I remember writing about one of their singles last year, “Seventeen,” I think, and found myself thoroughly falling hard for its blend of Laurel Canyon sass and rock-and-roll weight, that perfect balance of groove and grace. But, great as that was, now with the six tracks that make up their eponymous EP, I can get a bigger, broader picture of what Baby Condor are all about. Exciting stuff…I’m going in.
“Backcountry Roads” is a plea, one bathed in sunlight-drenched pedal steel and raw guitars, delicate piano and deft groove, a call for us to slow down, step out of the crazy pace of the modern world and try to reconnect with the things that really matter. “Seventeen” has it all (and yes, it was the single that introduced me to the band), moving from folky finesse to Tex-Mex border boogies to full-on, foot-on-the-monitor rock and roll, all marinated in Mariachi mellifluousness.
“Dreaming of the Day,” the current single, feels like a song that you have been listening to all your life, or something perhaps that you discovered in your parents’ record collection, a funky take on Jackson Brown or a soulful Carol King number, which puts Baby Condor in the best of company indeed.
What a great collection of songs, and an EP that shows that not only do Nolle and Beinte Groen understand the music of the past, but they also know exactly how to keep it alive by bringing it into the modern age. Good music never dies, it just gets refrenced and reused and returned and remade..and that is what is happening here and to stunning effect.
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