Description:	LP on Immune Records inc MP3 download
	Format:	LP (vinyl)
	Genre(s):	Alt. Country/Americana/Country Rock
	Label:	Immune
	Price:	£12.49
	Availability:	Dispatched within 2-5 days (on average).

5
...according to our Brian on 30 October 2008.

I've been thrown an album by Micah Blue Smaldone called 'The Red River' and i'm really hangin' happily with it on first listen. 'A Guest' is of the tradition of that slow, cyclical confessional alt country led by a heavy hearted & yearning male vocal with some stunning cooing backing vocals from the femme's perspective. Bits of BPB, early Lambchop & Smog in there. I could buy the album for that one track, it's utterly great! 'The Clearing' is more like trad folk, really touching, 'Pale Light' appeals to the Tindersticks fan in me with lovely horns and a faint bluegrass feel, but it's more his voice being a couple of octaves higher and the gothic country lounge vibe that floors me. It sounds to me that every distinct style he embraces, it turns to gold. The other side begins with 'A Derelict', more lovely, passionately excecuted folk that keeps on meandering off into spectral James Blackshaw territory before he returns with a rousing, chest beating lyric. Later songs remind me more of Alasdair Roberts' sad eyed trad folk . I've not got the time to thoroughly peruse all 7 tracks but mark our words, this is one of the highest calibre albums of Americana/alt folk/country we've heard in a long while. Consider me a fan. LP/CD (vinyl with FREE DOWLOAD CODE!) on Immune.

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What their label says...

‘The Red River’ was mostly written upon returning from an 11
week, 50 show European tour in the winter of 2007, particularly
around heavy experiences in the Balkan and Baltic countries.
This album confronts the malevolence we’ve come to accept in
our nature perhaps more out of cynicism than of true
understanding. It tells hard tales gently, and in the end offers
faith in our capacity for goodness.
· Micah Blue Smaldone describes the theme of ‘The Red River’
as “... simple faith in the goodness of people, the depth of love,
and the infinite wisdom of nature, which allows for this path to
be cut with patience, humility, and an eagerness to share. So let
this album be a little way-mark, and never a hitching post.”
· With the encouragement of Maine’s supernal super-group
Cerberus Shoal, Micah released his first solo recording ‘Some
Sweet Day’ in the spring of 2003. The years to follow found
Micah touring often, alone or with dear friends Cerberus Shoal,
Death Vessel, and Harris Newman. In 2005 he released a
sophomore album ‘Hither & Thither’. Lurking in grim allegory,
this album weaved with a longer thread of influence than its
predecessor, merging a common spirit of urgency from
throughout the century-or-so of recorded music, from Skip
James to Leadbelly, to Bob Dylan, to Will Oldham.