The Small Pond's Caitlin Cary & Matt Douglas Are The Small Ponds
(Last Chance Records)
by Grayson Currin @currincy
Caitlin Cary could start a goddamn grindcore band and she'd still be tagged popularly as an alt-country siren, the female foil to Ryan Adams' charmed gruff. Whiskeytown, of course, has been done for more than a decade; in the intervening years, Cary has offered elegant, spare storytelling under her own name and gorgeous, warm harmonies with Tres Chicas. With both, she's moved well past the surfeit of twang that made her old band famous, but, like a female Ron Sexsmith waiting for deliverance, her history's often eclipsed her present aims.
Though not as extreme a departure as that suggested above, Small Ponds—Cary's quietly confident collaboration with fair-voiced pop songsmith and multi-instrumentalist Matt Douglas—should, at last, lift her out of the y'allternative wheelhouse. These tunes swing from the lithe to the lovelorn, from the dreamy, fragmented, handclap waltz of "Horse on a Bus" to the anchored-by-desolation duet "Loneliness." Douglas and Cary take more risks with structures and sounds than that old form might allow, particularly on "Gypsy Cards." As its title aptly suggests, the tune is sly and cunning, Douglas moaning over Cary's fiddle glide and a bass line that seems swiped from Dr. Dre's sample kit circa 1999. And "Bleeding Heart" conjures British guitarist James Blackshaw softening Bon Iver with grace and tone, the desperate plea gathering slowly over six minutes, both singers arriving simultaneously at their clause of redemption—"Love won't punish you for the rest of your days."
Similarly, this is where the past humbly bows to the future.
Related Locations
-
Pour House Music Hall
- 224 S Blount St, Raleigh Wake County NC 27601
-
919-821-1120
- www.thepourhousemusichall.com
- (based on 4 user reviews)
Comments (1)
Showing 1-1 of 1
- To create paragraphs in your comment, type <p> at the start of a paragraph and </p> at the end of each paragraph.
- To create bold text, type <b>bolded text</b> (please note the closing tag, </b>).
- To create italicized text, type <i>italicized text</i> (please note the closing tag, </i>).
- Proper web addresses will automatically become links.
Latest in Record Review
-
Various artists' Waste of Time: A Tribute to Paint Fumes
Friday & Saturday at Slim's
- May 15, 2013
-
Bevel Summers' The Cards
The Carrboro band's first full-length, a magpie collection featuring more voices, new instruments and a wider palette of influences, is united by a keen sense of songcraft.
- May 8, 2013
-
LiLa's IV
LiLa's IV has some soul packed in the places you'd least expect.
- Apr 24, 2013
- More »
More by Grayson Currin
-
The week in music: April 3-10, 2013
10&2: a dozen gigs for your consideration
- Apr 3, 2013
-
The week in music: May 8-15, 2013
10&2: a dozen gigs for your consideration
- May 8, 2013
- More »
