This opens with the majestic,
Matthew Sweet-circa-
100% Fun "Closer to the Ground." But the album's tone changes throughout, making for a varied, eclectic ride. The airy "Chimayo" comes with shadings of
Burt Bacharach, breezy harmonies, and muted trumpets. The sad and slow "Down in My Mind" is a cloistered bit of countrified sentiment, all wrapped up in sparse, bluesy guitar licks. And "Diamond in a Garbage Can" -- with lines like "she's the rotten apple of her daddy's eye," "leaning up against the pawnshop door/I could see she wasn't an ordinary whore," and "she's too sad to be so young" -- is a mid-tempo ramble in the vein of the progressive roots music of the mid-'70s. "Goodnight Moon" ends the set. It's a lullaby-like ode to leaving home with lilting tuba, euphonium, and alto sax by
David Jacques.
Will Kimbrough's guitar work -- which can also be heard on albums by
Kim Richey,
Matthew Ryan,
Josh Rouse,
Amy Rigby, and
Jess Klein -- is seamless, and his vocals, which lie somewhere between those of
Neil Finn and
Gram Parsons, are sweet and warm.