Rani Arbo &
daisy mayhem

Back to all Reviews

Review in the Boston Globe — Big Old Life

Arbo’s quirky ’90s string band, Salamander Crossing, helped blow the doors open for the neotrad revival. On a new album, “Big Old Life,” her current band captures the visceral and fun-loving sound of American roots music. Her lovely alto wears simultaneous shades of sass and grace, world-weariness and resilience. As the quartet promenades from gospel to swing, ballad to barn-burner, it shows how trad is, at heart, a social music. Every playful and profound note they play proves that these songs are only as old as the last time someone sang them.

- Scott Alarik, The Boston Globe, May 2007