CD Review

What has Andy Cabic been up to since the last, self-titled, Vetiver album dropped in 2004? Judging from the songs on the band’s latest release To Find Me Gone, he’s somehow gotten hold of a time machine, and has been traveling with his guitar across the country circa the mid-nineteenth century. From the ancient hills of Appalachian Virginia across the old west on a lazy trail up towards San Francisco, where he rendezvoused with his band to record another collection of timeless folk songs.

To Find Me Gone is a remarkable step forward for the San Francisco based folk collective, which includes sometime-members Devendra Banhart and Joanna Newsom. Everything sounds stronger here, from the instrumental arrangements (which have expanded to include hypnotic drones, deep heartbeat drums, bells and chimey things, and even an up-tempo psych-rock tune), to the melodies, which have always been the band’s strong suit. I may be biased, but I even heard a hint of the Dead’s old lyricist Robert Hunter’s influence on tunes like “I Know No Pardon,” a wistful, cosmic cowboy number on which Cabic rolls off more quotable lines than you’d find on whole albums by some other “neo folk” outfits.

For more info see: vetiverse.com