CD Review

The Waybacks
Devolver
(Fiddling Cricket, 2000)

Any stringband that follows up Charlie Parker's "Scrapple From the Apple" with John Fahey's "The Last Steam Engine," goes on to capture Archie Fisher's haunting "Witch of the Westmoreland" and tops it off with an electric version of the tradditional "Cluck Old Hen" deserves a tip of the hat. This CD is great fun and a kind of musical tour de force, completely overrunning the comfortable stringband boundaries. The arrangements are extremely accomplished and well executed, and the original compositions are also quite good. I would have left out the cover of "The Monkey Song" from Disney's The Jungle Book, but then, I guess it helps establish the theme suggested by the title. I'm usually not a fan of this kind of music, but this disc kept finding its way back to my CD player.
-HB