*** Brokeback

FIELD RECORDINGS FROM THE COOK COUNTY WATER TABLE

(Thrill Jockey)

Musicians often become so closely linked with a particular instrument that we can hardly imagine them playing anything else. Such is the fate of Chicago-based bassist Doug McCombs. Through his work with Tortoise, Tortoise's various spinoffs, and his latest project, Brokeback, McCombs has solidified his rep as the best-known practitioner of an obscure ax, the Fender six-string bass. Although an array of Windy City all-stars make appearances on Field Recordings (including members of Tortoise, Isotope 217, and the Chicago Underground Orchestra), McCombs's spacious and moody instrumentals bring the Fender six-string and its unique tone -- both hefty and slinky, deep and twangy -- to the fore. Embellished by samples of trains and birdsongs, slowly creeping tempos, and folky melodies that recall the Midwestern jazz of Charlie Haden and Bill Frisell, it's a sound that conveys the ghostly atmosphere of the prairie, or at least an urbanite's imagination of it, with beauty, simplicity, and grace.

-- Michael Endelman