The track Crete by Boston progressive folk / Americana band Baerd is melodically lush in an orchestral sort of way. Well beyond the vocal melodies supported by harmonies pushing degrees of chromatic buttons there is both avant garde and pop sensibilities in the production arc. The dynamism and artful flow of musical and emotional lines feels like a musical stage play and rises to such a sense of free form escapism that it sounds as if Brian Wilson (Pet Sounds 1966) and George Gershwin (Rhapsody in Blue 1924) got together to stir things up.... and then the surprising summer rain storm abruptly stops.
I suppose the death defying stop is unmistakeably daring and maybe a mistake in and of itself but I can forgive it because of what came before but it is a personal point of contention I hope to discuss with singer-songwriter / guitarist Isaiah Beard someday. Rounding out Baerd you have Paul "Papabear" Johnson (drummer / arranger), Ben "Flapjack" Knorr (bango), Maxfield Anderson (mandolin), Victor "Ol Blue" Pacek (double bass), John Blanda (keyboardist), Ariel Loud (arranger / sax player) and Mariana Forjaz Secca (singer / arranger).
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Robb Donker
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