Red Int / Red Ink
2007
The Horseshoe Curve
About This Album
Trey Anastasio's The Horseshoe Curve is a collection of cuts taken off the shelf as a stopgap between the guitarist's "real" albums -- at release time, Anastasio was in the fourth month of a court-ordered yearlong drug rehab program. It's too bad in a sense, because it's such a dazzling recording, taken from a period between 2002-2004 when he was touring and recording with this woolly mammoth of a band; it's also far above the level of the two recordings he released during that period: Shine (2005) and Bar 17 (2006). A pair of these cuts, "The 5th Round" and the title track, were taken from a live gig in Pittsburgh. The rest of the set was done in a studio, and beginning with the burning bubbler "Sidewalks of San Francisco" that kicks things off (with a smoking little flute break that counters the heavy organ and snare backbeat on the tune, and feels as if it came from a Traffic live date), one wonders for the love of Pete why he shelved it. Anastasio doesn't wail and whomp with his knottier-than-Gordian guitar licks here. He leaves that to a weighted horn section that includes Peter Apfelbaum, Andy Moroz, Dave Grippo, Jen Hartswick, and a rhythm section that includes bassist Tony Markellis, Ray Paczkowski on keys, drummer Russ Lawton, and famed N.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5 and 7)

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