Named after a tree species native to Northern California, the American singer-songwriter’s landmark 74-minute double LP, and his 11th solo studio release, is one of his finest, packed with tear-jerking, vivid ballads of gentle pace, profundity, beauty and catchy country-folk-rock grooves. Peace is among the standouts with beautiful jangly riff, shuffle rhythm and deceptively simple lyrics (“‘Peace’ is what we say/When we say goodbye”). Who Removed the Cellar Door? has a western twang, stylish slide guitars thump-rhythm and a Tom Petty feel and a oddball, intriguing, compactly put narrative: “Just this morning, it was gone/ It was gone for a song/ Taken away to the fringe / They carried it away unhinged.” Opener Priestess, is an an ode to a late friend, recalling McCombs’s California youth, and like many of these 16 songs, is filled with perfectly weighted, vivid detail: “In our seminary of contradictions / Ella Fitzgerald, thizz and whippits / you were our priestess.” Missionary Bell falls out of the players’ fingers and McCombs’s voice into our ears with such delicious ease, it sounds like the writing is entirely spontaneous and frictionless: “Summer's vine is knotted / Twisting in the ground/ Wild fennel in the wetlands / Nightfall hurling down/ Hear them in the valley/ They called me when you fell / What else is as heavy as a missionary bell?” Home At Last is also a wistfully beautiful number. Miss Mabee is an infectiously catchy bluesy fuzz groove, juxtaposing uncertainty of situation with steadiness of sound. Juvenile, an organ riff catchy toe-tapper with a melody of which Gruff Rhys would be proud, pokes fun at soulless ad men. Lola Montez Danced The Spider Dance has gorgeously rich bittersweet chords at a slow, but perfect pace. Diamonds In The Mine has an early 70s Dylanesque feel, glowing with a candle-lit cosy tenderness. There’s not a dud among these 16 tracks, including the final title track, working up a fabulous frenzy of fuzz-guitar pace and rhythm, a track mixing myth and history with a mention of George Washington and “a sprite called Uriel was imprisoned in a tree / And freed by a wizard, now there's a tree growing inside of me.” A fantastic collection, with songwriter at the peak of his powers, brilliantly honed skills, simplicity made into reverberatingly timeless work. Out on Domino Records.
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