The Pines - Dark So Gold
The Pines - Since their last album -- 09's excellent Tremelo -- Twin Cities Americana outfit has expanded dramatically from founding duo Benson Ramsey and David Huckfelt to a full seven piece band -- but the sound remains intimate and ethereal even when the wattage increases now and then // Release: Dark So Gold (January 31, Red House) // Sounds like: having two distinct songwriters, each with their own style, creates an interesting meld of crafts: an air of dark mystery juxtaposed with a rich, earthy directness...a windswept Midwestern prairie style of poetic and rootsy folk/rock that Rolling Stone's David Fricke calls "quietly gripping"...
Quote: "Masterful songcraft, effortlessly embracing the range of the human condition: from brushing teeth to the outer reaches of the cosmos to the Great Spirit without leaving the back porch....presented with great gentleness and heart, and a minimalist's love of space and silence." - Mason Jennings // What we like: the spectral "Cry, Cry, Crow" (video below) is like a rural America version of The Blue Nile, a pulsing snare drum beat leading us into a fog of reverbed guitars, hushed vocals and a production that sounds submerged in bongwater..."Chimes" quickens the pace with a Dylan-meets-Jayhawks ramble of acoustic strum, strolling bass line and a bed of piano and organ..."Like a midnight blizzard, the songs of the Pines are dark, ominous and strangely hypnotic." - Boston Globe
The Pines - "Cry Cry Crow" (from Dark So Gold)
The Pines - "Chimes" (from Dark So Gold)
Benson Ramsey, Chimes, Cry Cry Crow, Dark So Gold, David Huckfelt, Red House, The Pines
Reader Comments (1)
"Dark So Gold" is my album of the week at mattneric:
http://mattneric.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/the-pines-dark-so-gold/