Rating: NNN
The cheerless second album from Seattle’s Cave Singers would fit snugly between ones by Pink Mountaintops, Lightning Dust, Ladyhawk and those other Vancouver indie folk bands often recorded in warm, hazy, psychedelic ways by Hive Studios’ Colin Stewart. Stewart was on board for this one, too, as he was for albums by Pretty Girls Make Graves, Cave guitarist Derek Fudesco’s old band.
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The sparse songs are free of drums, bass, riffs and obvious choruses, and are often pushed along by just two, sometimes three, chords. Marty Lund adds percussive oddities like a washboard on VV, Fudesco’s melodic guitar-picking is constant and uplifting, and the Webber sisters’ (Lightning Dust, Black Mountain) willowy harmonies add counterpoint to Peter Quirk’s raggedy rasp, which is a terrific cross of John Fogerty and Steve Earle.
Top track: At The Cut
The Cave Singers play the Horseshoe September 14.