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By: Dennis Cook
There's something so unforced and inviting about Neil Halstead's solo work. In Mojave 3 he soars and swoops with wide prairie scope but there's spectacular hush to the albums that bear his name. Six years on from his 2002 solo debut, Sleeping On Roads, not a lot has changed. Halstead invites us on a stroll through the park dotted with conversations whose meaning and ramifications only emerge long afterwards. As with Sleeping, it's one easy-to-like gem after another, bright melodies and bare emotions, strummy pluck and sing-along verses. Only one track sports a full band, with the others being Halstead's multi-tracked acoustic guitars and mandolins, reverb accented vocals and well placed banjo, pedal steel and piano (courtesy of ALO's Zach Gill). Twangy it is but in a fully cosmic cowboy manner, dreamy as Buckley Sr. or Fred Neil as Halstead finds his home on the modern range (there's a quiet glitch skitter to a few cuts, notably "Always The Good"). Halstead's sublimely bittersweet sophomore disc is ideal when other music is too loud, too deep, too taxing. It ain't fancy but it sure is nice.
Here's the video for "Queen Bee," the first single.
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