Sunset Canyoneers – Sunset Canyoneers
You Are The Cosmos – 6 March 2020
Sunset Canyoneers are a North California quartet fronted by guitarist Jeremy Powers and double bass player William Duke, they’re steeped in the cosmic country sounds of Gram Parsons laced with such kindred influences as the Flying Burrito Brothers, New Riders of the Purple Sage and vintage Grateful Dead.
They set out their stall from the start with the shimmering pedal steel of Tom Heyman and the clopping percussion of High in the Sky, a breezy song about, well, getting high in California, switching from drugs to booze on the close harmonies of the Byrdsian Sweethearts of the Rodeo bounce of Alcohol in a Gamblin’ Town.
These pretty much set the pattern for what follows with the consistently catchy melodies and hooks, 12-string flourishes, chugging riffs and poppy choruses, floating across the psychedelic strings-laced crystal clouds of Junk#1, hanging around in bars with ghosts on Spirits, conjuring some 60s California dreaming in Los Angeles and taking a 5D trip with McGuinn on Bluejay.
Ending with the arms-linked good time sway of Dontcha Go Talkin’, this doesn’t pretend to be anything more than unabashed retro nostalgia for the halcyon tambourine following, hickory wind blowing days of American folk-rock and every child of the universe. And rather fine it is too.