Cave Singers

Cave Singers – Invitation Songs

If this was a simple record, the Cave Singers could have become revivalists: something akin to Old Crow Medicine Show hay-kicking, barn-storming razzle dazzle or the tender, intelligent Appalachian-folk of Gillian Welch. The songs are constructed from similar bare bone instrumentation- the finger-picked melodies of an acoustic guitar, the precision of a brushed slapped snare- and can often reflect a back-wood folk influence. “New Mounuments” has the Gothic hypnotic pull of 16 Horsepower most emotional preaching, and “Called” is ominous dirge, haunted by a darkly blown Melodica. But somewhere along the line, it sounds as if their Fleetwood Mac records got inserted into the cardboard jackets of the Violent Femmes. “Helen” repetitive melody has the warm, easy swallow of Tusk-era Mac, while singer Pete Quirk vocals often carry Lindsey Buckingham’s best nasally inflection. But don’t toss this off as updated soft-rock Rumours. There’s an energy that bristles within each song, as if beneath the layers of any fine suits, still exists the sweaty t-shirts that have rocked hundreds of house garage dance parties.