Lost In the Graveyard is the second CD from this brazen ensemble. With this new work, bandleader Gary Mackender has created an album true to his roots, delving into his midwestern heritage while absorbing the atmosphere of the southwest where he's lived for the last fifteen years. Mackender has penned nine new songs here along with his original take of two covers and a Mitzi Cowell original.
Along with Mackender on accordion, drums, vocals, vibes and mandolin "Lost In the Graveyard" features Mitzi Cowell on guitar, banjo and vocals, Marx Loeb on drums, Carla Brownlee on sax and Chris Giambelluca on bass. Special guests include Catherine Zavala on mandolin, vocals and mandowrinch and Tony Rosano on sousaphone. The recording took place at Tucson's infamous Wavelab studio known for recording the likes of Calexico, Luca, Neko Case, John Doe and Richard Buckner.
Here's what Mark S. Tucker of the Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange had to say about it:
"Starting off with a coolly creepy Waits-esque ramble on mid-West oddities and homeliness, Gary Mackender and crew initiate a very interesting collective of accordion-centered instrumentals and lyrically intriguing tunes. The Carnivaleros occupy that ghostly twilight niche manned by lurking gatherings of really good musicians who keep a tight lock on neighborhood familiarity and loose professionality by capturing a Saturday Night vibe and keeping it firmly stoked. Every track seems cut straight from dives, socials, backroom jams, and jes'-plain-folks get-togethers. Elsewhere in this corner of the musical universe, there's a great longstanding (30+ years) bluesrock band, the Nighthawks, that has the trip down cold, not to mention a righteous hybrid TexMex rock-swing band, the Juke Jumpers, equally friendly. Anyone familiar with those ensembles should well know whereof I speak. The indies are probably the sole resort for such things, but they're not often enough host to this high a degree of warmth, inventiveness, and strangely attractive mutations".
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