Excuses for Travellers
Neil Halstead is emerging as one of the greatest country singers Great Britain has ever birthed. Such a list might be short, but Halstead is leading it nonetheless. Having contributed two outstanding tracks to Manifesto Records' Tim Buckley tribute album,Sing a Song for You, Halstead and his band are on a solid creative roll.Excuses for Travellers, Mojave 3's third album, is arguably the band's best. Any previous tentative feelings have been replaced by the confident, delicate roll of pedal steel that sweeps through these bittersweet tunes. "In Love with a View," "Trying to Reach You," and "When You're Drifting" stick out immediately, but most of these songs unpeel slowly with each listen. Just as theCowboy JunkiesandNick Drake--to whom they are not necessarily compared but definitely spiritually connected--quietly pleaded their case, Mojave 3 are determined to mature subtly.--Rob O'Connor