EMILY PINKERTON: Ends of the Earth
EMILY PINKERTON
Ends of the Earth
Green Jeans 003
At first, the thought of blending the music of Appalachia and the Peruvian Andes seems unlikely, but Pinkerton, who was coincidently born in Valparaiso, Indiana, does just that on this collection. The instruments are North American, with the exception of Lucas Savage who adds Cajun and Latin percussion to some tracks, but the when Pinkerton’s banjo and Daniel Marcus’s mandolin play together they sound surprisingly like a charango. “Negra” is a huayno played with an old time (American) mountain feel, and uses word from the traditional song “Sugar babe” translated into Spanish. Pinkerton sets a poem by Venezuelan poet Henry Martinez to a traditional pajarillo and sings it with an understated passion that accents the desperate emotion of unrequited love. Pinkerton also writes solid country tunes like the honky tonk lament “Beautiful Dress” and folky tearjerkers like the dark cello-driven “Ends of the Earth,” a love song with a desperate, passionate feel.
— j. poet