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Micah Blue Smaldone, "Hither and Thither"
The second release from this New England singer/songwriter is aquiet, twangy gem that brings to mind slow and sad days long gone. His voice is plaintive, lonely, spare, vulnerable, andsometimes charmingly out of tune. North East Indie
His delicate playing is almost asexpressive as his singing. He blends bluegrass with a little blues anda touch of old-time country for a sound that's almost like ancestralmemory. It's hard to tell if there's anyone else on the album besides him, butI wouldn't be a bit surprised to learn the album was recorded bySmaldone picking his steel guitar and wailing into a 4-track in a dustyempty room.
Hither and Thither is a 40-minute trip back into ablack-and-white silent film world of fragile beauty. It's familiar butthe era it recalls is so far gone it feels new again, like a book fromchildhood found and reread as an adult.
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