Subtitled “The American Roots Project,” this album has Owen Broder bringing together songs from America’s musical tradition and mixing nostalgia and modern moods. While playing woodwinds, he brings together Sara Caswell/vi, Scott Wendholt/tp-fh, Nick Finzer/tb, James ship/vib-perc, Frank Kimbrough/p, Jay Anderson/b and Matt Wilson/dr along with vocalists Wendy Gilles, Kate McGarry and Vuyo Sotashe to take you through this country’s musical heartland.
The is a cozy intimacy within the ensemble as Caswell’s violin cries on “Jambalaya” and as the band takes you to the VFW on a Copelandesque “Cripple Creek.” Strings and horns create rich Blue Ridge Mountain colors on “Goin Up Home” and Broder’s alto sax teams with Caswell for a melodic parlor read of “Wherever Time Goes” that is both modern and nostalgic.
McGarry and Gilles deliver ominous voice with hovering support to the abstract and sepia shadows of “Wayfaring Stranger” and sotashe teams with the band to create an almost Gaellic pub feel on “The People Could Fly.” Lovely voices team with Broder’s baritone sax to mix folk and small church gospel on “A Wiser Man Than Me” thereby taking the listener to just about every structure in this small town in the Cumberland Gap. A musical road map with two lane roads.