Thursday, September 20, 2007
Cream Calendar Tonight @ the Springwater: Charalambides w/Cortney Tidwell & Cherry Blossoms
Posted by Tracy Moore on Thu, Sep 20, 2007 at 2:24 PM
The New Old Weird America
CHARALAMBIDES W/CORTNEY TIDWELL & CHERRY BLOSSOMS At least two of the artists on this outstanding bill have been somewhat dismissively tagged as "freak folk." And yet, as Todd Haynes' fascinating Bob Dylan deconstruction I'm Not There suggests, it's really all freak folk, all of it—Dylan, the Harry Smith Anthology, all those hypnotic murder ballads and hymns and reels, the soundtrack to a secret America full of signs and wonders, while the mainstream roars past on the interstate. Anchoring this night, fittingly enough, is another Carter family—longtime Houston musical partners Tom and Christina Carter, whose Charalambides explore the sonic equivalent of negative space in raga-like entwinings of spindly folk-blues guitar and spectral vocals offset by halos of quiet. Yet they can fuzz/psych-rock out in the best Texas tradition, and their live show is said to cast quite a spell. See them before their eagerly awaited fall release (and before Christina joins Thurston Moore in support of his new solo album, on which she sings a duet). Tidwell and the Cherry Blossoms you know, or should: the former's Don't Let Stars Keep Us Tangled Up is one of the year's most acclaimed local releases, a bewitching summer storm of stark space-folk atmospherics, while the latter—a wonderful rattle-trap "kazoo-exotica" collective of indeterminate membership—sound like the back-holler bohemians who somehow missed the notice that Ralph Peer was recording up in Bristol. 9 p.m. at Springwater —JIM RIDLEY
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