Seekonk - For Barbara Lee

Seekonk makes music that is sad and warm and wise. It is music designed for the listening room, particularly the inner one you always carry around with you, bustling with that ever-present dialogue. It helps quiet things down in there. Seekonk is five players from Portland, Maine who like to try different instruments on for size, including a cello, trombone, xylophone, and bowed amplified birdcage. The band began as a result of two guys getting dumped hard by their sweethearts within weeks of each other. Songs happened. Then they asked a girl who lived on an island to sing these songs for them. Makes sense somehow.

Some have said Seekonk reminds them of other bands like Pink Floyd, Low, The Velvet Underground, and Neil Young. Seekonk is not averse to being called a "head" band. Their debut album For Barbara Lee sounds particularly lovely in the here and now. And yet it has an ageless quality. That's a pretty neat trick.

Here indeed is music as inviting as any you might hold dear.