To the Races

His first Saddle Creek release is an unadorned and unapologetically forthright collection of songs. Whereas Bachmann's/Crooked Fingers' 2005 effort, "Dignity And Shame" was his most poppy and immediately accessible album, this one is his most sparse and reflective. Eric's warm vocals and deceptively simple arrangements keep the songs' quiet elegance ardent and complete, only occasionally augmented by Miranda Brown's angelic harmonies or Tom Hagerman's (Devotchka) haunting violin. The record tells stories of self-imposed or unintentional isolation and the common search for, or escape from, some kind of sanctuary.