By Rick de Yampert
Entertainment Writer
Daytona Beach News-Journal
Thursday, March 3, 2005
Tammerlin
"One Kind Favor"
BirdsTale Records
* * * * (of 5)
Death himself must be really confused by "One Kind Favor," the new CD by the Jacksonville duo Tammerlin.
Death, you never sounded so . . .er, alive as on the murder ballads and tales of dark but stoic woe that populate "Favor." And you must get really shook up when the duo- singer-percussionist Lee Hunter and guitarist Arvid Smith-switch over to some spunky, down-home roots music and gorgeous pop-folk and traditional songs about love won and lost.
With help from numerous
guest musicians, Hunter and Smith inflame both the sunshine and shadowy side
of folk traditions. Smith's dobro seems powered by corn liquor on the manic,
bluegrass murder ballad "Naomi Wise," which features sweet-voiced
Hunter sharing vocal with guest singer Randy Judy. Guest violinist Darol Anger
cloaks "I Saw a Sight All in a Dream" with ominous, harsh fiddle
while Hunter keens what she calls a "dying mother song."
Those two traditional songs and other tales of woe are balanced by such Hunter
originals as the bouncy, almost childlike "What Ya Gonna Do?" and
"Clair de Lune Summer." The latter is a wistful pop-folk tale of
lost love that would be a perfect answer song to Gordon Lightfoot's "Carefree
Highway."
Smith is a sonic conjurer
who plays a phalanx of stringed instruments, from various guitars and dobro
to banjo and sitar. While he whips out plenty of fancy pickin', a highlight
is his instrumental piece, "South Atlantic Blues"- a dreamy, New
Age-y ménage a trios with acoustic 12-string guitar, sitar and a slide
guitar known as a melobar.
Tammerlin has done folk and roots music one kind favor with their new work.
Ratings: * * * * * classic, * * * * excellent, * * * good, * * mediocre, * poor
Rick.deyampert@news-jrnl.com