Tracklist: 1. Universal Freeforall of the Rapscallion 2. Veins & Bullets 3. Torn 4. Timerider 5. Tests Never Graded 6. Somehow Divine Calculus 7. Groaning 8. Thousands 9. Mayhem Whispers 10. Trouvere Romant

SnailhuntR
Matt Depper & Matt Putnam
Lyrics by W. Clayton Scott

I arrived late to the SLAMDOWN show and only heard Clayton perform 2 pieces. If you were to ask me what they were about, I couldn't tell you (partly because there were so many other pieces performed, but mostly because I'd had many beers that night), but what I do remember thinking, "wow. now that's groovy".

His stuff's got that whimsical, mischievous feeling to it that kinda reminds you of fairy tales and 70s prog rock (remember,"Lamb Lies down on Broadway"?).

So I bought the CD and listened to it the next day. Sure enough, from the cover, right down to the lyrics and myriad of musical techniques that are used on the album, SNAILHUNTR made me want to drag out an old copy of The Hobbit and eat mushrooms.

At first listen, you'd think this record was tossed together with reckless abandon. The songs range from the silly to the spacey to the hard and gritty -- never settling on one style or another.

However, getting deeper into the lyrics, you kinda get the idea that there was a lot of thought to how this was all written. It all fits very well. It's different -- not just a throwback to Genesis or Pink Floyd, there's a lot of other influences thrown in, and a lot of originality too. And by the way, the musicianship is excellent. Torn features some really great percussion work, which gives way to this trippy, jazzy guitar, with again shifts to soothing electronic beats, keyboards, and sound effects, and....some guy yelling incoherently in the background. But it WORKS! Someway, somehow, all the John Zorn/Mike Patton-like screaming and stomping and clicking and buzzing and whirring and clanging and ringing sprinkled here and there just works so well, it's really just something you have to hear.

Even with all that surrounds it, the poetry is always the main focus. Listen to Groaning while reading the lyrics below, and find out what I am talking about...

Groaning

Is it the blood you gave,
the pain so deep?

Was it the words of spurn,
rejection quiet?

Does it take that for me,
I'm asking?

This fallowness not broken,
let nails pierce.

Why so nonchalant
in this approaching.

On surface smooth,
but currents screaming.

What keeps it all denied,
this might inside?

If to remain the same,
let breath capture me.

Tracklist: 1. My River/Indian Blood 2. Where Eagles Fly 3. Panther's Eye 4. Run to the Roar 5. Calling the Creator 6. Blind Justice 7. Black Lace 8. Fancy Dancer 9. Pas de Deux 10. Rainbow Song 11. Big Goose Over the Rainbow 12. Out for an Airing 13. Lightning in a Bottle 14. Moonscape 15. Sweet Sarah 16. Snap

Nancy Harris' poems and Mingo Glass' native american flute and drumming come together in this great collection.

Regular fans of Nancy's work will be pleased at the inclusion of some now classic standards of her repitore -- "Mother Earth's Song" and "Runnin' Barefoot". Some really great pieces that she almost never does live are in here too, though, and are pleasant surprises.

One such piece is called, "Moonscape", and reminds me of sleeping under the stars on top of a houseboat in the fall at the Sacramento river delta (maybe it's all the crickets in the background...)

New to the mix is Tom Henry's excellent musicianship and an incredible mastering and sound engineering job by Ed Robinson.

Poetic in and of itself, the native voices (flute and drum) of Mingo Glass flow throughout the album, sometimes in the background, sometimes at the forefront.

Maybe it's the masterful production of this album, or maybe it's the combination of the artists' work that is more than the sum of its parts, but one really gets a sense of....I don't know what to call it. Nature, spirituality....I don't know. 'Kinda makes you feel like you are sittin' 'round some mystical campfire while Nancy, Tom and Mingo conjure this whole other world for you....

Check it out.

Tracklist: 1. Some They Can't Contain 2. Little Ditty Called Happiness 3. Strength So Strong 4. Cannonball Man 5. Opal People 6. Middle Distance 7. All the time 8. Marbles in the Trees 9. My Point Forever Endlessly 10. now

Buddy Wakefield delivered a machine-gun-like performance which sparked Bill Zischang's open mic events at the Transit Bar and left the modest downtown-Tulsa crowd speechless.

He's equally intense on this album. I know it would be incredibly cliché of me to say that he makes you laugh and cry, but he really does. I laughed during, "Little Ditty Called Happiness" (cuz you just have to...it's happy.) and cried during, "My Point Forever Endlessly" (for the line,"My point forever endlessly...You still don't know you're amazing for the things you see." - I don't know why, but that part always just gets me right in the gut).

Like SnailhuntR, I think this is a great marriage of music and poetry, and equally good to anything that Utah Phillips, the Last Poets and/or William Burroughs have done. How can I say that? How can I put Buddy in the sam ring with Abiodun Oyewole and Burroughs and Phillips? Because they are all doing the same thing. They are using obstreperous verse to chide a nation whose inclination is to maintain the yoke around the neck of the disenfranchised.

Just listen.

Oh yea. In case you're into hidden tracks and the like, I'll give you a spoiler - there's a hidden live version of "Marbles in the Trees" at the end of the disk. cool.

Oh yea, and one more thing...here's a little piece of one of my favorite tracks on the album, one of the best pieces in the book, and my fav. piece Buddy performed that one night in Tulsa.

from, "Some They Can't Contain"

...
'Cause everybody's got voices…

and everybody's got some they can't contain
like my need to be redeemed
at any time
in any place
where I see my Jonathan Seagull bein' tattooed on the fists
Of men who fear we'll think what we think
About the laws they can't resist.
...