Not All Who Wander Are Lost

But this is something else entirely.

They say the cello is the musical instrument that most closely parallels the sound of the male human voice, which explains why I like a capella music and cello music equally and verymuch. [The oboe is supposedly the female equivalent, but that's neither here nor there, and anyway, how many people are big fans of oboe music?] One needs only listen to the classical cuts of Yo Yo Ma & Bobby McFerrin: Hush to know the aural power I describe herein.

So I was already a fan of cellist extraordinaire Rushad Eggleston from his work with neo-bluegrass-slash-folk group Crooked Still after seeing them at Falcon Ridge Folk Festivalthis summer, and later at local folk underground The Iron Horse.

But then I rediscovered him while mp3blogging tonight, and my celloworld blew apart.

First off, in addition to his work with Crooked Still, Rushad turns out to be an under-25 prodigy, nominated for a grammy for his work with American stringband supergroup Fiddlers 4 while still at Berklee. This, alone, would have been pretty damn cool.

What totally distracted me from an otherwise promising session of mp3blogging, though, was tonight's discovery of the indescribably odd Wild Band of Snee, a Rushad vehicle which...well, geez. Maybe you'd better take a listen to a few tracks before we go any farther. Without any further ado, I bring you Rushad's Wild Band of Snee:

Go ahead and download. It's okay. I'll wait here.

Got it? What IS that? At times kiddie-pop-esque but somehow improvisationally weird? Makes They Might Be Giants look mainstream? Dr. Seuss for the ears?

Well, what the heck would you call it? Rushad's site is as silly as the music, and no help at all to the would-be blogpromotion; after a long equally-odd description of a storybook land, the clearest description offered tells us:

The Wild Band of Snee does a mixture of sneaky melodic instrumental and vocal music, as well as some fast rhythmical poetry and other weirdnesses. They are fun. YOU should see them!

Indeed. We should. So if anyone out there is planning on being in Boston for Club Passim's Dr. Seuss Birthday Celebration at the Boston Children's Museum, let me know. My new favorite oddband performing at my favorite kidmuseum, at an event sponsored by my favorite childhood folk club in honor of my favorite sillystoryguy... music to my ears, man. Hey, anyone else thinking road trip?