Dark Desert Night

Somewhat overwrought in its presentation, Dark Desert Night by 3hattrio, who consist of Greg Istock on vocals and acoustic bass, Hal Cannon on vocals and banjo and Eli Wrankle on violin, nevertheless contains moments of enjoyable music-making. There is an imaginative arrangement of the traditional English ballad ‘Carry Me Home’, and some of the band's original material (written by Istock and Cannon), such as ‘Tammy's Sister’ and ‘Sand Storm’ comes pretty close to evoking an allegorically alluring landscape.

However, it's not at all clear how that smoothly contoured, jazz-inflected topography, sprinkled with groovy bass solos, is supposed to link up with ‘the generations who have worked and lived on the deserts of the American southwest.’ Compounding this disconnection between theme and execution is the problem of 3hattrio's lead singers: neither Istock nor Cannon possess an intrinsically appealing or distinctively compelling voice that is capable of drawing the listener into the songs.