Percussionist Lee Hunter and guitarist Arvid Smith called themselves Tory Voodoo until that last witchy word weirded out one too many potential listeners. So, like magic, the Florida duo became Tammerlin, though their music's startling alchemy of disparate times and distant lands remained. The couple describes their mix of traditional songs and originals as "folklectic" (as in "folk", "eclectic" and "electric")-imagine crossing folk in its purist sense with progressive-rock oddity and ambiance. Both Smith and Hunter sing, though the latter's high, haunting pipes are the music's true heart, evoking battered Old World beaches and wind-tattered mountain moors-the perfect vehicle for a bloody highland murder ballad. Smith is a wizard of things stringed, tossing off stinging, bluesy leads and Fripp-like forays up the neck of, well, you name it-loop and slide guitars, bottleneck, a double-necked electric a la Jimmy Page, Melobar, whatever. Whether bearing new name or old, their music is a tasty sonic smorgasbord.
Frank Rabey
