In this era where there is a surfeit of guitarists and a shortage of fresh ideas, Cody Steinmann has beat the odds with a personal tone on this album with Chris Bates/b and Abinnet Berhanu/dr that is both unique and alluring. He’s got that rural thickness of a Bill Frisell, as on the unrushed and methodical takes of the hymn “ Abide With Me” and the Blue Ridge’d “Red River Valley”. His own pieces are just as clever, energetically changing dynamics on the forward pulse of “Not Sappy At All” or getting fusion on the synthesizerish mid tempo of “Ben”. He gives a rocking intro to the rural “Outlier” and slowly undulates on aastoral “Burgeoning”, with a bop till you drop attitude over Berhanu’s snappy sticks of “Dodo Birds Aren’t Dumb Humans Are”. Bates adds to the mist of the thick and melodic serenity of “Sometimes I Don’t Know Why” with the strings creating a tapestry of tones on a palpably textured “Confined Spaces”. Orchestral strings on a guitar.