cherry blossoms: mystery meet

"Vinylization of an insane and legendary CDR that Nashville's Cherry Blossoms collective issued when they did a 2007 tour of Upper and Lower Rangoon with Josephine Foster as a special guest member. The Cherry Blossoms are a musical entity not easily described, but I feel as though their essential whatsis was grasped by Michael Hurley. We were talking a few weeks ago and when the Blossoms were mentioned, Mike said, 'Oh Yeah. I remember the last time I played a gig with those guys. Their van pulled up, and each of them got out, already playing an instrument and singing, and each of them was doing a different song.' And so it is here. This is a blend of roots music unimaginable to the average No Depression type listener. Various threads of beauty are woven together into a tapestry of such psychedelic magnitude you can barely comprehend the individual elements. Listening to this album one hears a blend of Pindar Family-style Bahamian ecstasy, slightly tipsy Protestant psaltery, jump rope songs, and just the sort of rag-taggery that Snock described. Josephine's distinctive voice is deep in the mix sometimes, at others it emerges for semi-solo highlighting. And the whole thing is a thoroughly provocative series of unfolding wonders. So sad you missed the tour. So glad we could help." --Byron Coley, 2020 Edition of 400.