And so Will We Yet

This trio has never made a bad album, though some have been more transcendent than others. If this one doesn't top Turning Toward the Morning or even A Water Over Stone, it still stands head and shoulders above the vast majority of modern folk releases. Ed Trickett's reedy tenor, Ann Mayo Muir's flute-like mezzo and Gordon Bok's gravel-pit bass aren't exactly a natural fit with each other, yet somehow they work beautifully together, and when the three combine their talents for song-gathering the results are almost always inspiring. This program includes Bayard Rustin's gorgeous "I Saw Her as She Came and Went" (a Muir/Trickett duet which features Bok's expert accompaniment and homemade instruments), the lovely and strangely sad "Wild Birds" (which evokes the high plains of Wyoming in lyrics that Bok's down-east accent shouldn't be able to deliver as effectively as it does), and the achingly pretty "Past Caring," a gently despairing song that recalls Johnnie Stewart, Drover in its melody and general mood. Best of all, though, is Muir's singing on Jez Lowe's "The Bergen," an ode to a seafaring lover. Listeners might feel free to skip "Tails and Trotters," a cutesy novelty tune.