7. Tin Hat Trio—The Rodeo Eroded (2002)
As a human being, it's easy to think this is all about us. Even beyond the inevitable religious prognostication, there's a very human tendency to view this whole situation strictly on our own terms. The reality, of course, is that we're just one tiny piece of the puzzle. Trillions upon trillions of lives will be snuffed out when this collision occurs and only the smallest sliver of a fraction of them will be human lives. Fortunately—or tragically, depending on how you look at it—all of these creatures will spend their final days blissfully unaware that they are doomed. In the quiet parts of the world, up until the very last moments, leaves will flutter peacefully in the breeze. Ants will continue their march down the trunk of a tree toward the warmth and comfort of the colony. Birds will chirp up in the branches. Grasshoppers will spring from green blade to green blade below.
All of this will burn soon, or be crushed beneath a plummeting rock, but birds and bugs and trees and grass are not beings who live for the future. These are entities of the now. And that is the music of this album, rootsy and organic, beautiful and joyous, but somehow always with the faint, bittersweet shadow of melancholy.
The core member of this group is one of the modern geniuses of American music, Carla Kihlstedt (Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Book of Knots), and so it's appropriate that this album is best understood as some kind of grand encapsulation of American roots. It has a vaguely country-ish flavor, though not a single track on the album is actually a country song. Instead these mostly instrumental tracks shimmer with slide guitar and sigh with canjun-esque accordion. Sometimes they even surprise you with the odd foray into tango (as in "Happy Hour") or a surprising guest vocal cameo (as in Willie Nelson on the old timey pop song "Willow Weep for Me"). There's a hint of jazz here and there. A dash of experimentalism. A dollop of longing. A generous helping of heart.
Listen. Live in this stunning moment. Tomorrow all might be in flames.