Album Notes

Post-modern folkie bard McDaeth sets his jaundiced American tales against a babbling background of film and television dialogue, an oft-used device (remember Pink Floyd's The Wall?) that adds little more than distraction here. Michael's raspy croak falls somewhere between young Tom Waits and old Dylan, which lends his tunes a certain gravitas, but on balance, this Cow tips toward style over substance. Nevertheless, McDaeth remains an artist to watch; check out his previous release, Gondwanaland (2001), to hear why.

Michael has been making records since 1994, initially with his band Weeds. From 1997 to 2001 he worked in high tech producing multimedia projects including video, animation and sound design. He recorded a couple records during this period (his debut "self-titled" CD and "Demo 2000") and was invited to play CMJ's annual music festival in New York City. However, for the most part he self-released his CD's on a very limited basis. That's about to change.

Since the demise of the high tech industry, McDaeth has turned his energy back to writing songs on a full time basis. In just over a year he has recorded 2 solo records all of which he wrote, performed, recorded and produced. He is spending 2003 playing and promoting his newest release "Sacred Cow".

McDaeth's live performances feature broad brush guitar strokes and vocals that hook, threaten and provoke before inviting you in. Every so often he works in a harmonica that tumbles and twirls and disappears. What holds the whole thing together are lyrics that never fail to deliver an otherworldly sense of being anchored down to this place and time. Michael has received much critical acclaim and has been compared favorably to such heavy weights as Tom Waits, Bruce Springsteen, Beck, the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Captain Beefheart and Nirvana.