Shalants

2011 release from the Northern California quartet. Shalants produce a distinctly Californian sound: A mash-up of Mexican, Native American, Chinese, settler culture and pioneer spirits. They recall a bygone era, but their music is not retro, and their album is a tour de force and a statement of purpose. Miller Carr, Shalants' chief singer and songwriter, is descended from the original pioneers who founded San Francisco and the Jefferson State area. The songs on Shalants trace Carr's own lineage and his bloodline's collected experience: From sailors and explorers to prospectors and religious asylum seekers; immigrants and ballroom piano players to whores and gunslingers; opium smokers and bohemians to anarchists and the beats; John Muir, Gary Snyder, Kerouac and Emperor Norton.