Solitaire

Solitaire, 3hattrio's third album, builds upon the band's legacy as self-proclaimed purveyors of ‘American desert music’ by which is meant ‘music which responds to the natural world of their sacred homeland near Zion National Park in Utah.’ The ten tracks are mostly original compositions by banjo-playing guitarist, lead singer and folklorist Hal Cannon together with bassist/singer Greg Istock. The lone traditional tune on the album is a hauntingly cool version of the cowboy's classic lament ‘Bury Me Not’. Bob Marley and Peter Tosh's anthemic ‘Get Up, Stand Up’ is given a funky barn-dance makeover with Cannon scat-singing over a swinging bass line and Eli Wrankle sawing away on the fiddle with a feverish edginess reminiscent of Don ‘Sugarcane’ Harris’ work with Frank Zappa. The original songs blend rhythmic, harmonic and contrapuntal aspects of jazz and chamber music with foot-stomping cadences and lyrical ploys drawn from Western folk traditions. Solitaire is a smoothly blended tapestry of soulful grooves, good-time revelry and a keen affinity for the stark, deceptively beautiful textures and contours of the desert, which fuel 3hattrio's visionary spirit.