Pearls Of Swine

Across the album, Torres crafts uniquely cinematic soundscapes, ranging through a thoughtfully languid waltz "Juniper Arms" (inspired by Edward Abbey's iconic book of nature writing Desert Solitaire), and on the evocative, uneasy "Some Beast Will Find You By Name." It winds through the lush, gently undulating "High Lonesome" to the lonely sweep of the Raymond Carver-signaling "Where I'm Calling From," and travels from the foreboding, sinuous "Outlands" to the deceptively buoyant cascade of "Mountain River." Nature abounds on Pearls To Swine - which also examines the tension of the natural versus the constructed, and survival - filled with imagery of juniper trees, deserts, blood moons, rivers, plains, and big western skies that gives it a distinctively southwestern feel. His style acknowledges the classic singer-songwriter tradition, allowing the rhythm sounds to support the structure of songs, while his affecting falsetto conjures the spirit of traditional vocalists such as John Jacob Niles and Robbie Basho.