Sacred Crag Dancer, Corpse Whisperer

San Francisco’s Sean Smith hardly hides the heavy influence that the school of Takoma Records has on his specific style of guitar playing – he even contributed to 2006’s Revenge of Blind Joe Death – The John Fahey Tribute Album. Released the same year, Sacred Crag Dancer, Corpse Whisperer balances the flawless playing and explorative disciplines of arpeggiating luminaries like Fahey and Robbie Basho with Smith’s own knack for spelunking into the depths of uncharted tunings and improvised fretboard attacks. “Extrance” opens with wonderfully blatant Takoma adoration as Smith creates a journeying composition that traverses through topographies of melodic emotion and feeling while never breaking a sweat or hitting a sour note. The following title-track plays with more slackened abandon as strings ring and buzz against the guitar’s neck while Smith successfully improvises, birthing square pegs that he bends and whittles down to fit inside adjacent round holes – his restraint must be acknowledged as an element of his songcraft as well, providing an ebb to the flow. Ending with “The Real,” smith approximates weary woe with punctuated string pulls and slapped releases.