4 out of 5

Label: Pitch-a-Tent

Produced by: David Lowery

Mostly acoustic, bluegrassed / folkified takes on self-titled / Kerosene Hat era Cracker tracks, with Lowery and Hickman backed up by Leftover Salmon’s pickins.

Given that Cracker has very much had one foot in Americana / country from the start, it’s not a big stretch to translate most of these tracks, and in fact, it exposes something rewarding: the early, alternative-bit music of the band sounds deeper and perhaps more mature when allowed to let its twang ring proud.  Even full-on silly tracks like Euro-Trash Girl are lessened in Lowery snark in these renditions, and something like Ms. Santa Cruz County reaches emotional peaks that feel a bit more hidden in the originals.  It’s perhaps logical, then, that songs that were more firmly rooted in distorted riffs – Low, Teen Angst – do not translate well, or rather, they come across as fun covers and not full-on revisions.  Spread out between eight other excellent tracks, though, it’s not a huge knock, especially with all of the music here cherry-picked from the best songs off of the mentioned records (which highlights how many great tracks Cracker already had…), and an in-yer-living-room recording capturing the warmer edge of Lowery’s sarcastic drawl and the organic interplay of Leftover Salmon’s contributions.