| Utah
Carol makes unique, quirky charmed elvin folksy American art pop. Rather as though Paul
Simon had replaced Art Garfunkel with wife-to-be Edie Brickell while she was still a small
child and started making eight-track recordings with the Smurf Village Symphony Orchestra.
It's funny what limitations in resources and training can do for a talented artist.
Sometimes neediness is the mother of invention. Some musicians will try to overcome their
limitations by ignoring their inability to sound like their more skilled influences;
resulting in limp formulaic songwriting and warbly-voiced attempts to sing like
Springsteenor McCartney or somebody.
The members of Utah Carol, by contrast,
acknowledged early on that they had little chance of replicating the precise sound of
their influences (which are widely varied). Instead of hammering away at trying to be
Miles Davis and Dolly Parton, West Side marrieds Grant Birkenbeuel and JinJa Davis instead
worked on turning idiosyncrasies into singular strengths.
Somewhat weak, limited vocals blend into
perfectly matched, charmingly childish, distinctively hushed harmonies. These perfectly
matched harmonies are then perfectly matched to dreamlike, fairy-tale-esque atmospheres;
laid-back and rustic American country humility; hopeful summery organs a la Pet Sounds-era
Beach Boys. Comfort for the Traveler, the second album from these up-and-coming
local independents, reprises the subtlety wacky, off-beat and upbeat mellowness that won
their first record (Wonder Wheel) a round of impressed reviews from those few
critics to whose attention the album came. The new CD is slightly less diverse and
(mercifully) more concise than that 20-track marathon.
The magic of Utah Carol's truly original sound
lies primarily in the strength and inventiveness of its dreamy arrangements, which layer
strings, flutes, orchestral chimes, clarinet, tuba, organs and pedal steel over a bedrock
of folksy guitar. The arrangements are layered, varied and evocative without being
outlandishly complex. Reminiscent, in that respect, of Brian Wilson's eight track magic on
songs like the similarly dreamy instrumental "Let's Go Away For A While." Most
of the instruments are played by Davis and Birkenbeuel themselves, which is particularly
impressive considering Davis, still a graphic designer by day, only began singing and
learning guitar and bass after graduating from college and marrying Birkenbeuel. It took
quite a marital spat, reportedly, before the newlyweds became musical partners. The lyrics
and arrangements conjure dreamy childlike images of real Midwestern or Southern American
places: Campgrounds. Front porches. Carnivals. Trailer parks. Real places. Sometimes
populated by elves and pixies. But real places.
One song, for example, tells the story of a
family of "Misfits" in short brushstrokes: Dreamy clips of playground noise and
bird tweets interspersed with sobering lyrics like "He's 35 and still a child. He
sits at home, he's all alone." The chorus, though, is typically hopeful and
metaphysical: "Annie Mae, find your way to heaven." This is sort of the musical
equivalent of combining cartoons and rustic photographs (both visual genres are in fact
quite aptly incorporated in the cover art and the band's wonderful web site. The
entreupenurial couple (who self-produced their two records) have won themselves a European
distribution contract and a small but growing base of media champions (John Peel in the
UK, Richard Milne in Chicago, an apparently influential guy from the Netherlands that you
haven't heard of). Hopefully they will also eventually win themselves enough cash to put
their inventive finger-painting on a broader canvas.
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