Paso Fino, Should've Bought a Pony (iTown, 2002)
The name of this group, Paso Fino, and the CD's title, Should've Bought a Pony, combined with the artwork, which features photos and cave-drawings of horses, and some of the song titles -- "Fiery Ride," "Home on the Range," "Belly Up," "Pray for Rain" -- might lead one to expect an alt-country album, perhaps with Southwestern overtones. But Paso Fino is a fairly standard modern folk duo, although they're backed by a bunch of musicians on instruments not necessarily associated with folk music, particularly a trombone.
Paso Fino is Diana Anderson, who writes the songs, sings them and plays guitar, and Shane Lamphier, who plays lead guitar and sings harmonies. Dave Davies on trombone is joined by Tara Nevins of the alt-country band Donna The Buffalo on fiddle, and others on trumpet, sax, piano, bass and drums and the like.
The playing, singing and production on Pony are top-notch. Andersen's voice is in the upper-alto range, well-suited to the material -- a little raspy when called for, or with a catch in the right places.
Things kick off with "Fiery Ride," a bit of funky folk prominently featuring that trombone and the bongo-like ashiko drum; Lamphier on nylon-string guitar and Davies play a nice jazzy jam after the first two verses. "Quietly as Lust," which follows, is less interesting than the title implies, although it's a pleasant uptempo song about the comforts of home through the four seasons.
"Where I'm Going" delivers the Latin beat hinted at by the group's name. It features bare-bones lyrics -- "His smile, her frown/his plea, her growl/do you hear what they are saying, saying" -- over a combination of nylon- and steel-stringed guitars that give the song an Afro-Peruvian feel. The following track, "Home on the Range," starts out with the opening bars of Gene Autry's rendition of the old American folk song, complete with vinyl scratches and pops, then opens into a Caribbean-beat ditty featuring the saxophone. It's a wistful comparison of the dreams of wide-open range with the less-romantic reality of today's landscape: "On uncloudy days, mountains choked by the haze/and my dreams seem clumsy and strange."
"Belly Up" is a swinging two-step that uses the old Western colloquialism "belly up to the bar" as a metaphor for closeness in a relationship. "Pray for Rain" and "Desperately Seeking Redemption" form a diptych, examining the effects of colonialism from both sides of the equation. Nevins' electric fiddle gives a haunting atmosphere to the first song, seen from the view of the American Indians: "Once life meant walking beauty's way/intimate belonging, those memories will fade/they'll never be who they used to be/in the face of a losing fight." The second, driven by strummed acoustic guitars, has the taker of the land seeking redemption. Viewed as a whole, the two could also be about the two sides of a failed relationship. The album closes with an eight-minute alt-rock production, fired by a funky bass and fuzzed-out electric guitars, its lyrics all introspective angst: "Indecision/keeps me free/from living a life of honesty."
As you can see, Paso Fino's music is hard to categorize. But if you like contemporary folk with thoughtful lyrics in a variety of musical styles, you might want to take a ride on this Pony.
