GHOST MAN ON SECOND

Ghost Man on Second, the fourth full-length from Kevin W. Barker under the Currituck Co. moniker, juggles two ostensibly irreconcilable musical approaches.In one hand, on the album's two fingerpicked country ballads, Barker channels the weary fatalism of countless country crooners. In the other hand, the extended raga-like drones, marked by either Barker's probing guitar or banjo work, the Brooklyn-based picker leans hard on John Fahey. One thinks of Fahey's The Voice of the Turtle and its mix of traditional songs, tape-and-guitar collages and the solipsistic irony of the liner notes. And Barker is indeed a solipsist, busy sculpting his own world from the clay of American folk traditions, all the while managing to keep his juggling act alive."