Oracle Sisters Rodeo

Friday Music proudly presents for the first time on 180 Gram Translucent Blue & Green Swirl Audiophile Vinyl, the 50th Anniversary Edition of The Byrds’ "Sweetheart Of The Rodeo." Impeccably mastered by Joe Reagoso at Friday Music Studios & Capitol Mastering.

The Goat Rodeo Sessions is an ambitious and groundbreaking project that brings together four string virtuosos: world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma, fiddler Stuart Duncan, bassist Edgar Meyer and mandolinist Chris Thile. While each artist is a prominent figure in his own music sphere, they have come together as a unified ensemble on a most remarkable and organic cross-genre project. The music, including two tracks with female vocalist Aoife O'Donovan, feels both new and familiar it's composed and improvised, uptown and down home, funky and pastoral and above all, uniquely American.

After having spent the last few years going over old ground on Greatest Hits and the double live Just Like a Vacation, as well as treading water with the less than stellar (but appropriately named) Days in Between, Blue Rodeo found their stride again with Palace of Gold. Having built their own studio, the bandmembers took the time to record in a comfortable, relaxed manner in which they could workshop tunes at their leisure. This newly found freedom allowed them to experiment with the addition of strings and horns on several tracks, a move they had taken tentative stabs at before.

Tin Hat Trio - The Rodeo Eroded (2002) {Ropeadope–Rykodisc RCD 16016}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 303 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 127 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 132 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2002 Ropeadope / Rykodisc | RCD 16016
Jazz / Chamber Jazz / Jazz Folk / Jazz Blues / Creative Music / Classical

San Francisco's nearly un-catagorizable Tin Hat Trio deliver another set of improvisational accordion-fueled Eastern European spaghetti western epics on their third album, The Rodeo Eroded. Mixing a Tom Waits-esque broken carnival feel and quietly sweet melodies, the trio waltzes their way through 15 tracks, occasionally augmenting their standard guitar-accordion-violin lineup with tuba, harmonica, celeste, banjo, and any number of instruments.

'Sweethearts' is a tribute to the 1968's classic 'Sweetheart of The Rodeo' album. Christian Parker & Earl Poole Ball, one of the original sessions, co-produced and contributed piano to this modern interpretation. Jaydee Maness, one of the original pedal steel players making a special appearance, joined the sessions. In 1968 the album managed to disappoint and, in many cases, alienate almost everyone who heard it. It would be much later before it was recognized as the iconic piece of work that it is. 'Sweetheart of The Rodeo' is widely regarded as the album defining country rock, but the rock part is almost silent. The whole thing is almost out and out of the country, with huge dollops of pedal steel, banjo, fiddle, and almost everything other kinds of instrument you would expect to hear in the mainstream twangy country that existed at that time."

Outskirts is a highly likeable debut featuring mid-tempo country rockers fleshed out by tasteful use of organ in the arrangements – a subtle touch that, along with the sheer quality of the material, distinguished Blue Rodeo from the hordes of other Gram Parsons devotees in the mid-'80s.