More Court & Spark...

If you've read Bars & Guitars with any degree of regularity you know that I have a huge soft spot for The Court & Spark. A local San Francisco band that's made a great noise on the alt-country scene for quite awhile now generally playing mellow acoustic based compositions that recall both the American tradition of breezy southern California country made popular by Gram Parsons and a more urban folk that's modern touchstones reside in alt-country (Uncle Tupelo, Neil Young). Last year's Witch Season (which can be purchased here) was one of my Top 10 and continues to age well. Seeing the band open for Magnolia Electric Co. a few weeks ago was a bit of a relevation. They were without pedal steel player Tom Heyman and it forced the band into a much more uptemp rock style which suited them very well, especially within the evenings context which was dominated by Jason Molina's Magnolia Electric Co. and the band's newly electrified sound.

Anyway what I'm getting to here is that I finally got around to listening to C&S's 2004 EP Dead Diamond River about 3 weeks ago and was, not surprisingly, impressed. The material is very similar to what's on Witch Season but more atmospheric and little less straightforward musically. It's like there's a haze over the recording that obscures the songs a little bit if that makes sense. Anyway it's simply more excellence from one of SF's best bands.

1 song from the 5 songs EP Dead Diamond River. Purchase here.

Lucia