O+17

“And so it is…,” surprising still and always: that pluck/strum/aching beauty of strings and brushed snares and Lisa Hannigan intersecting with Rice’s melodic tenor growl of pain and anguish, his songwriting never settling for the easy way, the obvious way, each song pushing the limits of form in a melding of personal vision and personal heritage to create a work at once universal and intimate, immediate and enduring, the mark of an artist’s artist now gone silent again leaving one wondering, waiting, for the smallest whisper of what’s next.