A masterpiece. This was my first Bill Frisell album,
and is still my favorite. It remains one of the most distilled, beautiful,
and moving albums I have ever heard. Frisell, Kermit Driscoll and Joey
Baron create an entire world on this album, lonely but hopeful vignettes
that evoke an entire range of emotions. Frisell composed a few simple themes
that shift from mournful to angry. Over these simple themes Driscoll's
bass lows deeply and Baron employs an arsenal of colors with his trademark
schizophrenic pops, clicks, and rolls. They underpin the furtive guitar
playing of Frisell, who also uses loops and effects to augment the simple
melodies. The interplay on this album seems almost telepathic, the work
of one mind instead of three. This is not so much a collection of songs
as a seventy minute piece, with recurring themes. This is an incredible
album, highly recomended.
The songs on this album were made to accompany the
Buster Keaton film Go West. For anyone unfamiliar with Keaton,
he was a silent film actor whose physical comedy was absolutely brilliant.
True to the subject matter of the film, the songs have a country/folk tinge.
