Recorded in their old chicken coop garage turned recording studio in Pasadena, CA, Old Californio set out to mix a gritty soup of bucolic rock and roll influenced as much by Moby Grape, Crazy Horse and The Grateful Dead as by the chaparral canyons and ungovernable San Gabriel mountains themselves. Songwriter Rich Dembowski sings with a heartfelt voice that might remind some of the Band's Richard Manuel. His lyrics on the 10 song Westering Again evoke winsome images of riparian vistas and wine stained front porches, of places forgotten and out of the way. The album feeds from bright guitar-driven melodies with complicated and earthy arrangements, mixed in with a little down-home country twang and dovetailing instrumental jams that venture to the psychedelic/ philosophic.
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