Creekdippers - Mystic Theatre

  by Daniel Cressey

published: 11 / 4 / 2004

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The Creekdippers (Mark Olson and Victoria Williams) are country in the old school mode – not for them any kind of ‘alt’ prefix. Olson’s Dylanesque vocals and Williams’ pared down singing style (which strangely slips into sounding like Macy Gray on occasions) combine with traditional instrumentation for an album that could almost as easily be from fifty years ago as from 2004. The choice of instruments is also telling with frequent appearances from traditional country staples like the banjo and pedal steel. This is a solid album that occasionally hints at greatness. Unfortunately these hints are no more than occasional and as a whole 'Mystic Theatre' is more often competent than inspiring. There is also a degree of sameness to a few of the songs and none of them manage to match the first track, ‘No Water, No Wood’. There are other good songs here but nothing that overcomes the aforementioned sameness. This is undoubtedly partly due to the fact that this is a very, very traditional album and this traditional nature to some extent becomes what you focus on rather than the songs themselves. Sometimes it can actually be hard to tell if the Creekdippers are poking fun at their country credentials with choruses like “everybody’s trying to get me to take a bath, I won’t do it oh no”. Not to mention: “the crow has gotta go, he pecked my poor turtle, the one I picked up off the road.” These slightly strange asides make for interesting listening once or twice but don’t really have much staying power. That aside, this is worth listening to if you like your country in the traditional vein. Those who prefer a more modern sound will probably not find it too their tastes.

Track Listing:-

1 No Water No Wood
2 Standing in the Sun All Day
3 Betsy Dupree
4 Salome
5 Grand Army of the Republic
6 It Don't Bother Me
7 Wood in Broken Hills
8 Thirty Miles of Petrified Logs
9 Bath Song
10 Rock Slide
11 Naughty Marrieta
12 Mockingbird Chase the Crow
13 Bells of St. Mary

Label Links:-

http://label.glitterhouse.com/
https://www.facebook.com/GlitterhouseRecords
https://twitter.com/glitterhouserec
https://www.youtube.com/user/GlitterhouseTV

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