Peter and the Wolf – Mellow Owl
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As the winter weather wanders down the street and into our open windows, we’re all looking for that perfect album to accompany the complete change of the seasons. We need something subtle, something soothing, yet something that challenges and thrills. Enter Red Hunter.
Red Hunter is the local Austin legend, also known as Peter and the Wolf, who has just recently released another beautiful listening experience. He’s known from playing on the edges of the world, where the water drops off into a great abyss of silence; he plays to the small crowds who still believe in mythical beasts.
Pacing is immediately established by the lyrical content and the title of the opening track, “Supermellofied.” It speaks of a simpleness that most will not be able to describe, yet all yearn for from time to time. Guitar track atop guitar track creates the effect of gentle rain dripping down from your roof and into the cracks in the sidewalk.
For some reason, the quietude of the album is the one thing that will speak to most listeners. It’s Red’s simple approach to writing and crafting songs that allow us all to focus on the mundane details of our own world, allowing us all to realize the beauty that exists in every corner that we walk through. It’s an album of simple folk songs and simple pleasures, such the things that should be in our lives.
Listeners may find it difficult to absorb the vocals of Red Hunter, as they seem to be sung through a can, clearly an echo of some sort resonates. But, the focus in his songs doesn’t revolve merely around his lyrics; it is the entire aesthetic appeal of these songs that sneaks into your soul.
Other hits that many will adore on this album are songs like “Trainhopper” and “Ballad of Redhook.” Pleasant guitar strumming melds with overlying electric guitar, begging all to focus upon the minutest detail of this record; surely a metaphor for how one should approach their own life.
Several hundred years into his career as Peter and the Wolf, Red Hunter still has what it takes to craft some of the most personal songs many of us will come across this year. If you miss him now, don’t worry, for he will surely go down in Austin lore.
Buy his album on Peter and the Wolf’s Myspace Page.