Well ya know The Cherry Blossoms are
after all maybe the best band in Nashville, and they're certainly the
most authentic, (whatever
that means...) Like a scoop of ice cream on the porch of your
grandmother's naïve wisdom, minus the latent racism, CBs kind of
ramble on toward some nonexistent rustic ideal. It seems real enough
that you assume the whole “Past” is just like it.
Though it probably never was?
To a
few older dudes it was, man. You've got your Holy Modal Rounders and
maybe Yo Ho Wah or whatever. To be honest this is more enjoyable. For
one thing CBs are designed for, like ideal
live, which this record is. But the recording is spruce: nicely
separated stereo image and clean. The acoustic guits and kazoos and
everything are
real crisp, and the drums sound great.
Chris
Davis's drums are really crucial to any Cherry Blossoms jam, dude's
playing is extremely disheveled, but realllly profound,
which is about what conversing with him is like. Davis is adept at
playing this kind of “pseudo-free” style, all off-kilter,
loosey-goosey, but will chug-along too.
“Bean Bag,” which closes out the record is a great example of The
Cherry Blossoms' general M.O. of spacey traditionalism: the meat of
it is a meandering chuga-chug beat, like Neu meets Graham Parsons or
like how N.R.P.S. might sound, maybe they do? (It's been a while, ya know?)
If
you're familiar with the CBs than you get
that John Allingham's kind of the glue of the thing, or whatever, but
Peggy Snow is the absolute show-stopping delight.
Her quavering vibrato and goofball romanticism and general
enthusiasm, (and kazoo,) are the focal point here, and elsewhere they
shan't be. One can definitely appreciate this incarnation of the
band, that finds CBs rolling as a full quintet. That Chuck dude who
works at Bongo on righteously “out of it” bass and especially
Taylor Martin's vocal harmonies and especially her angelic
counterpoint on “Lay the Cloud Thin.”
I'm pretty sure a couple of these songs can be found on The Cherry Blossoms' equally
compelling studio LP, but I'm too lazy to cross reference which ones
right now. If you're familiar with the CBs and dig them, than you'll
dig this record. Familiar with them and don't dig, then leave it
alone, but if you're intrigued by the band, yet unfamiliar, this one
should make for a decent introduction, on par with their OOP
self-titled album. A nice shrink-wrapped package from Chicago label,
Hairy Spider Legs. Recommended!
