Written by: Dave Cantrell

Though an SEM review is forthcoming, we can in the meantime offer you an advance preview of what may well be 2015’s most realized avant-folk gem, the third record from Danielle Stech-Homsy’s quietly breathtaking project Rio en Medio, entitled, rather guilelessly, Rio en Medio Radio. Full of unassumingly lush textures and sighing epiphanies, the album acquits itself with all the presumed gravitas that comes with the assistance of former Pentangle member Terry Cox, Johnny Cash’s Tennessee Three bassist Dave Roe, Naybob Shineywater from BrightBlack Morning Bright, and even some harmonica help from Hank Williams’ now 90+ – year -old former driver George Flynn. Some records sneak up on us without warning, and this can certainly count as one of those. Brush off that old couch on the porch, close your eyes, and bathe in a music that both honors the many great heritages of folk music past while reverently undermining them with an assuredly modernist touch. Check it, and know we couldn’t be more proud.