I love this album!  The lyrics are good, the music is good, just love this CD.  I can't decide if Red Wine and Chocolate is my favorite or Come Back Home, or I Remember CA.  Tehy're all good.  Just buy it - you'll love it.
                            Read more...
                        

                            
For the past couple years, Victor Krummenacher has been solidifying his live performances, and accumulating a super sharp band featuring the vocal and instrumental stylings of Alison Faith Levy. McCabe & Miller's first album, Time For Leaving, brings this together in a neat limited edition letterpress package which contains some of the sweetest sounds I have heard in a while.  I bought my copy at the El Rey Theatre, the night before the 2009 Pioneertown campout, and listened to the disc three times on the way up to Pitown that night. This material has been a part of McCabe & Mrs. Millers' live sets for a while now, but to hear it all clean and studio-fied is a new perspective which is most welcome. For me, this ranks with Bittersweet and 2008's Patriarch's Blues as my favorites of VK's non-CVB releases.
                            Read more...
                        

                            
here's my song by song review of what I believe is one of the best albums of 2009

Union City Blues
Imagine something from one of the first Eliott Smith albums (sans vocals) and you’re in the right ballpark; melancholy and upbeat at the same time.
Come Back Home to Me
One of Alison’s finest recorded vocals,  surrounded by a delicate acoustic guitar from Victor, while the rhythm section and violin give it a solid backbone that  recalls the first era of modern Americana music;  John Prine’s “Angel from Montgomery”. Like that song, this should be covered by future generations of singer/songwriters.
Fare They Well, Adios & Goodbye
Victor loves the blues and here he delivers the vocal and guitar goods with a southern delta swamp groove that sounds like it was recorded at Muscle Shoals – and when the sultry sounds of Alison’s voice comes up behind him – it’s one of many blissful moments on this album.
Some like You
One of the highlights of the album, a light jazz bass and dreams beat behind the soulful piano ballad workings of Alison that reminds me of post-Fairport Convention Sandy Denny.  My only problem with this song is that at 2:45, it’s about 2 minutes too short. A song I’d be honored to have played at my funeral. Sublime.
Red Wine & Chocolate
Victor’s much beloved CVB has often been too snarky and too smart ass for my taste.  This whole album and this song in particular is some of the most down to earth music that I’ve ever heard Victor play, his true heart and soul is revealed here.
Forgiveness
Reflective female singer/songwriters have been such a cliché in the past two decades that when someone comes along that is really peeling back the layers of the onion ) you might blink and miss a magic moment like this one; Andrew Griffin’s pounding drum in the distance is the sound of one heart beating.
Playground
Maverick horn player Ralph Carney turns this playground into a carnival of sorts.
Couldn’t Sit Still No More
This is the kind of epic blues groove that live, this band turns into a tour de force not unlike Dylan and the Hawks on the 1966 tour; Richard Manuel’s piano battling against Robbie Robertson’s searing lead guitar.
I remember California
Bittersweet memories from Victor’s past, while Bruce Kaphan’s Weisenborn playing reminds me of a mandolin wind, and if I was producing this album, I wouldn’t change a thing.
Your Magic Fingers
The band at their most country; Patsy Cline-like.  But not tongue in cheek alt-country, this is the real thing complete with pedal steel and tic tac bass.
Time for Leaving
In this age of too-long albums recorded to expand  across a nearly 80 minute CD format, this album clocks in at a refreshing 37 minutes and for those who remember the days of vinyl LPs this music is for you. Time for Leaving; like many of the songs on this album – is timeless, it could have been recorded in 1972, 1985 or last week.  There are no production values anywhere on here to date it. Just two singer/songwriters blending their voices and ideas lightly accompanied by friends only when and where as needed.
                            Read more...