Do yourself a favor. Take some time to really listen to Red Heart the Ticker's new CD, "Oh My! Mountains Below." Don't do what I did the first couple of times I heard it, which was to throw it on in the background of my busy family life. That's a sure way to miss the abundant riches of this superb new offering from the Marlboro, Vermont, husband-and-wife duo of Robin MacArthur and Tyler Gibbons.
"Oh My! Mountains Below" is a quietly masterful example of inventive compositions, rich production and spot-on musicianship, wrapped like a blanket around disarmingly honest and engaging songs. It's a CD which beckons you to listen carefully - and rewards you when you do.
On their Website, MacArthur and Gibbons talk about their musical partnership, which is really the happy combination of two musicians steeped in different traditions - MacArthur in 60s folk, with a dash of old-fashioned honky tonky country rock; Gibbons in jazz fusion and eclectic 60s rock. "Oh My! Mountains Below" doesn't fall neatly into any of those camps. Instead, it carves its own niche, perhaps most easily described as neo-folk. Having just listened to Mike and Ruthy's "The Honeymoon Agenda," I hear some similarities - both feature husband-and-wife duos who take an old-time folkiness into original, new territory.
What stands out most in my mind about "Oh My! Mountains Below" - and what I missed when I only listened to it casually - is the inventiveness and originality, the creative spark that infuses these songs. The reason you miss it, is that it's delivered in deceptively simple ways. In an age when a lot of musicians grab you by the lapels and shake you with high-octane showiness, Red Heart the Ticker gets your attention in different ways - like a lover whispering in your ear.
Take for example, the first song, "Off With Our Heads," which starts in the simplest of ways - just MacArthur's achingly plaintive voice, which is soon joined by a spare, simple banjo, played by Sam Amidon, who also adds fiddle. By the time the song is over, you realize this soothing, intimate song has still managed to pull you closer to the speaker; it's power is irresistible.
Track 2 builds on that. A song written in two parts, think stanzas of a long poem, "I Lift that Boombox" is deceptively rich, backing Gibbon and MacArthur's sweetly understated vocals with first strumming guitar, then Daisy Vatalaro's cello and later Chris Vatalaro's percussion, including brilliant lines of bells.
And so it goes. Time and again, "Oh My! Mountains Below" reveals MacArthur and Gibbons' knack for adding the right, surprising touch at the right. You can hear it in Tyler Wood's Rhodes line on Track 4 "(I Used to Wear) The Head of a Lion" and in the contributions of other friends - Thad DeBrock (electric guitar), Joel Rose (keyboard), Scott Roy (accordion), plus the ones I've mentioned.
MacArthur and Gibbons have a definite flair for songwriting, a gift for surprising chord changes and pretty melodies - most evident on "Snakeskin" and "Winter Air." Many of the songs also have an utterly disarming intimacy and honesty about that. There are love songs here that are unlike any you've ever heard, seemingly pulled from your own experiences, what really happens, not how love is usually portrayed by songwriters.
MacArthur and Gibbons recently ventured to New York to compete in the Great American Duet Singoff on NPR's "Prairie Home Companion." They finished third, which is nice enough on "Oh My! Mountains Below" they rise above most of all the other stuff you hear.
Treat yourself to a quiet, intimate hour with Red Heart the Ticker and their new CD. You'll be richly rewarded. Or you can come out to The Loft in Brattleboro on Friday, May 29, for a CD release show at 8 p.m. Tickets are $10. Call 802-258-2648 or info@rhtt.net.