One of the coolest tunes on Talking is "Snow on the Hills," which is delicate in the opening, Natalie Haas's cello providing a warm bottom, Cody's banjo picking out single notes, then paired with the mandolin, then paired with the fiddle, which steals the show a little when it reaches for the high strings. Then the banjo drops away, the cello moves from fluid to staccato and chunky, and a flute takes on the role of silk under-pinning, eventually allowing the banjo to eke its way back into the mix.
The album's constant is the interplay between Cody's banjo and Haas's cello, like dancers locked in an intricate waltz.
For Strause's Come on Over, the heart is a driving harmonica from Joe Bloom, a high-pitched whine to accompany Strause's comfortably rough delivery. The songs are about dogs and girls, possums and girls, bad times and girls. It'd be a country album if you were just going by the content. But everything else is old-time blues-rock, like what got the Stones started.
Friends here include the party that helps out with "Possum Stomp," which was partly recorded down in Eunice, Louisiana, with a ripping guitar part from Mark Maeux, and Matthew Doucet on fiddle (and triangle — you know him from Douce, which used to play around here, with Strause on guitar), and sounds pretty much exactly how you'd think it would sound, before falling apart at the finish, like they've run out of gas.
Neal Shepherd's piano recalls sticky floors and late nights; Jody Day offers backing vocals to support Strause's sensitivity on the "Sometimes" ballad; Jerks of Grass (who played with the Stowaways Monday, you'll remember) Jason Phelps and Kris Day lend mandolin and bass talents, respectively.
Talent swirls and ebbs through this town, joining together in ways you sometimes can't see coming. It's pretty rare it's not a pleasant surprise.
Sam Pfeifle can be reached at sam_pfeifle@yahoo.com.
THE TALKING RAKE | Released by Ron Cody | at One Longfellow Square, in Portland | June 6 | www.roncody.com
COME ON OVER | Released by Strause & Company | at Run of the Mill, in Saco | May 17 | www.strauseandcompany.com
