Maurice Hope – May 9, 2016 at 06:27AM
Tags:_AMERICANA
Gentle 1960s folk styled singer-songwriter vocals (Kacy) accompanied by simple acoustic guitar (Clayton) welcome the listener on pressing start on this delightful recording.
Unhurried, carefully crafted; “when writing songs we attempt to use the imagery and language of the old folk forms offers Clayton and stripped bare Canadian (Southern Saskatchewan) cousins Kacy (Anderson) & Clayton (Linthicum) lure the listener to their music in effortless fashion. Steeped in folk traditions of the UK, and States the work of among others, the pure-voiced work of early Judy Collins, Sandy Denny come to mind. The cousins aged 18 and 21 respectively have been playing music for a decade or so and have come up with an amazing sound. Marianne Faithfull could possibly be added to the list of those to compare them with her early recordings.
Copying similar techniques of the 1960s when little would accompany folk balladeers other than guitar Kacy’s pristine vocals are quite heavenly on a number of songs.
Musician wise Kacy (fiddle on “Down At The Dancehall”, 12-string guitar “Over The River Charlie”) and Clayton (acoustic, 12-string, electric, steel guitar, melodeon, autoharp) are joined by world-renown Lucas Goetz (drums) from the band Deep Dark Woods, Chris Pprich (upright bass), Meredith Bates (viola, violin). Strange Country is the duo’s second album follows their 2013 release The Day Is Past & Gone.
They open in wonderful fashion through five-star title-track “Strange Country” followed by more classic sounding tracks as the sweet lead vocals of Kacy are given sympathetic support. As she warbles such gems as “Springtime Of The Year” and “The Rio Grande” (hints of fellow Canadians Ian & Sylvia Tyson and other vocal groups of the day) followed closely in the quality stakes by “Brunswick Stew”, “Down At The Dancehall” without pulling up the tracks.
Other notables include “Over The River Charlie”, and with Clayton on lead vocals and Kacy, harmony and “The Plains Of Mexico” give renewed life to the album as the duo return to the standard of the earlier work. Both are traditional tunes, likewise “Seven Yellow Gypsies” is of that nature. Otherwise, the material is from this interesting and hugely talented act, they only need to broaden their base, lend a keener cutting edge to some material, additional tasteful instrumental without spoiling the sound they already have and continue to write songs of this quality.
Maurice Hope
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