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High quality musicianship is rarely in short supply, especially in Western North Carolina. That fact \u2013coupled with the presence of several top-notch recording studios in the region \u2013 means that the bar is set quite high for a new album release. This is especially true in the crowded field of Americana and its related genres and subgenres. In the end, it takes something extra-special for an album to stand out in a sea of finely-crafted, acoustic-based albums.<\/p>\n
In the case of Zoe and Cloyd, that special something is the pair’s vocal prowess. Natalya Zoe Weinstein and John Cloyd Miller were formerly two-thirds of popular Americana trio Red June; those who enjoyed that group’s seemingly effortless vocal harmonies and enchanting melodies should be every bit as pleased with Eyes Brand New<\/i>, the second album from Zoe and Cloyd.<\/p>\n
No doubt the duo’s vocal blend is anything but effortless; it’s clear that a great deal of work has gone into achieving the seamless melding of the two voices. But the end result has a wholly organic ambiance to it, one that makes it feel like the most natural thing in the world. Even when Miller takes a solo vocal \u2013 as on most of \u201cJewel of the Caspian Sea\u201d \u2013 his voice shimmers and shines like a mountain stream.<\/p>\n
Weinstein takes her well-deserved solo vocal turn several times on Eyes Brand New<\/i>; one highlight is \u201cYou Light My Way,\u201d a delightful yet understated song of love. If something can be simple and unadorned as well as transcendent all at once, such a thing might be the Weinstein’s clear, vibrato-free voice.<\/p>\n
But to focus wholly on Zoe and Cloyd’s superb vocals is to overlook the record’s other winning qualities. Both in terms of lyrics and instrumentation, Eyes Brand New<\/i> is a supremely well-put-together collection of songs. Compared to Red June, the music that Zoe and Cloyd create is perhaps a bit less pop-oriented; there are fewer concessions to popular convention.<\/p>\n
The inclusion of an instrumental track is in its own way a testament to the well-placed self assurance the duo possesses. The wordless \u201cUnderground Railroad\u201d has a stately, somber and even haunting feel that would render vocals superfluous. Elsewhere, there’s a sense of wonder and hard-earned optimism in \u201cFast Air.\u201d<\/p>\n
The winning melody of \u201cRunning on Empty\u201d (an original tune, not a Jackson Browne cover) would be right at home on a broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion<\/i>; while a look at the duo’s concert itinerary shows engagements primarily in and around WNC, don’t be surprised if Zoe and Cloyd score higher profile dates on a wider scale in the near future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
High quality musicianship is rarely in short supply, especially in Western North Carolina. That fact \u2013coupled with the presence of several top-notch recording studios in the region \u2013 means that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12954,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,49,65],"tags":[3089],"class_list":["post-12953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-americana","category-new-release","category-review","tag-zoe-and-cloyd","cat-6-id","cat-49-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12953"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12955,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12953\/revisions\/12955"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}