album five years ago, Leftover Salmon has returned with a more mature edge, that blends their unique bluegrass with new spicy ingredients.
Recorded in 1999 after the dissolution of Todd Sheaffer’s old band, From Good Homes, this performance predates Railroad Earth but stands as a document of Sheaffer’s nascent talents and burgeoning skills that play such a pivotal role in the RRE sound today.
Highwire Act Live In St. Louis, recorded live in August 2003, is Little
Feat’s first-ever performance shot in hi-definition technology. As one of California’s most influential band of the ’70s, Little Feat was pretty memorable back then, and continues to stomp plenty of fresh memories today.
What do you get when two of the most melodically-gifted mandolinists get together? Into the Cauldron, a collaborative effort that seems almost Grammy worthy.
