This review is written by Dai Woosnam, daigress@hotmail.com, 6/05
I am not sure if this isn’t perhaps the rummest album I have
heard in at least 30 years. Who needs mind-expanding drugs when a
Hollow Log CD is available? Back in the 60s, I recall being much
influenced by that wonderful old fraud Dr. Timothy Leary, who reckoned
(and I paraphrase) that in years to come, grounds for a divorce
wouldn’t be that one man bounced about on a mattress with another man’s
wife for 20 minutes, but that they took an acid trip together.
Well, were he alive today, he might substitute "listened to ‘Catch A
Caber’ together". Clearly this is the sort of album that is so
decidedly bizarre, that two people listening to it in the confines of a
small room could feel they were truly the Chosen People and the
inevitable bonding that would result would be impossible to chip away
at. This album just defies conventional description. It is the weirdest
amalgam imaginable: the nearest I can get to it is to ask you to
picture the late Jimmy Shand, Frank Zappa, and Stephane Grappelli,
locked up in a recording studio for the weekend with Ry Cooder, Dave
Mattacks, Chet Atkins and Simon Nicol. (Yes, I know it is hard to
imagine: but, trust me, this CD is what the result would sound like. No
such thing as anything remotely resembling a theme running through it:
just a mix of varying musical styles, from the English Traditional
Ballad, to Acid-Rock, to Celtic jigs and reels, to Cajun to C&W.)
But, guess what? I rather liked it. I don’t know what that says about
me: maybe I am losing my marbles. I think I know WHY it was that I
appreciated it so: note the imaginary personnel I listed above. Such
famous names were no accident. For whilst I had never heard of any of
the personnel in Hollow Log, a friend tells me they are the cream of
the Southern California folk scene, and several of them are members of
the acclaimed Los Angeles-based AMAN Folk Ensemble, who have toured
extensively throughout the USA. And some of the personnel also double
as members of the illustrious George Benson’s band. And doesn’t their
musical pedigree show in this recording! Quality madness. You could do
worse than add it to your collection.
But don’t buy it for another man’s wife.
Catch a Caber can be ordered from: http://www.myhollowlog.com/
Dai Woosnam
Grimsby, England.
daigress@hotmail.com
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