Vacilador
Yorkville, IL
(Crooked Creek Records)
“Google ‘vacilador’ and wish you’d chosen it as your album title”
Note to bands: If you’re going to cover a song as beloved as the Grateful Dead’s “Brown Eyed Women,” take a cue from The Giving Tree Band’s bluegrass flavored version and bring it to an entirely new level. The song is the centerpiece of a fine album, and it highlights all that is great about The Giving Tree Band: meticulously crafted yet loose-feeling instrumentation, road-tested vocals with solid harmonies, and a distinctive sound that, while fitting into the Americana genre, uses a killer electric guitar tone to take it to new and interesting places.
The Giving Tree Band is more than just one cover song, and the percussive opening tune, “Cold Cold Rain,” sets the tone for an album full of great original material. With its 14 tracks, Vacilador offers something for every listener: soulful ballads (“Miss You Now”), story songs (“Higher Than the Levee”), toe-tapping gems (“Silent Man”), and campfire jams (“Ragweed Rose”).
But it’s track three, “Brown Eyed Women,” that may be the best entry point to Vacilador and to The Giving Tree Band. Listeners will be grateful for the rest.
Produced by E. Fink and Philip Roach
Recorded and Mixed at Crooked Creek Studios, Yorkville, IL
Mastered by Ruben Cohen