Oakley Hall Gypsum Strings CD

Too expansive and jammy to be called simply alt-country, too avant-garde for the hacky-sack set, and absolutely nothing like Wilco, Oakley Hall's 2006 album, GYPSUM STRINGS, is a lovely musical anomaly. Sounds reminiscent of everything from Crazy Horse and Little Feet to Fred Neil to Neu! and the Velvet Underground can be heard on the Brooklyn band's third full-length. A loose, ragged feel dominates throughout, but it's held in check by remarkably varied musical interplay and assiduous songcraft. And the aching harmonies of frontman Pat Sullivan and guitarist Rachel Cox are, without hyperbole, as distinctive as those of Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris. GYPSUM STRINGS follows an original route across the American musical landscape, one that stops at all the famous landmarks but sees them through a beautifully fractured lens.

Personnel: Pat Sullivan (vocals, guitar, dulcimer, organ); Rachel Cox (vocals, guitar); Claudia Mogel (vocals, fiddle); Jesse Barnes (vocals); Fred Wallace (guitar, lap steel guitar, banjo); Barry London (piano); Greg Anderson (drums); Brian Chase (tabla).

Spin (p.82) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he blustery fretwork opening the third album by these Brooklyn country-rockers loudly confirms they're taking a serious psychedelic turn."