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Recorded in Australia (on a longer vacation than anticipated?) this is the Sea & Cake stalwart stripped down to basics, mostly just him and his guitar with a little help from various Aussie friends. Strings were added back home in Chicago sometime later, to great effect. Recorded, as the story goes, in a haunted house, these dark, moody songs have absorbed the environmental influence somewhat. During the real quiet songs one can actually hear the local grasshoppers provide backing vocals - a giant wall of sound that threatens to drown Prewitt's own. One can always question the validity of projects like this, but these 27 minutes from the Australian wilderness are evocative enough to suggest that it's ultimately more than a postcard home. The bluesy, acoustic atmosphere on the 3 first tracks pass by innocuosly, but the fourth, Along the Coast, picks up considerably followed by Another Peace of Mind which clocks in at a little over 5 minutes and is the centerpiece of this mini-album, carried by a beautiful string arrangement by Susan Voelz, and must rank among the best pieces of music we have heard from him as a solo artist. Let's hope it's an indication of more to come...

Torbjorn Wickman
CWAS #7 - Spring 2001

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