Album Notes

New Review of "Mariposa Wind " Dirty Linen Folk Magazine Dec. 02
Mike Beck " Mariposa Wind" [Reata Records]



Mike Beck writes about the people, landscapes, and emotions of the American West, which he knows intimately as a working cowboy in Montana. Beck's West is not the sometimes overblown caricature of drama, but the quiet intimacy of the mariposa wind of the title track, the sound of leather creaking in a rider's saddle, and the mingling of cultures and languages of " Mi Caballo Negro Poncho". Set in this context and framed with Southwestern guitar flavors, the Mamas and the Papas hit " California Dreamin" takes on a new perspective and becomes a longing for a return to the rural West. He also covers Woody Guthrie's " Deportee" and Joni Mitchell's "Carey". The nine original tunes reinforce Beck's place alongside Michael Martin Murphey, Tom Russell, and Ian Tyson [ Tyson co-wrote one track on this disc] as a poet of the modern West with a distinctive viewpoint. [KD]

Dirty Linen Folk Music magazine Dec. 2002