The Roscoe Beano Band

There is no Roscoe Beano in the Roscoe Beano Band, but there is Roy Culbertson, whose weathered voice and richly detailed acoustic music fills up Time Traveler. Culbertson is backed by Ron Dillow on guitar and Charles DuMontier on bass, and a small army of friends drop in for harmony vocals and instrumental accompaniment. Genre demarcation is a fool's errand on a record like this; it's safe to say that there's a good mix of folk, country, blues and bluegrass spread across these thirteen songs. The result is an album that never settles on one mode, moving from wistful nostalgia ("Winfield Lullaby") to foot-stomping momentum (the title track, which was recorded live at the Stagger Inn in Edwardsville, Illinois). Finger snaps give an appropriate beatnik vibe to "Dave's Cappuccino," and Culbertson's double-tracked vocals rest nicely atop the slide-guitar blues coming from Dillow's resonator guitar. "There's a Horse Outside" would be this record's lead single (if such things existed in the folk world), which features Culbertson's sharpest lyrics and a descending series of chords that echoes the Marshall Tucker Band's "Heard it in a Love Song." Time Traveler works well at showing the band's versatility at swapping genres while allowing Culbertson's voice and vision to tie it all together.

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