Dobro, harmonica, banjo, acoustic guitars...one might be fooled into thinking you are about to hear some simple down home wailing. and although there are moments on this recording that are ‘simple’, definately moments that are ‘wailing’, and even moments that could be called ‘down home’, that’s where it ends. scot ray and bill barrett have taken their instruments far beyond any expectation. this music is astonishingly beautiful at times. at other times it has a stunning complexity. the album opens in a deceptively light and breezy manner that sparkles like dragonfly wings floating over a clear country pond. and then there’s the raga country blues which mr. ray explores so successfully. this is very satisfying sonic terrain for me. having been born in oklahoma with 30 years as a buddhist it’s a bulls-eye in several vital chakras. and bill barrett’s chromatic harp playing can veer from little walter authenticity to avant versions of some unknown american symphonic melodies. put all that together, you have something like charles ives’ mutant cousin from bangladesh living in the backwoods of an undiscovered country. gathered around a campfire somewhere these two gentlemen could lull the cobras to sleep while krishna dances an appalachian two-step till the break of dawn. as my mother has been known to say ‘lord, have mercy!’.
-from the liner notes, by G.E. Stinson