Porchwerk Music

Ah, those Boris Garcia boys: shape-shifting tricksters who never lose track of who they are; psychedelic-folked-up-Kokopellis-of-the-highest-order; navigators of oceans of genre-blending sweet goo.

Somehow, over the span of four studio albums, Boris Garcia has managed to establish a recognizable sound and vibe while evolving and expanding their sonic palette at the same time.

Think about it: “Point of Grace” off 2005’s Family Reunion was basically multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Jeff Otto multi-tracking ukulele and bass parts over Stephe Ferraro’s brushes-on-a-pizza-box rhythm track – it could snuggle right in amongst any of the tunes on Today We Sail and wouldn’t be out of place. How do you explain it? Group understanding and dedication to a particular vibe? Works for me.

One way the Borises work their magic is to lay it on subtly: they welcome you in and get you good and comfy in the just-right arm of an old familiar tie-dyed easy chair. It’s not until you’ve already lifted off that you realize the thing has booster rockets strapped to the bottom of it – but by then it’s too late to turn back … and who wants to? Let the warm wind blow your hair back and blow your cheeks out like a Redbone Coonhound with his head out the sunroof. Never seen a sky that color before? Good for you. Just go with it and let the music play.

Try it for yourself: Today We Sail kicks off with “Walking Barefoot”, where we find Bud Burroughs’ happy mando dancing and skipping over Ferraro’s straightforward drums and Bob Stirner’s chopped-out electric guitar. What’s this – some threads of pedal steel woven in? No shock there: the band brought pedal maestro Buddy Cage in as a guest for their last studio effort (2008’s Once More Into The Bliss ) and made good use of the extra texture. The lessons learned on Bliss have morphed into the addition of Chip “Dr. Steel” Desnoyers as a full-time member of Boris Garcia … and his impact on the band’s overall sound is so right – yet so natural – that you’ll be going back to their early albums just to make sure that he hasn’t always been there.

“Everybody says I’m crazy, but I’d have to say – probably okay,” sings Stirner just before the band swirls into a break, with Burroughs laying down some English country garden tea-and-acid-laced-crumpets on the keyboards before we hear the sweet voice of Railroad Earth’s Tim Carbone’s fiddle, followed by Desnoyers’ pedal steel soaring and cascading all over everything. For a moment, the music is miles-deep and full of chambers that keep opening and closing (just how many sets of strings are there, anyway?) until everything spirals up and pops just past the three-minute mark, bringing us back to the present dimension.

How did they accomplish that? It’s hard to say … but that’s just typical Boris Garcia – it’s what they do.

Besides providing tasty guest fiddle, Carbone returns as producer on Today We Sail, having proven himself totally in sync with the Boris Garcia vibe on Bliss. It would be too easy to refer to Carbone as Boris Garcia’s George Martin, but it honestly and truly fits the bill. The insight he brings to the table as a non-member is always true to the band’s established karma. It makes for a good team.

Knowing that Stirner and Jeff Otto are the principal songwriters for the band, one might be surprised to read the liner notes and find that they didn’t actually write any tunes together. The songs dovetail nicely on Today We Sail with no obvious segregation of “Jeff songs” vs. “Bob songs” – it’s all Boris Garcia music. Both of them write solid tunes that could stand alone just fine in a stripped-down acoustic setting, but easily lend themselves to be jammed-out as the moment dictates.

More highlights: Otto’s epic and deeper-than-you-might-think “Song Dog”, featuring blistering mando by Burroughs and wild-ass steel work by Desnoyers; the slow, glorious churn of Stirner’s “Mighty High”; the joyous hear-me-now declaration of “Song of Love”; the ghostly twang-and-snap of “Long Black Hair” (which sounds like a cross between an Appalachian-flavored Robert Hunter tune and one of Steve Earle’s ballads); and the absolute sweetness of the album-closing “Christmas In June”, as fitting a place to end as “Walking Barefoot” was to begin.

Bud Burroughs has always made the transition from things with strings to keys effortlessly, but Today We Sail sees him step to the forefront with some killer piano/organ work, whether it be subtle accents or lovely leads. (Check out his where’d-that-come-from break during the funk of “Good Home”.) Ferraro’s drumming can be as straightforward or as out-there as needed; he’s equally at home sitting by the fire or soaring off on a rhythm mission to some faraway place. (Again, check “Good Home” and Ferraro’s work when the jam takes over and the band begins to roll and tumble at 3:20 – somebody’s gotta keep the thing in orbit and give the others a safe place to return to.)

All in all, Today We Sail is no surprise because it’s full of surprises – and all of them sound just like Boris Garcia.