Songs From the Sea of Cortez
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Jangling and earnest, the steam train Old Californio rumbles into a tumble-down station
at the foothills of an unnamed western sierra. Its engineers disembark with a tome for the
citizens slung over their backs, Songs from the Sea of Cortez, an offering of respite in a
dry land. Rich Dembowski, Woody Aplanalp, Justin Smith, Jason Chesney, and Levi
Nunez will build a stage here of wood and iron, harness the voices of water and
mountain, share in the wisdom of wander.
You and I cannot see them, but ghost dogs canter by their sides leaving smudgy nose
imprints on guitar and chrome as they huff for approval. The engineers, descendent from
alchemists and raconteurs, are at once possessed of Bowie’s alien searching, Brian Wilson’s
pastoral mysticism, the Beatles’ introspective psychedelia, but the vaudevillian dust that’s
settled into the grooves of their songs is wholly their own.
And when the music is finally overwhelmed by the crackling fire and morning crows, the
engineers will climb aboard this train again, churning off to dance in the stories of folks
asking whatever god they got within or without to honor them a little peace. Children of
Salinas, nomadic souls from beyond the farthest corners of Steinbeck country, rejoice—
Old Californio has touched the quick. - Jason Carpenter
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