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 Caught in the Carousel - Music Reviews and More
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Old Californio
Westering Again
Californio Records
This album came out of nowhere and knocked me on my ass. I'd never heard of this band and I suppose, based on the name, I was expecting a lot of lap steel and twang and instead found it fresh and chock full of Byrdsy vocals, great lyrics, and top-notch musicianship. Recorded in a converted chicken coop in Pasadena (chicken coops in Pasadena?), Westering Again has a brand of musical synchronicity that you come across so rarely these days, where the album is the sum of its parts and leaves you with an overall feeling (or maybe an urge) to go look for the place that they're talking about, which in this case, I suppose is old California.
Rich Dembowski wrote all the songs and sings them too, his voice (which is a bit reminiscent of Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo) able to summon wide open spaces and clear blue skies. "Just Like Joseph Campbell" jumped out at me; lots of nice guitar work on this one, thanks again to Dembowski and guest player Dave Gleason (on loan from his own Wasted Days band), while "Riparian High" features some truly moving trumpet playing featuring Slim Zerling of Ben Vaughn's band. But the song that really grabbed me by the throat was "From The Mouths of Babes" featuring some very soulful accordion playing by Debrah Tala. This one really took me somewhere. I pressed repeat over and over. No surprise that this CD was produced by Alfonso Rodenas (Mark Olsen, Ben Vaughn).
This may not be one of those high profile CDs that flies off the shelves at Wal-Mart but it's one of those little gems that sneaks through the ranks by sheer word of mouth. And people should start talking about Westering Again—it's a great debut that deserves to be heard.
—The Vinyl Princess
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