Tom Catmull: 2nd opinions

These guys are damn good! KTHX listeners may remember the early days of X-radio and all those great Hacienda shows with a young Robert Earl Keen...that's the kind of energy and fun that Tom Catmull and the Clerics bring to mind. Throw in a bit of Todd Snider, Will Kimbrough, some touches of Jerry Jeff and mix that with some wry wit like Tom Waits and Dan Hicks...very tasty! Plus...talking with Tom and the band...they are genuine good guys with great attitudes...You'll be hearing a lot of them on the show!

This album has more of a country feel than Catmull' s previous releases, but I mean authentic, traditional country. Not that plastic, soft-rock ringtone bait they' re churning out these days in Nashvegas. Right from the first listen, TC&C is polished, confident, and achieves a consistent level of musical and lyrical poise, yet is as comfy and easygoing as an old leather jacket. It' s tasty. It' s chewy. Hell, by the fourth song, you want to spread cream cheese on the damn thing and eat it.

"Fans of
country-rock, folk and just plain good music will testify to these
Clerics."

Tom Catmull straddles genres like a bow-legged cowboy on a mountain bike. Too mellow for a rocker, too enamoured of the pedal steel guitar for a folk musician, and not nearly twangy enough to be called a proper country crooner, Catmull probably won't ever find a natural home for his music on today's intensely sub-genrefied radio dial.

But to his fans - who number plenty around western Montana - the ambiguity of Catmull's musical identity is probably exactly the point of his appeal.