Search - Pinetop Seven :: Rigging the Toplights

Good God Where Did These Guys Come From

Michael Topper | Pacific Palisades, California United States | 08/16/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For those of you who ever wondered if all the musicians who made quiet, heartfelt, contemplative music were abducted sometime in the late 1970's, there's Pinetop Seven, who arrive with songs that will melt you in two. The music is somewhat country-folk influenced but don't let that fool you; the arrangements are colored by unexpected sounds and it's all made to soothe and heal. Expertly composed and played, with an alarmingly correct ear for taste, I begin to wonder where the bandmembers come from..."

What an Amazing Soundscape

sbalmanjr@aol.com | 11/07/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"All you have to do is put this record on and close your eyes - and youll be taken to some far away place, where themes of sorrow and longing for lost love take hold. I wish i could better describe my emotions after listening to this repeatedly. What I can say is that each of the songs have been carefully composed with the most beautiful instrumentation I think Ive ever heard. Rigging the Toplights is one of the most wonderful recordings of all time! Enjoy!"

Haunting and beautiful...

coalescence44 | Durham, NCC | 10/25/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Despite being from Chicago, Darren Richard somehow manages to capture a somber flavor to most of his compositions that conjure up ideas of being stranded in places far away from any other human presence. The songs are very reflective and a few have a menacing hint to them, but his spare voice is plaintive and lends itself well to narrative lyrics of longing, loss and the trials of life. The subject matter and instrumentation are very suggestive of frontier days or the wild west, and have been described as 'americana', but as you listen to this (or any of their other records) there is also a sense of comparing the past with the present, suggesting that that society might not be that far removed from our own.
"Drying Out" is a song that never fails to give me goosebumps. Pedal steel guitar, acoustic guitar, and accordion give this song a warm, dreamy feel, at odds with the loneliness in the lyrics, or maybe embracing it. "Heavens" has a driving, dark beat which foreshadows the outcome of a story of pointless yet inevitable ambitiousness.
If you've never heard of Pinetop Seven and come across this entry by accident, order this and every other record by Pinetop Seven. Then go out and buy a lottery ticket - this is your lucky day."