Walk With Me
(Spoooor) LP $20.00
The multitrack renditions of chants on Walk With Me arose during hikes in the Oakland hills. The spike of endorphins, mantric mind loops, literal peaks and valleys, and fluctuation of available breath color Tholfsen’s chants with a natural dynamism. His tuneful mouth music, mostly non-lexical folk tunes with lots of lilting vocables and wild harmonizing that swirls up unusual patterns, could be reckoned as more of a text-sound performance deal for those who brain about in fancypants. Familiar melodies and song form keep things on the path, with craggy embellishments and curious tangles on the periphery that make Walk With Me not only interesting but unlike anything else. Tholfsen was the primary voice and songwriter of U.S. Saucer, an electric folk trio active in the 1990s who recorded three LPs and a seven-inch for Amarillo Records. In the two decades prior, he performed in many groups in Iowa, Arizona, and San Francisco, where his heavy art-rock outfit Blow reduced itself to the slow-drip syrup of his flagship endeavor. During this time, he also appeared on recordings by Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 and the Zip Code Revue. Post-Saucer, he released a split seven with Suzanne Langille on Road Cone’s Instress series.