Search - Rani Arbo, Daisy Mayhem :: Gambling Eden

Eden Regained

Lee Armstrong | Winterville, NC United States | 07/10/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"After Salamander Crossing's breakup, Rani Arbo and her band Daisy Mayhem went their own way. "Gambling Eden" takes a different approach than 2001's "Cocktail Swing." Whereas the previous disc focused on 20's & 30's jazz, "Gambling Eden" is more in the folk-rock-country territory of a band like Nickel Creek. One of the first records I bought as a boy in the early 60's was "Stewball" by Lonnie Donnegan. At Arbo's hands the track pulses with energy with Arbo's violin giving it a traditional feel, particularly compared with Donnegan's earlier rockabilly take, "Way out in California where Stewball was born, all the jockeys in the country say he blew there in a storm." This set contains some fine originals such as the slow melodic "Finland," "Is it raining in Finland? I want to know; It's covered up with snow & I want to see you if you're ever coming home." "Turtle Dove" is a traditional tune traced to 1835, given a great energetic rendition that will be embraced by "O Brother" enthusiasts. John McGann & Chris Moore's "Closer" is such a lovely haunting slow song polished to a shine by the Mayhem band, "The answer always came back in a tangle like vines climbing up the side of a hollow tree, Now I think that looking up & wondering is just the place I really want to be." "O Death" that appeared on the "O Brother" soundtrack by Ralph Stanley is given a haunting arrangement and impassioned Arbo vocal. "Sparrow" is a country-swing original that brings to mind some of Toni Price's great recordings. The CD takes its title from "Eve" that traces the fall in the garden, "Paradise is only what you feel, everything else is so real, Who told us we had this power? I gambled Eden in an hour." "The Farmer Is the Man" is another familiar tune given another sterling rendition. My favorite track is the uproariously energetic "Road to Heaven," "I'm gonna find my own road to heaven, I'm gonna find me mine." The CD concludes with Dave Carter's "Farewell to Saint Dolores," a turgid lament. Arbo may have felt that she was "Gambling Eden" with the new direction she's taken on this disc, but the level of success here encountered might better be termed "Eden Regained." Enjoy!"