At Play in the Fields of the Vegetable Man

Heaven, Hell, or Houston (Carrot Top)

The Naysayer

By David Lilly

When was the last time you saw a female grasshopper playing violin in the supine position? When was the first time you saw it? It's a strange and interesting centerfold in the booklet that goes with this CD.

"Where is he going with this?" you might wonder. I'm going to a place where a grasshopper violinist isn't at all strange, especially when most of the music on this disc, the second Naysayer release (as far as I can tell) sounds not unlike the post-Floydian recordings of Mr. Syd Barrett. That reference will elicit either excitement or a rapid search for the closest exit, depending on whether you consider those early 1970s recordings garbage or genius.

I'm not hinting that you'll either love or hate the music of Louisville's Cynthia Nelson and her non-Louisvillian musical partners in crime, Anna Padgett and Tara Jane O'Neil. Barrett's solo work is simply the first (and pretty much only) comparison I thought of while listening to Heaven, Hell, or Houston.

The instrumentation is minimal, quiet, and/or subtle. If you want grandiosity, I can recommend plenty of other artists. What we have here is sort of an indoor campfire. A lot of acoustic guitar, some additional guitar, some flute, accordion, cello and steel guitar weaving around to give our folk trio some melodies to sing along with. I've been so caught up in the overall sound of the music that I haven't listened to the lyrics, but the band bio mentions that The Naysayers' "weird songs of spanking stores, goats and woe even caused some to dance."

I encourage folk music fans to read and hear more about The Naysayers at .