3hattrio - Dark Desert Night

3 hat trio declare on their web site ‘Rare and endangered American Desert Music’ well it’s certainly rare, but not meaning nearing extinction, more in the sense of exceptional. This brand of music I could listen to all day long, and in case you’re wondering it comes with a cutting edge both new and sharp. The musical melange 3 hat trio cooks up includes traditions and influences spanning the distances between the Caribbean and the American West, along the way adding the inventions of jazz, blues and classical. To experience their sound you could do no better than their latest album ‘Dark Desert Night’.
Returning to the American Desert Music theme, 3 hat trio aim to reflect the natural world of their homeland and the cultural traditions of the generations who’ve worked and lived on the deserts of the American southwest. Well I’d say they’ve pretty much hit it. From the minute the haunting ‘Get Back Home’ opens there’s no doubting the originality and imagination at work, they add their touch to the multi-varied English folk song retitled as ‘Carry Me Away’, going forward there’s the hypnotic ‘Tammy’s Sister’, the depths of ‘Off The Map’ and for sombre wondering ‘Sand Storm’. 
Within each song lives a compelling timbre, evocative vocal and a hypnotic hook to the eloquent melodies.The wide open spaces of this music coupled with its rhythmic poetry made me think that van Vliet  and Morrison would love this.