Review of Mountain Standard Time's Debut CD
(This review first appeared in The Mountain-Ear's February 24th issue.
For the full 'Narrative of the Voyage of the Bloody, Snake Chariot',
Cultural Essays and Reviews, books, plays and New York Times stories
by Sam Libby see www.libbyhome.blogspot.com )
No doubt, Mountain Standard Time is strongly influenced by the likes
of String Cheese Incident, Railroad Earth, Leftover Salmon, Split Lip Rayfield,
Disco-Biscuits, Todd Snyder, and that great white whale of musical
influence - The Grateful Dead.
And yet, Mountain Standard Time has entered into a wonderful dialogue
with musical influences. They receive the inspiration of musical
influence and they go on to inspire with something that is all their
own.
Their debut cd, 'Mountain Standard Time' begins with a not
particularly strong song, 'Road Signs'. It starts out with a very
traditional blue-grass, old-timey sound.
And then the song begins to announce, anticipate the musical treasure
that awaits.
With the boosting power of Kyle Stersic's crazy, entheogen-driven,
Dionysian saxophone what starts out as as a kind of roots' music road
ballad is propelled into jazz/jam-grass, upper stratosphere, and then
beyond.
And then it goes back to the roots.
The heart of the traditional blue-grass sound is guitar, mandolin,
banjo. This sound is played in an accoustically beautiful manner. All
band members, Nick Dunbar (mandolin), Adam Pause (banjo), Jeffrey
"Curly Collins" Schroeder (bass) Zach Scott (drum), Kyle Stersic
(saxophone), Stanton Sutton (guitar) are superb, inspired musicians.
And then it gets real string-cheesy.
With the drum, with the sax, with the electronic effects Mountain
Standard Time becomes a big jazz/jam-grass band.
The fourth song, 'Falling Leaves," is nice. The melody and harmony of
Dunbar, Pause, Schroeder, and Sutton are elegant in their simplicity.
Then there's this jam.
You hear the musical influences, and yet you
hear the elaboration on the influence, the musical elaboration driven
by drum, mandolin, saxophone, and autonomous musical vision.
And then there's the transcendent lyric.
The fifth song is 'Fork', written by Schroeder. And it is strong.
It speaks of "another fork another quick decision, said O lord give
me some vision, ...when there's all these things at stake, won't ya
help me know which path that I might take, no how can I go when i know
just what it is that I leave behind, ...in between these two roads I'm
to choose, ... signs of the man I'll be, places I'll see through these
days I may roam, "...now i'm going to hold my head high, ... I know
I'll find my way back home..."
And the lyrics of my favorite song on the cd 'Loving Sound' written by
Sutton speaks to, "...this heavy, weary burdened heart is tied to
setting itself upright, and I've been troubled all my life can't be
worried now, I've been shadowed by the light somehow, and oh i got to
bear this weight its twisted up in fate, to let this love overflow..."
This debut album is a celebration of the spirit/genius of home place -
that place being, here in Nederland, Colorado, here in the Front
Range. The cd evokes this physical, spiritual landscape
"...where the earth rises to the sky..."
When I listen to "Loving Sound" I hear the cascades of Boulder Creek.
And like the band members of Mountain Standard Time I come here from
someplace else. And I feel the sentiment of the cd's title song,
'Mountain Standard Time' about coming back to this place from
someplace else, and seeing the roadside sign about entering Mountain
Standard Time, and knowing that you have come to a place that
reverberates with your own insanity - and you know you belong.
For the full 'Narrative of the Voyage of the Bloody, Snake Chariot',
Cultural Essays and Reviews, books, plays and New York Times stories
by Sam Libby see www.libbyhome.blogspot.com )
No doubt, Mountain Standard Time is strongly influenced by the likes
of String Cheese Incident, Railroad Earth, Leftover Salmon, Split Lip Rayfield,
Disco-Biscuits, Todd Snyder, and that great white whale of musical
influence - The Grateful Dead.
And yet, Mountain Standard Time has entered into a wonderful dialogue
with musical influences. They receive the inspiration of musical
influence and they go on to inspire with something that is all their
own.
Their debut cd, 'Mountain Standard Time' begins with a not
particularly strong song, 'Road Signs'. It starts out with a very
traditional blue-grass, old-timey sound.
And then the song begins to announce, anticipate the musical treasure
that awaits.
With the boosting power of Kyle Stersic's crazy, entheogen-driven,
Dionysian saxophone what starts out as as a kind of roots' music road
ballad is propelled into jazz/jam-grass, upper stratosphere, and then
beyond.
And then it goes back to the roots.
The heart of the traditional blue-grass sound is guitar, mandolin,
banjo. This sound is played in an accoustically beautiful manner. All
band members, Nick Dunbar (mandolin), Adam Pause (banjo), Jeffrey
"Curly Collins" Schroeder (bass) Zach Scott (drum), Kyle Stersic
(saxophone), Stanton Sutton (guitar) are superb, inspired musicians.
And then it gets real string-cheesy.
With the drum, with the sax, with the electronic effects Mountain
Standard Time becomes a big jazz/jam-grass band.
The fourth song, 'Falling Leaves," is nice. The melody and harmony of
Dunbar, Pause, Schroeder, and Sutton are elegant in their simplicity.
Then there's this jam.
You hear the musical influences, and yet you
hear the elaboration on the influence, the musical elaboration driven
by drum, mandolin, saxophone, and autonomous musical vision.
And then there's the transcendent lyric.
The fifth song is 'Fork', written by Schroeder. And it is strong.
It speaks of "another fork another quick decision, said O lord give
me some vision, ...when there's all these things at stake, won't ya
help me know which path that I might take, no how can I go when i know
just what it is that I leave behind, ...in between these two roads I'm
to choose, ... signs of the man I'll be, places I'll see through these
days I may roam, "...now i'm going to hold my head high, ... I know
I'll find my way back home..."
And the lyrics of my favorite song on the cd 'Loving Sound' written by
Sutton speaks to, "...this heavy, weary burdened heart is tied to
setting itself upright, and I've been troubled all my life can't be
worried now, I've been shadowed by the light somehow, and oh i got to
bear this weight its twisted up in fate, to let this love overflow..."
This debut album is a celebration of the spirit/genius of home place -
that place being, here in Nederland, Colorado, here in the Front
Range. The cd evokes this physical, spiritual landscape
"...where the earth rises to the sky..."
When I listen to "Loving Sound" I hear the cascades of Boulder Creek.
And like the band members of Mountain Standard Time I come here from
someplace else. And I feel the sentiment of the cd's title song,
'Mountain Standard Time' about coming back to this place from
someplace else, and seeing the roadside sign about entering Mountain
Standard Time, and knowing that you have come to a place that
reverberates with your own insanity - and you know you belong.
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