The Magic City Trio
Album: A Funnel Cloud In Albuquerque (EP)
Label: Kailua
Tracks: 5
Website: http://the-magic-city-trio.com

So who is this Magic City Trio then? Their website ribbon headline proclaims them thus: "the Old Weird America in the Current Weird England", which kinda works as a tag of convenience. But that's it. Membership of this merry band of Southern Gothic peddlers comprises Annie Holder (guitar, autoharp, vocals), Adi Staempfli (bass, vocals) and Frank Sweeney (guitar, violin and vocals). They have a mere handful of songs listed and lyrics provided on the website, but there's no further information to glean, sadly. So we're left with their music - wilfully strange on first encounter, sure, but exciting and fun it sure is.

The title number of this EP kicks off like one of those delectably silly early-sixties 45s that bestrode the beat era like a veritable rash: thunder effects and twangy guitar impatiently ushering in a quirky lyric delivered in a tinny acoustic. Sub-Joe-Meek, or the Handsome Family on speed? Hmm… The following track, A Prayer For Hope And Happy Times, inhabits a broadly similar groove, with chirpy guitars and mariachi brass, and only suffers from its proximity to the opening cut. The third (and official final) track is altogether more interesting: a cheap'n'cheerful organ-pumped gospeller, The Lone Pilgrim, which has even more in terms of real character. As does the first of the EP's so-called "bonus tracks", an alternate mix of A Prayer which shares the lead vocal out between a sepulchral Brett Sparks meets Johnny Cash and a reedy high-register tenor voice. The second bonus cut is even better: an extended (four-minute) self-styled "twangy guitar instrumental" version of the aforementioned title number, which also features solos from a lonesome wailing violin and a spaghetti-western whistler.

I'd like to've heard those other songs I found on the band's website, but there's no info on whether they appear on record anywhere. More detective work, then!

David Kidman