Dreamangus are a Los Angeles-based quintet, whose members play or played in local bands such as The Square Pegs Stringband, The Bluegrass Bastards, and Old Jitters Stringband, all of them focusing on old timey folk music. That means: no electricity, all acoustic stuff and instruments such as fiddle, guitar, upright bass and mandolin. The disc contains twelve songs: one traditional (Pretty Polly), one written by fiddler/partner Barb Hansen (the brilliant Bicycle Song) and ten songs written by Spencer who is, in my humble opninion, a poet pur sang. This man has the gift of wondering. People like these, don’t usually live the easiest of lives, but they do notice more and other things than most of the average people do. They constantly catch up impressions and , in Spencer’s case, turn them into songs. Every little bit of heartache can become a beautiful song and, as far as I’ve understood from the song lyrics, Spencer’s own life hasn’t always lead him through paths of roses. On this CD, all this brings us some really impressive moments: Hair of the Dawg is one of them: it’s melody sounds a little like Baloo from Jungle Book, but above all, this is a real gem. Junkie’s Lullabye, a slow waltz about the hazy, misty people  every junkie has to deal with, has this beautiful textline “I Can’t understand why pain is a crime”. Teach Me To Love is another little beauty, with that waltzing fiddle-line and these oh-so-sad lyrics. These songs aren’t going to make you any happier, but if beauty is what you’re after, ther’s plenty of it on this album. There’s no label that really becomes this band, which makes them rather unique. The logical conclusion: to be discovered !
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