I've heard some previous Uncle Salty's Cabin CD's and was ready for some kickass rockin blues music when I slipped it into my CD player. Imagine my surprise when I get acoustic funky music instead of screaming guitar. This CD is pretty schizoid compared to previous outings from the band. What you get here is a wide range of styles from alternative (think Creed or Pearl Jam) to hard rocking blues with kick ass guitar to one
track that mixes Eric Burdin & Frank Zappa style vocals with Zappa like music. Vocally these guys are good and musicianship very good. This CD is certainly a departure from their previous outings. It's certainly better than the majority of self produced CD's that land in my mailbox.
'Paco' is the opening track. It's an acoustic mix of guitars and percussion that reminds me a bit of a non electric version of 'Low Rider'. 'I Am Not A Carpenter' is certainly the most unusual song on the CD. This is the Frank Zappa vocal styled song. Brett Branham talks the vocals. As I noted earlier, he has the Zappa/Eric Burden style nailed on this one. Musically it's almost a free form jam with starts and stops and changes in musical direction. 'You Got It All' returns to the acoustic southern style sound with slide guitar and alternative vocals. 'It's My Mind' goes into acoustic country and sounds like something you might hear on someone's porch in the backwoods. 'Cajun' slips into Creed
or Alice in Chains territory vocally with heavier electric bass and guitar. This one gets pretty free form on the electric guitar. 'In The Rain' again changes styles with jazz style arrangement and a pop style vocal. Track 8, 'Happy Man', finally gets to what these guys are great at, which is kick assed blues/rock guitar. Pietro plays some rockin guitar here, leaning towards heavy Texas blues territory but with a solid rock foundation. 'Reason Why' drops back to acoustic guitar again, with an alternative feel, that would work on most top 40 radio stations these days. Track 10, 'Feel It Again', gets heavy with nu-rock style guitar. You can just feel the Marshall amps kickin on this one. 'SOTS', the final song on the CD, once again provides a dramatic style change to light flowing acoustic picking for about 1:18. Then the whole tone of the song changes with sound effects and distorted guitars coming in. Again it sounds like something that you might hear on alternative radio these days.
Bottom Line: This is an interesting mix of music. There should be at least one song on this CD that should please anyone who listens to it, although they might have to listen to styles that they may not like before finding it. This CD is not one that you appreciate with one listening. It requires several trips through your CD player to take it all in. Overall I would give this CD two stars out of four.
Brett Branham - vocals
Darin Di Pietro - Guitar/Bass, vocals for 'It's My Mind'
Chris G - Drums/Percussion,
Chris Ray - bass on 'I Am Not A Carpenter'
John Williams - Mandolin on 'Paco'
Web site: www.unclesaltyscabin.com
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