The Rodeo Eroded
Like good musical ramblers, the Tin Hat Trio traveled around the world on their first two albums,Memory Is an ElephantandHelium. Theirs was a tango that could fill classical music's archways. A jazz that melded continents. WithThe Rodeo Eroded, the San Francisco-based threesome heads home. Rob Burger's accordions, piano, and myriad acoustic keyboards, Carla Kihlstedt's violin and viola, and Mark Orton's twangy guitar and Dobro take theRodeoon a Great American Music Tour. "Bill" opens the album with a bluesy, waltz-like slow jam that Kihlstedt violins through with long-stroked dramatic flair. From there,Rodeohas the feel of a great, cinematic drama. Drunken, percussive piano marks "Holiday Joel" before a woozy take on "Willow Weep for Me" emerges from the mist withWillie Nelson(!) emoting atop a sagebrush orchestral mesa. A horse clip-clops in the form of Orton's guitar on "The Last Cowboy," just asMorriconemight have envisioned. There are great, wobbly chase scenes, circus tumbles, and a host of Americanisms that bounce in, kick it up, and split with a sonic impression of the desert's parched stretches and the boundless madness of a simply warped community dance.--Andrew Bartlett