Higher Note Blog

[media-cred­it name=“Donn Jones” align=“aligncenter” width=“460”][/me­dia-cred­it]

Chris Ander­son, left to right, John­ny Philip­pidis, Steven Delopou­los, Theodore Pagano and Todd Cald­well return to writ­ing songs after a 13-year hia­tus. | Pho­to by Donn Jones, The Asso­ci­at­ed Press

Folk-rock­ers Burlap to Cash­mere, who received acclaim for their CD “Any­body Out There” in 1998, put their trade­mark song­writ­ing abil­i­ties to the test 13 years lat­er and suc­ceed­ed again with their self-titled CD that releas­es today (July 19) on Jive/Essential Records.

The long hia­tus is due pri­mar­i­ly to gui­tarist John Philip­pidis being beat­en and left for dead in a road rage inci­dent in New York in 2005. The inci­dent left him in a month-long coma. Work­ing his way back to play­ing gui­tar via video games with his cousin and front­man Steven Delopou­los, the band reunit­ed with new vig­or, enlist­ing the help of pro­duc­er Mitchell Fromm (Elvis Costel­lo, Paul McCart­ney, Sheryl Crow).

What has result­ed is one of the best well-versed and thought­ful CDs I have heard in a long time, with “The Oth­er Coun­try” draw­ing com­par­isons to Van Mor­ri­son (one of my favorites) and “Build A Wall” with its Irish-folk infused vibe. It’s a mature offer­ing — music for the think­ing man — that a younger gen­er­a­tion can appre­ci­ate.

The CD takes the lis­ten­er back in time to a place where song­writ­ers Simon and Gar­funkel, Cat Stevens and Har­ry Chapin ruled the air­waves. Down-to-earth lyrics fuel the CD from the first song, “Don’t For­get to Write” –
I’m an orphan though I see the world as new/
Do you remem­ber when the clouds were gold/
And love was shin­ing through?

to “The Oth­er Coun­try” –
Draw near, the lam­b’s await­ing
Where the riv­er runs, through the skies align
From that pelt­ing of a ship, we’ve all be cho­sen
To the great­est cre­ation and his dream design

Among my favorites is the sec­ond song on the CD, “Build A Wall.” It’s rem­i­nis­cent of an Irish folk song — fast-paced, heavy drum­beat and bass, and even a men­tion of “drink­ing whiskey.”

It’s been a long wait from these song­writ­ers and har­mo­ny-mak­ers, but lis­ten­ers and fans will find it is well worth it.