Tin Hat Trio's The Rodeo Eroded is like the soundtrack to a film you can
only fuzzily recall details of, but for which you bought the soundtrack
immediately. A lush, playful melange of strings and percussion, the band's
wistful instrumentation on their third effort transcends immediate
references like "country" or "roots" or even "jazz." This music is too smart
to be pigeonholed.
The trio plucks, prods, massages, scrapes and draws out alternately swarthy
and melancholy, joyful and lonely sounds as they travel landscapes from
Tennessee to Paris to their native San Francisco to a Gypsy sideshow to
wide-open desert highways. The urgent pluckiness that opens "Holiday Joel"
brings to mind Tosca Tango's score permeated Waking Life's dreamy Austin,
Texas. The traditional song, "Willow Weep for Me," brings in Willie Nelson
as the only vocals on the record and belongs alongside any weepy romantic
Patsy Cline in a rundown truck-stop café jukebox.
The attraction of both current (Billy Martin of Medeski, Martin & Wood; John
Fishman of Phish) and classic luminaries like Nelson who are associated with
several different genres (jazz, jam band, country) as guests is a testament
to Tin Hat Trio's fearless vacillation between the traditional and avant
garde. It's also a great testament to the deep well of inspiration that
traditional (as traditional as the not-long-dead 20th century can be)
American music can offer a band that not only has the brazen creativity to
couple bluegrass strings and harmonica with experimental percussion and
tango rhythms, but has the ability to make it work seamlessly.
Tin Hat Trio Rodeo Eroded
