BAEBLE SESSIONS: Calexico at The Guest Apartment

When discussing the structural roots of Calexico's latest album Carried to Dust, drummer John Convertino gives a nice explanation as to why our latest segment of the Guest Apartment works as well as it does. "It was marking...going back to the way Joey (Burns) and I were doing things on some of the earlier records", explains Convertino, "where we would just sit down, just drums and guitar, and come up with the songs that way."

In this, our latest segment of the Guest Apartment, Burns and Convertino dash around the building, eying perfect places for performance along the way. For renditions of "Two Silver Trees" and "The News About William", that means unleashing a crisp, whisky stew of snare drum brushes, the bowing sway of a lone acoustic guitar, and Joey's melodious vocals in the usual GA setting. For a final encore however, the two climb to the peak of our residence, performing an awfully surprising (er, you might notice us scramble just a bit on the production side...they just sort of took off without any warning) take on "Bend to the Road" with the majestic, Manhattan skyline dutifully watching over. It's an absorbing performance, with two musicians treating us to precisely where this long, successful rock outfit hail from; a place of creative origin, in a way, where two masters lay the foundation of their music, without providing any reason for musical embellishment along the way. - David Pitz