I’m convinced that inside the chest of every alternative-country
\nmusician beats the heart of a rock ‘n’ roller.<\/p>\n
Take Minneapolis’s The Cultivators, for example. For most of
\ntheir disc
\nMama’s Kitchen<\/i>, guitarist\/vocalist Dan Israel and company
\nput out some of the more enjoyable alterna-country this side of The
\nJayhawks – though it does take some time and effort to really get
\ninto the disc. But the band slowly starts moving towards a more
\nrock-oriented sound, and by the end of the album, their focus has
\nchanged. It’s kind of an interesting shift, but it’s not an
\nunpleasant one at all.<\/p>\n
The first thing that strikes you about The Cultivators is the
\nprofessional sound they have. Israel is a veteran of the indie
\nscene, while this venture – also featuring lead
\nguitarist\/mandolinist Tom Sampson, bassist Jeremy Smith and drummer
\nAndy Rauh – sound like they’ve been honing their craft together for
\nthe longest time. The flow of the music is so natural and smooth
\nthat it would be an easy opinion to share. It’s so smooth that you
\ncan hardly tell when guest musicians join in the fray.<\/p>\n
But with this comes the one difficulty that listeners might
\nhave.
\nMama’s Kitchen<\/i> is not the easiest disc to get wrapped up in;
\nif you’re not holding on to every note, there’s a good chance
\nyou’ll find yourself distracted from the music. Then again, maybe
\nthis is just me; I seem to recall having the same difficulty with
\nThe Jayhawks the first time I tried listening to them.<\/p>\n
The Cultivators keep the spirit of alterna-country alive for the
\nfirst half of the disc; tracks like “All Alone,” “Never Stopped To
\nRun” and “Scrambling Scheme” all do a good job of keeping this
\nviable form of music alive in people’s minds. But somewhere around
\nthe middle of the disc, a shift in styles begins to occur. You can
\nhear it a little bit in “Graduation Day”; you can definitely hear
\nsomething happening by the time “Word On The Street” kicks in.<\/p>\n
For you see, Israel seems like he can’t totally forsake his
\nalternative rock roots, and he gives them room to grow in this
\nmusical mixture he’s created. But, instead of distracting from the
\noriginal vision, the flow into a more alternative vein seems to
\nfuel the band musically, so that by the time things wind back into
\na country vein on “Stranger Things,” the band seems to have been
\ninjected with a new-found energy. I don’t mean to imply that the
\nmusic on the second half of
\nMama’s Kitchen<\/i> stagnates, but it does seem like Israel knew
\nwhen the right time to breathe some life into the scene was.<\/p>\n
\nMama’s Kitchen<\/i> might not be the kind of disc that will bring
\nThe Cultivators instant wealth and fame. Instead, what it should do
\nis bring some well-earned attention to this group, as well as open
\npeople’s ears and minds again to the mixed breed of country and
\nalternative rock. It may take some effort to get through this disc
\nthe first time, but the effort will soon prove worthwhile.<\/p>\n
2000 Christopher Thelen and “The Daily Vault”. All rights
\nreserved. Review or any portion may not be reproduced without
\nwritten permission. Cover art is the intellectual property of the
\nrecord label, and is used for information purposes only.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6249],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-36474","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-cultivators","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36474"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36474"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}