He swore each new competition would be the duo's last if they didn't win. Grammer's positive verve kept them going. After a year spent logging thousands of miles on tour, the two have hit folk gold. At a time when cloying personal narrative is the pop-songwriting norm, it's refreshing to hear someone dig deep into the untilled soil of modern moral crisis. Grammer fleshes out tunes with intuitive accompaniment and a spookily instinctive feel for Carter's melodies and lyrics, her violin haunting his ballads like wind in sagebrush.
Every song's about penetrating illusion.
Tanglewood Tree is a scale weighing Grand Ole Opry sensibilities against Dylanesque poetry. The lyrics distill '60s idealism, '90s realism and the timelessness of a vision quest. It's as if Alan Watts and Loretta Lynn gave birth to Black Elk while vacationing in the Ozarks. The disc's title track sends love tumbling through the starkness of a desolate western landscape. It's more about the aesthetic of the love song, where can I take it now.