PRETTY STRANGE
Saturday 09 April 2005

STRAIGHT out of Winnipeg with an eclectic bunch of musicians including the former accordionist for a Chilean protest-folk outfit, Nathan have named their second album after a noxious scrubby prairie weed renowned for its unpleasantly hallucinogenic properties. 

Wide open spaces, the wild country and nightmare visions - not a bad summary of the wares on offer here. 

Superficially, it's a wildly eclectic trawl through the last 100 or so years of country, taking in bluegrass, taking in a drop of '20s flapper jazz here, a soupcon of reggae there and a touch of folk waltz just for variety. 

And, over it all, float the icily beautiful vocals of Keri McTighe and Shelley Marshall, spinning weird visions of small-town madness, murder and losers on the run, reminiscent of Tom Waits gone up-country. Bizarre and beautiful. 

JAMES EAGLE
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