“We believe that if we are truly aware and open to the exact time we live, the exact place we are placed, then it is possible, through our art, to create something timeless. We invite listeners to know this was our intention and we welcome you along for the journey.”
Come Morning by 3hattrio is released on March 3. At their best, 3hattrio create a great musical experience which touches something deep in the heart of a listener. Come Morning does this. It’s as good an album as their 2018 classic, Lord Of The Desert.
More simply, 3hattrio consist of Eli Wrankle on violin, Hal Cannon on banjo, and Greg Istock on bass. They live near – and are musically embedded in – the multi-coloured sandstone desert country of Zion National park in Utah, close to the borders of Nevada and Arizona.
The geography is as important to understand 3hattrio’s music as it is to know that Black Sabbath’s is embedded in the factory sound of the hammer press of the industrial west midlands in England. 3hattrio were invited to an artist retreat in Zion Canyon Mesa – in between peaks with names like The Sentinel, Eagle Crags West, Altar of Sacrifice – to listen and watch the break of day.
The quotation at the top of this review is from the trio, who added, “The music was conceived by setting ourselves, instruments in hand, on top of a high Mesa, with Zion National Park, Utah, surrounding us. Here we looked over a vast desert of red cliffs, vistas of sand, and a river wending its way, creating a lonely ribbon of greens and blues. It’s home for us. And it’s morning, before dawn. There is anticipation. Will we be able to hear the crack of dawn?” The opening three tracks are called, ‘Come Dawn’, ‘Red Sky Warning’, ‘Low Mist’- there’s a silence and then a steadily rising sound as each of the instruments kicks in.
If you’ve ever sat up and watched the dawn you’ll know how the light changes from night to the different feel of the three twilights (astronomical, nautical and civil) before the daylight of the risen sun, and you’ll have heard how the screeches and squeaks of unknown night creatures change to a melodic dawn chorus. Musically, these tracks capture that feel.
The album, like the day, moves on – to ‘Raven’s Wing’, ‘Coffee Please’ and ‘Sunnyside Up’. If I suggest that the steadier tempo of ‘Coffee Please’ moves into the cheeriness of the pacier and differently arranged ‘Sunnyside Up’, you get a sense of how the album answers the band’s further question “Can we capture the rarity of the moment? Are we capable of taking this magical time, when night turns to day, allowing it to sing through our instruments?” The answer is yes.
The final four tracks are ‘Heron On The River’, Yawn Stretch Move’, ‘Endless Sunrise’ and ‘Cliff Rose’. As I’ve listened, I’ve gone through the day from dark to twilight to daytime. It would be a different album if they’d watched the sunrise from, say, the edge of the Irish Sea or the top of Cross Fell with its variable climate. Come Morning is embedded in the Utah desert and the remarkable playing of the trio – a band “aware and open to the exact time we live, the exact place we are placed” and with the ears and a canny instrumental skill to capture it.
Glorious.
Mike Wistow
Website: https://3hattrio.bandcamp.com/community
‘Red Sky Warning’ – official video:
Thanks for stopping by. Please help us continue and support us by tipping/donating to folking.com via
You must be logged in to post a comment.