Tom Waits is a mysterious fellow. I mean, how much do we really know about him? Given the erudite nature of his music, I suppose we know enough. Oh sure, we've all heard the stories. Drivin' the kids on the field trip to the music store in that tank of an Oldsmobile... and not getting any recognition from the staff. Drivin' to the dump in that tank of an Oldmobile and getting recognized by the employees. Even if we take these yarns as fact, it's still difficult to not be curious about what goes on at Chez Waits. Does Tom jump out of bed in the morning in his Louis Armstrong boxers, click on his Fanon MV-16S 20 watt bullhorn, and wake Kathleen with a rousing "Ladies & Gentlemen! It's coffee time!!!!?" We'll probably never know.
What does this have to do with Mary Halvorson and Jessican Pavone? Well, I've been listening to Thin Air for several months now and its sonic wonderments have me suspicious that these two musicians have a secret: their real last name is Waits. Yes, they were right down that hall hearing dad's enhanced bellow each morning. More important, they heard that music being made.
It's not the particulars of Waits' music that got me thinking this way. You will hear no rusty bicycle parts being rubbed together, nor will you hear an old antique dresser being whacked with a 2x4. There aren't even any loping & romantic carnival love ballads. No, the point of musical intersection is Halvorson & Pavone's propensity for taking known forms and pushing them out of shape via their own set of funhouse mirrors. So this is a jazz album, a folk album, an indie rock album, and a field recording...depending on what angle you look at the songs from.
The instrumentation adds to the story (Halvorson on guitar & vocals, Pavone on viola & vocals) but comes nowhere near to completing it. I could even drop heavy-duty collaborator names such as Anthony Braxon, but this would be misleading.
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